Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's Ask a Nutritionist podcast brought to by Nutritional

Weight and Wellness. We are thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on air discussing the

connection between what you eat and how you feel while sharing practical real-life

solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition. Thank you so much for your

support and listenership over the years. Now, let's get started on today's question. The question today is

what foods help broken bones heal well and quickly. So when we think big picture, I would recommend eating as much real whole foods as possible,

really limiting or eliminating the processed foods.

And diving into the specifics, the first thing that I think of is protein.

Adequate protein intake is essential for bone health as protein makes up a large portion of our bone mass and our volume in our bonds, creating the structural framework for mineralization in the bones.

And protein needs actually increase during times of

healing and stress. So I would recommend actually increasing the amount of protein that you're

eating. For women, if you could get five or even six ounces at a meal, and that would be after it's cooked,

then I would say six or even better, seven ounces at a meal just while your body is healing.

And when I am talking about protein, the sources would be meat, fish, eggs, dairy, if tolerated, if you're

able to purchase organic, grass-fed beef, pasture raise, for free-range turkey, chicken,

eggs, those would be ideal because they are going to be more nutrient dense.

And dietary protein is a natural source of collagen as well. That's another benefit that I'm going to elaborate more on in a minute.

And all of these protein sources that I'm talking about are also iron rich.

And iron helps your body to make collagen and

rebuild bone. Also, it's going to play a part in carrying oxygen into your bones to help them to heal.

So more on collagen, it is the most prevalent type of protein in our body. 90% of the bone matrix is made

of collagen. So this is really critical to healing a bone and healing it quicker and just for general

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