Do you, or someone you love, make up part of the 70% of women over the age of 50 who are not getting enough calcium?
Are you a breastfeeding mother who needs to increase her calcium intake from 1100 to 1500 mg per day?
Did you know that in the first five years after menopause women lose 25% of their bone density?
We rely on our bones not only to do the things we love to do (skiing, running, dancing), but also the things we need to do (walking, climbing, lifting). Despite bone health being a major preoccupation for women, especially as we get older, Canadian women are still not consuming enough calcium on a dialy basis to keep our bones strong and prevent osteoporosis.
It’s important to remember to consume milk products, as they’re the major sources of calcium in our diet. But how much yogurt do we have to eat to get the ingredients we need?
This month, Yoplait introduces a new yogurt, Yoplait Asana,the first yogurt to offer a unique fortified receipe with two times more calcium than regular yogurt. It’s also enriched with vitamin D and Milk Basic Protein (MBP), an innovative dairy ingredient exclusive to Yoplait in Canada and clinically proven to suppress bone destruction and increase bone formation.
It comes in a variety of flavours (my yogurt-hating daughter loved the vanilla, and I loved the fieldberry), and two different sizes. The package of eight 100g containers is $4.99, and the 650g container is $3.99. You can find it in grocery stores across the country.
For an extra calcium boost, the folks from Yoplait have sent along this delicious recipe. I made it tonight and got three out of four thumbs up from my family (and the fourth thumb rarely goes up for anything more adventurous than peanut butter and jam).
Yogurt and Pesto Salmon
750 g salmon fillets
250 ml Yoplait Asana plain
30 ml Sicilian Alfredo pesto
30 ml lemon juice
3 French shallots, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste
In a bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients. Set aside.
1. Place the salmon fillets in an oven-ready dish. Add the marinade. Mix well. If time permits, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours.
2. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 for about 2-25 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and serve with a salad and stewed vegetables.
Just my two cents as a young woman watching her bone density due to genitic factors:
1) Prunes and plums are making headlines on their ability to restore bone density.
Not health food store hocus pocus. Real medical research is showing early results of a year long study. And it is looking very, very promising. Who ever thought prunes would be exciting, but faced with the pharmaceutical options, I’d happy eat 10 prunes a day instead of drugging myself.
2) Vitamin D. The osteo community is hotly debating whether calcium intake is the singular most important factor to bone density or whether Vitamin D is more critical. One thing we know for sure, the Vitamin D levels of many North Americans deficient in this vitamin due to long winters, covering up and sunscreening. Cheap and essential and flavourless, 1 tiny drop of D-Drops (forget that nasty tasting D-Sol horror) gives 1000 IU of vitamin D.
Read up on it if bone density is a concern.
Stay strong ladies!
Idas