Boning up on your calcium needs

The start of a new school year is a good time to encourage your children, especially your girls, to pay attention to their calcium intake.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has created two Web sites to help you do this. One site is geared toward parents and the other toward girls, who too often don’t eat the foods or get the weight-bearing exercise they need to develop healthy bones.

The site for girls is www.cdc.gov/powerfulbones and for parents, www.cdc.gov/powerfulbones/parents.

On the girls’ site, you’ll find fun characters who teach about calcium intake and provide games, quizzes, screen savers and calendars for staying on track.

According to the CDC, girls — and boys — 9 to 18 need 1,300 milligrams of calcium a day.

For other members of the family, a great chart on the parent Web site shows how much calcium each person should take in daily.

The site for parents also includes lists of foods high in calcium, recipes and a cool calculator that allows you to tally your child’s daily calcium intake.

The site has won numerous awards, including the American Library Association’s great-Web sites-for-kids honor.

To get you started, here’s a list of snack choices suggested by the site for increasing your child’s calcium intake:

• Low-fat cheddar cheese cubes with apple slices

• A handful of almonds

• A low-fat pudding cup

• Fruit juice with added calcium

Also, did you know that riding a bike or swimming do not provide the necessary weight-bearing activity needed to develop strong healthy bones? These are great activities, but bones gain strength by being used in ways that push against gravity — running, dancing, jumping rope, walking.

This and a whole lot more are available at both of these great Web sites. I hope you’ll give them a visit and encourage your daughter to log on, too.

Posted by: Best Weight Loss Program

By ALLISON ASKINS

aaskins@thestate.com