There are certain foods and nutrients that support bone health, and the fabulous side effect of increasing these foods in your diet is that you will feel and look even better than you already do as making changes to what you eat also helps supporting your immune system and digestion, and even improving your skin and circulation.
Try to keep your food as natural and un-processed as possible. I'm not advocating raw food diet or anything faddy like that, but food that hasn't been altered or processed too much, try to keep to food that's in season and hasn't travelled half-way across the world.
Incorporate Calcium rich foods.
Increase consumption of Vitamin D rich foods.
Improve gut health by including 'friendly' bacteria and fermented foods such as Kefir and Sauerkraut.
The main foods you should try to incorporate in your everyday diet:
dairy products such as live yoghurt, kefir, cheese and milk are high in Calcium. Cows milk has the highest level of calcium but goats and sheep products are also useful. There is a debate going on about how well humans can digest milk and also effects of dairy on Oestrogen sensitive cancers. Consuming dairy is a personal choice and I would never suggest dairy to be your only source of calcium.
lean meats in moderation as a diet high in protein causes the body to lose calcium
oily fish such as salmon, fresh tuna and canned fish such as sardines, mackerel and herring
lentils and other pulses (beans) although they need to be soaked before cooking as they are high in a substance called Phytates which interfere with Calcium absorption in the beans
brown rice, rice cakes
fermented foods such as saurecraut, kimchi and tempe as fermented foods and live yoghurt, kefir help the gut flora healthy and support good bacteria that are needed for nutrients and vitamins to be digested and utilised properly
chickpeas, such as in hummous
oats
egg yolk
sweet potatoes
avocado
beetroot
kale, spring greens and other dark green leafy vegetables
seeds such as sesame seeds and linseeds
nuts apart from peanuts which are legumes and not nuts
berries, especially blueberries, other fruit in moderation as many fruits are very high in sugar
soya based proteins such as tofu. Tofu contains phyto-oestrogens which is a compound that mimics Oestrogen in the body and has been shown to help many of the effects of the menopause.
75% or higher dark chocolate in moderation, it's actually good for us and doesn't just taste good!