[Nutrients and osteoporosis in children and adolescents]

It is widely accepted that development of a higher peak bone mass during adolescent years protects against postmenopausal osteoporosis. It is wise to instill in children good eating habits before adolescence. However, low intake of calcium, frequent intake of fast food, convenience food and oily snack as well as cyclical dieting often observed in recent Japanese children. Educating children about osteoporosis at school could accelerate higher bone mass accumulation by improvement of their diet and other lifestyle factors. Significantly higher bone accruals was observed in Japanese children who had increased intake of vegetable, fruit, fish and small fish along with consciousness of bone measurement.