Bone Health

Diet and Exercise For Maintaining Strong, Healthy Bones

Strong bone health depends on various factors, including diet and exercise. Clearly, calcium intake has a tremendous impact on adolescents’ future bone health. The beverage industry provides a variety of calcium-fortified beverage products that can help all consumers incorporate more calcium into their diets.

According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences Dietary Reference Intake, the daily recommended calcium intake for adolescents 9 to 18 years is 1300 mg. Unfortunately, many young people are not consuming enough calcium to develop strong bones. They need to be encouraged to drink milk and calcium-fortified beverages.

Beverage Options to Build Bone Strength

The beverage industry recognizes that consumers, especially younger people, need sufficient amounts of calcium in their diet and the industry has developed many calcium and Vitamin D fortified products to provide healthy options for consumers to meet this need.

Soft Drink Consumption Not an Issue

While some suggest that soft drink consumption impacts bone health, research conducted at Georgetown University, Michigan State University and Virginia Tech shows that soft drink consumption is not displacing calcium in adolescent diets.

Studies show that soft drink consumption isn’t the issue. Research conducted at the University of Maryland found no direct negative impact between calcium intake and soft drink consumption. However, the research did determine that while Americans’ calcium consumption is no longer declining, teenage girls are not getting enough calcium in their diets. The beverage industry supports increasing calcium consumption in adolescents’ diets and has a variety of calcium and Vitamin D fortified beverages to introduce more calcium into beverage choices.

Although some critics question whether specific ingredients in soft drinks, especially caffeine or phosphorus, negatively impact bone health, a growing body of scientific research shows that neither ingredients contained in some soft drinks adversely affects bone health. Soft drinks contain very little phosphorous (less than two percent of the total in the American diet), and phosphorous in soft drinks does not cause weak or brittle bones.

There is more phosphorous in milk, cheddar cheese, and chicken than in soft drinks.

Calcium deficiencies in children and adolescents most likely result from an inadequate total diet, not from soft drink consumption.