8 Most Effective Foods and Whole Food Supplements for Bone Health

If you don’t like milk and fear the waistline effects of cheese, you have probably resigned yourself to the category of the elderly that will need a walker in their latter years. Lactose intolerant people often have trouble with getting the calcium they need to maintain good bone strength as well. But despite what the dairy industry wants you to believe, milk is not the only food that's good for the Skelly-t inside all of us. Today we check out 8 top foods as well as whole food supplements.

1. Yogurt

Even the non-milk drinkers among us often love yogurt. You can get as much calcium from a cup of yogurt as from an 8-oz serving of milk. Yogurt is one of the easiest products to find in lactose-free form as well, so there is no need to compromise between digestive health and bone health.

2. Bone Strength Take Care by New Chapter

Where many calcium supplements on the market currently use limestone as a key ingredient, the calcium here comes from plant sources in a whole food supplement format.

3. Sardines

They are great in a salad or on a sandwich, and all those tiny fish bones are an ultra-concentrated source of calcium. Why waste one of the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal?

4. Bok Choy

Also known as Chinese cabbage, it is well known that it has around 3 times the amount of calcium that spinach does. For most people, it is also infinitely more palatable! It is one of the natural sources of calcium that whole food supplements use.

5. Garden of Life Vitamin Code Grow Bone System

This organic whole food supplement comes in vegan form, and includes both raw calcium and growth factor S to aid in its absorption.

6. CalMag Bone Health by New Chapter

One of the simplest and least expensive ways to get your daily calcium, and also superior in so many ways to the inorganic calcium that is found throughout the health section of most supermarkets. Calcium and magnesium are included in a 1:1 ratio, along with 6 other trace elements that are needed for bone health.

7. Soy foods

They contain calcium as well as isoflavones -- they have an estrogen-like effect and help return your bones to a pre-menopausal state.

8. Stay away from salt

Okay, so this one is more of an anti-food than a food. But it is worth including, because a leading cause of calcium leaching from your bones and being carried away in urine is excessive salt intake. When you consider that eating a few serves of processed foods like commercial bread, cold meats and cheese can put you over the salt limit you can understand how osteoporosis has become so prevalent.