We all know BONE is one of the important organ that provides support and structures to our body parts. But with age Bones density is lost due to various factors? What is this bone density? Bone is made up of important minerals and vitamins which help to maintain bone strength and prevent from its degeneration and to perform various other important metabolic reaction inside our body. Now days bone diseases are common with age and mostly affecting women than men. Eight out ten women suffer from bone diseases like osteoporosis, osteopenia and osteomalacia. After age of 50 it is very essential that we supply more of bone nutrients to prevent fractures.

How to test your bone minerals?

Science and technology is so advanced that we can do a Ultra sound scan named dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan to test if all the bone minerals are in correct values. This test will help us to predict osteoporosis or osteopenia condition if exits. We can avoid future bone fractures by doing this test.

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A new study has for the first time shown that certain nutrients may play an underlying role in short and long sleep duration and that people who report eating a large variety of foods – an indicator of an overall healthy diet – had the healthiest sleep patterns.

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related questions..

The authors found that total caloric intake varied across groups. Short sleepers consumed the most calories, followed by normal sleepers, followed by very short sleepers, followed by long sleepers. Food variety was highest in normal sleepers, and lowest in very short sleepers. Differences across groups were found for many types of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

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Carrot can offer prevention against different ailments, say health experts.

The vegetable-cum-fruit contains rich vitamin and mineral contents, besides other valuable nutrients.

Considering the effectiveness of carrot, doctors and health experts have declared it ‘apple’ for the people having meagre resources, the News reported.

Dr. Mian Iftikhar, a Medical Specialist, said that carrot especially its juice, is better for stomach and gastrointestinal health, which also solves a variety of digestive problems.

He said carrot is useful in different cases like stomach disorder, peptic ulcers, gastritis, crohn’s disease (chronic inflammatory disease affecting the whole of the alimentary tract), diarrhoea, celiac disease (defective digestion found in children).

Carrot juice, combined with spinach and a little lemon juice, is very effective in the treatment of constipation, he added.

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Don’t worry too much about cutting carbs or fats when you’re on a diet. If you drastically reduce the variety of foods in your diet, you could end up sacrificing vital nutrients and not be able to sustain the diet over time.

Before the Nutrition Week winds up, we’d like to throw some light on how vitamins and minerals are essential for the body to grow, develop and function normally. The best way to get enough vitamins and minerals is to eat a balanced diet with a variety of foods.

Vitamins are organic substances (made by plants or animals), minerals are inorganic elements that come from the earth; soil and water and are absorbed by plants. Animals and humans absorb minerals from the plants they eat.

Vitamins and minerals have a unique role to play in maintaining your health. For example Vitamin D helps your body absorb the amount of calcium (a mineral) it needs to form strong bones. A deficiency in vitamin D can result in a disease called rickets (softening of the bones caused by the bodies inability to absorb the mineral calcium.) The body cannot produce calcium; therefore, it must be absorbed through our food. Other minerals like chromium, copper, iodine, iron, selenium, and zinc are called trace minerals because you only need very small amounts of them each day.  You can usually get all your vitamins from the foods you eat.

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