Foods for Healing Bones

According to the University of Michigan's Integrative Medicine program, bone repair requires calcium, as does proper cell function and muscle contraction. It is better to get the calcium through your diet. Helpguide.org tells us that people who obtain calcium through diet rather than pills tend to have stronger bones. Proper bone healing also requires that you take in vitamin D, which allows your body to absorb the calcium.

Dairy Foods

• Adults need anywhere from 1,000 to 1,300 mg of calcium a day, depending on age. Dairy products tend to be rich in a very digestible form of calcium, that is, unless you're lactose intolerant, which means your body doesn't properly digest dairy foods. One serving of plain, non-fat yogurt contains 45 percent of your 1000 mg daily calcium intake required to maintain strong bones. If you're trying to heal your bones, you're daily intake should increase to 1300 mg. Boost your intake with skim milk (300 mg calcium per serving) and Swiss and Gruyere cheese (270 mg calcium per serving). When healing ailed bones, add an extra serving of yogurt, milk or a few slices of cheese to your meals each day.

  According to kidshealth.org, children ages 0 to 3 need 500 mg calcium each day, ages 4 to 8 need 800 mg, and ages 8 to 18 need 1300 mg per day. Since this intake is only to maintain strong bones, a child healing from a broken bone should have 300 mg more than the above recommendations.

Green Foods

• Many green, leafy vegetables typically have a lot of calcium. Look for turnip greens, mustard greens, spinach, kale, Romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, green beans, Brussel sprouts, asparagus, fennel and cabbage. While healing from a bone injury or trying to strengthen bones, make these foods the main ingredients in your entrees, rather than just a side dish. Half a cup of spinach gives you 146 mg calcium, and 1/2 cup collard greens gives you 178 mg.

Beans

• If you're not a big dairy fan or greens eater, incorporate beans into your diet to get those bones healthy quick. Black, pinto, white, black-eyed and kidney beans provide at least 100 mg of calcium per serving. Make a stew or chili for dinner, or chill the beans and put them on a kale salad for a calcium-packed lunch.

Other Calcium-Rich Foods

• Other foods and spices offer doses of calcium. Look for tofu, which provides anywhere from 120 to 750 mg of calcium per serving, if it's fortified. Kale, blackstrap molasses, calcium-fortified cereals, basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, peppermint, cinnamon and garlic also offer small amounts of calcium.

Vitamin D-Rich Foods

• To properly absorb all that calcium, add some vitamin D-rich foods to your diet. Teens and adults need about 400 IUs (International Units) of vitamin D per day. If you need a supplement--which you do, if your bones are healing--take an 800 to 1000 IU dose per day. Also add foods high in vitamin D to your diet. Egg yolk, fish oil and fatty fish like salmon, sardines and herring, fortified milk and dairy products, and liver all provide between 65 and 100 IUs of vitamin D.