National Healthy Weight Week is underway and celebrates 20 years of promoting healthy diet-free living habits. While the focus is on women’s eating habits, Orthopaedic Associates of Zanesville wants to stress the importance for everyone to enjoy a healthy and balanced diet.

An eating disorder can cause bones to weaken and show marked deficits in bone mass, especially if the disorder begins in the teenage years. You might be wondering, what is anorexia? Or, what is bulimia? These are the two most common eating disorders, with anorexic patients depriving themselves of food and bulimic patients overeating and binging without digesting and absorbing food’s nutrients.

Anorexia and other eating disorders affect up to 1 percent of college-age women. Bone loss can be significant and can be detected after just six months of having the disease. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) offers treatments options and support groups and is a good resource if you know someone battling the disease.

At OAZ, our primary goal is to educate our patients on how to make the right choices for their bodies and their bones. If you or a loved one has suffered an orthopaedic injury, please schedule an appointment with one of our physicians by visiting our website or calling 740-454-3273.

From healthy bodies to healthy bones, food is the building block of our lives. This Christmas, we at Orthopaedic Associates of Zanesville want to make sure your family finds healthy holiday recipes and gives thanks for another year.

Below are a few healthy recipes we found online which we wanted to share with our patients this holiday season. Enjoy!

Get started with some Spiced Apple Cider from Health Magazine:

Ingredients

• Lemon rind strips (from 1 lemon)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 gallon apple cider
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 20 whole cloves
• 5 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks, halved
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup Calvados (apple brandy) or applejack (such as Laird’s)
• Additional cinnamon sticks (optional)

Preparation

1. Bring first 8 ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch oven. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes.

2. Pour mixture through a sieve over a large bowl, reserving liquid; discard solids. Stir in brandy.

Nutritional Information (per serving)

Calories per serving: 173, fat per serving: 0g, saturated fat per serving: 0g, monounsaturated fat per serving: 0g, polyunsaturated fat per serving: 0g, protein per serving: 0g, carbohydrates per serving: 38g, fiber per serving: 0g, cholesterol per serving: 0mg, iron per serving: 0mg, sodium per serving: 31mg, calcium per serving: 1mg

For you main course try this Glazed Ham With Apricots from Good Houskeeping:

Ingredients

• 1 (7-pound) fully cooked bone-in smoked half ham
• 1 package(s) (6-ounce) dried apricot halves
• 2 tablespoon(s) whole cloves
• 1/2 cup(s) orange marmalade or apricot jam
• 2 tablespoon(s) country-style Dijon mustard with seeds

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. With knife, remove skin and trim all but 1/8 inch fat from ham. Secure apricots with cloves to fat side of ham in rows, leaving some space between apricots. Place ham, fat side up, on rack in a large roasting pan (17″ by 11 1/2″); add 1 cup water. Cover pan tightly with foil and bake 2 hours.
2. After ham has baked 1 hour and 45 minutes, prepare glaze: In 1-quart saucepan, heat marmalade and mustard to boiling on medium-high. Remove foil from ham and carefully brush with some glaze. Continue to bake ham 30 to 40 minutes longer or until meat thermometer reaches 135 degrees F, brushing with glaze every 15 minutes. Internal temperature of ham will rise 5 to 10 degrees F upon standing. (Some apricots may fall off into pan as you glaze.)
3. Transfer ham to a cutting board; cover and let stand 20 minutes for easier slicing. Slice ham and serve with apricots from pan.

Nutritional Information (per serving)

Calories 240, total fat 7g, saturated fat 2g, cholesterol 62mg, sodium1,525 mg, total carbohydrate 16g, dietary fiber 0, protein 29g

As we told you last week, Vitamin D is critical to bone strength. It increases calcium absorption and without enough, our bodies become more susceptible to osteopenia and osteoporosis. Most people know the human body naturally produces vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight, but certain foods can boost your vitamin D levels.

Below is a list of seven foods that can up your vitamin D intake (or you can watch this slideshow):

• Salmon
• Tuna
• Sardines
• Egg yolks
• Cheese
• Beef liver
• Mushrooms

Adults over the age of 50 should try to get at least 200 international units of vitamin D and 1,000 milligrams of calcium each day. Orthopaedic Associates of Zanesville also recommends eating yogurt, milk, spinach, fortified cereal and collard greens to promote strong bones.

It’s no secret that osteoporosis comes with health risks, but most women do not understand the extent. Osteoporosis is a disease which makes bones brittle or weak and more likely to break. The scariest aspect of the disease is that it can affect anyone, at any age. However, women are much more likely to suffer from osteoporosis as evidenced by the startling facts below (courtesy of the National Osteoporosis Foundation):

• Of the nearly 10 million people with osteoporosis, 8 million or 80 percent are women.
• In the years following menopause, women lose 20 percent of their bone density.
• Nearly 50 percent of women will break a bone from osteoporosis.
• A woman has a greater risk of breaking a hip than the combined risk of developing breast, uterine or ovarian cancer.

There are many risk factors for osteoporosis that you cannot control, such as: getting older, being small or thin, family history or having osteopenia (low bone density). However, below are risk factors you can control which we want to share to help you prevent the disease:

• Stop smoking
• Limit alcohol
• Consume enough calcium and vitamin D
• Exercise regularly

While Caucasian women have the highest risk for osteoporosis, it affects all races. Also, young girls need to be cautious by avoiding soda, eating right and exercising to lay the foundation for healthy bones later in life.

A new study ties early menopause to osteoporosis, the disease of progressive bone loss associated with an increased risk of fractures. The 29-year study, from researchers at the Skane University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden, indicates that women who go through menopause early are twice as likely to suffer from osteoporosis later in life.

Our friends at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) offer more information on osteoporosis, which literally means porous bone and often develops unnoticed for many years.

Osteoporosis is one of the most common bone ailments, affecting nearly 28 million Americans and resulting in roughly 1.5 million bone fractures each year. Often, hip replacement results from this disease, with hip fractures totaling more than $10 billion annually, according to AAOS.

There are four main causes of osteoporosis: aging, heredity, nutrition and lifestyle, and medications or other illnesses. That last reason might surprise you, but osteoporosis has been linked to certain medications, like steroids, which make bones brittle over time.

For more information on osteoporosis and osteopenia, check out OAZ’s earlier blog posts.