Women and their eating habits

There are times in a woman’s life when she needs to takecare of her diet. During adolescence, the rate of growth in a girl is secondonly to that infancy. Her growth spurt usually begins and ends earlier than inboys, but it is not possible to predict when it will happen.

The greatest influence on a teenager’s diet is her peergroup. It is more difficult to have control over an adolescent’s choice offoods the way parents can when children are younger. Eating also becomes partof a social activity and family meals assume less importance. Most teenagegirls are very concerned about their shape and weight and as many as one girlin ten may try to control her weight by some means. This usually involves excluding nutritious foods such asbread, cereal and protein and filling up on empty calories – junk food in theform of snacks and soft drinks.

In pregnancy, your body is providing nutrition for bothyou and your baby. There are foodstuffs that you may not be able to tolerate,particularly during the first four months. This is an important time for thebaby and you need to eat well when you feel like it. The best idea is to snackoften with healthy foods. That way you will not feel uncomfortable and you’llbe well fed. Your medical advisers will suggest supplements with folic acid, iron,and calcium if this is necessary. Do not take supplements unless your doctoradvises.

One of the major problems for post-menopausal women is osteoporosis,which is the loss of protein from bones. Research has shown that osteoporosiscan be halted (not cured) by having hormone therapy. This does not mean thatevery woman needs hormone therapy, but if you get aches and pains in your bonesand muscles, backache and pins and needles in your hands and feet, go to yourdoctor to ask for a diagnosis. If your bones are beginning to look thin on X-ray,your doctor should consider hormone therapy. 

How to reduce cholesterol

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterised bybone loss and changes in the bone quality that could lead to loss of bonestrength and fractures.

Osteoporosis is a ‘silent’ or asymptomatic disease as isoften only diagnosed by means of a bone mineral density test when a person hashad a fracture.

However, osteoporosis is a preventable disease. Here aresome tips:

·        Make sure that you take in sufficient calcium.All young people from age 14 upwards need between 1000 and 1500 mg of calciumdaily in order to build up maximum bone density. That means having betweenthree and four cups of milk (skim milk if you tend to be overweight), yogurt orcottage cheese every day.

·        Postmenopausal women over 40 should take inabout 1500 mg of elemental calcium per day. If it is difficult to make thispart of your daily diet, a good calcium supplement, that contains at least 500mg of elemental calcium per tablet, should be considered. Milk, cheese,sardines, tofu and green vegetables are all rich in calcium.

·        Men between the ages of 30 and 50 need 800 -1000 mg of calcium daily and men over 50, 1200 mg of calcium per day.

·        Make sure that you get enough vitamin D. Generally,most people are exposed to sufficient sunlight in order to produce vitamin D.However, older people who spend a lot of time indoors often need additionalvitamin D. Use a soft margarine that contains a vitamin D-supplement or take anoral vitamin D supplement – usual requirement 600 – 800 IU daily and containedin many calcium tablets.

·        Additional magnesium may be needed by diabetics,alcoholics and people who take diuretics. Nuts, seeds and grains are all richin magnesium. Chicken, fish and red meat increase the absorption of magnesiumand other minerals.

·        Lose the alcohol and the cigarettes. Reducealcohol intake and stop smoking. Research has shown that between 20 and 25percent of men who drink four or more units of alcohol per day, suffer somefrom of bone loss.

·        Exercise at least twice per week. Weight-bearingexercises such as running, and resistance training, where you have to pushagainst your body weight or against weights, apparatus or elastic bands, areessential for building strong bone structure.

·        Exercise moderately three times a week. Walkingis an excellent and easy means of exercise and provides the necessary skeletalprotection and benefit. Brisk walking for 30-45 minutes three times a week isadequate. Resistance training may also enhance muscle and skeletal strength,but must be performed cautiously in the patient at high risk for osteoporosis.

Remember, although treatable, the prevention of osteoporosisis much more effective. This requires an understanding of predictive factors sothat the likelihood of osteoporosis may be judged, an awareness of methods tomeasure bone mass, knowledge of lifestyle adaptations and drugs available to preventfurther bone loss.

Do not hesitate to obtain professional medical advice.

Easy ways to reduce cholesterol