The Ultimate Diet to Prevent Hip Fractures, Arthritis, and live a long Healthy Life.
Preventing Hip Fractures – there are five key areas to consider, namely Protein intake, Calcium intake, associated with Vitamin D, Strength training, and Sleep.
The skeleton is a living structure. It turns over at 10% a year, so in 10 years you have a new skeleton. The bones are made of what you eat.
Protein. In studies most people who break their hips have a protein-deficient diet. In the over 60s there is a much greater turnover of bone and muscle in the body and reduced absorption of protein from the digestive tract. So, while the young need at least 1g/kg body weight, as you get older this increases to 2g/kg of protein. Protein cannot be stored in the body so needs to be eaten every day. One can only absorb about 1/3 of the daily need for protein from any one meal, so protein needs to be included in every meal.
Best sources of protein are fish, chicken, lean meat, eggs and dairy products.
Calcium. The best source is dairy – Milk, cheese, yoghurt.
Vitamin D. Is essential for healthy bones. 15-30 mins of direct sunlight a day is beneficial, and from October to April adults should take a Vitamin D supplement.
Exercise. This is essential for strong bones. Low impact exercise, swimming, cycling etc has a limited role as it’s non-weight bearing. Walking and running is good; however, for the best and strongest bones strength-training with weights is recommended. At least once a week in a gym. At home do squats and slowly introduce weights, kettle bells.
Sleep. Your body needs to restore and recover. 7-8 hours of good sleep is recommended.
Osteoarthritis. Affects 10 % of adults but at the age of 75, 50% of adults and 60% of women have arthritis. Being overweight increases the load across the hips, causing pain and stiffness, progressing to arthritis.
The key thing about diet is eating healthy foods, quantity can’t be ignored, but healthy food is the cornerstone and a change to this aids weight loss.
Ultra highly Processed Foods. There is more and more evidence that these cause health problems and obesity, and are best avoided.
These foods are typically wrapped in plastic, have long shelf lives, and a long list of ingredients that you wouldn’t have in your kitchen at home.
Products labelled as low fat, added vitamins, high in protein, more often than not are ultra-high processed food. Look at the ingredients. Low fat fruit yoghurt is a good example.
These foods are made from food extracts combined with emulsifiers, thickeners, preservatives and colourings plus sugar.
“Good foods” include a Mediterranean Diet, whole foods, nuts, seeds, grains, vegetables, fruit, fish, chicken and lean meat, Plus fermented dairy, yoghurt, Kafir and cheese.
Blood Supply to the hip. Things that reduce the blood supply to the hip and block the arteries supplying the hip can cause and exacerbate the pain of osteoarthritis; these include Smoking, Alcohol, High cholesterol, High blood pressure, Steroids, Being overweight, Lack of exercise; avoid or treat them.
Exercise. Resistance and strength training g is also good for muscles as well as bones. Do it at least once a week. However, the key exercise to prevent and treat osteoarthritis is low impact exercise such as cycling, swimming, and yoga. The best exercise is cycling, ideally 30 mins a day on a static or road bike.
Low impact exercise causes the joint fluid to circulate around the hip joint. It removes waste products of metabolism and brings nutrition and oxygen to the joint. This helps prevent pain and stiffness. 30 mins of cycling puts the hip through 1500 revolutions.
