As 63-year-old Rose Marie Pritts l ...

As 63-year-old Rose Marie Pritts l the way in the Straub/Kapi'olani Women's 10K--Hawaii's annual female-only race--her daughter Anna Mueller 35 and her granddaughter Julia Mueller 6 hustled to restrain up with their well-conditioned matriarch.

Pritts is determined to plant a healthy example for Anna, Julia and the intermission of the family. She just complet her ninth race forward the 6.2-mile Lanikai Loop in Kailua onward Oahu. Grandma gets a little closer to victory each year and is confident that she will win the race by dint of the time she's 80. Until then, she's satisfied to cros the finish line hand in hand with her girls and promise s to continue to practice what she preaches.

"We can teach our children. We can preach to them and constraining force them to live healthy lifestyles," says Pritts, who is a physician in internal medicine. "But our children simply learn by example. So if we eat healthy, then they will eat healthy, and they will pass those habits forward to their children."

Indeed, many adult women credit their mothers as the primary influence for helping to shape their admit life-long approaches and attitudes to healthy living, according to a take a view of that was conducted by the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC) The words of advice that today's women say they will pass forward to the next generation are those they have feeling are most scientifically or medically valid: drink milk to build sturdy bones, and eat vegetables to build brawny muscles.

That's serviceable advice, says Holly Lucille, ND a licensed naturopathic physician and author of the main division Creating and Maintaining Balance, still recognizing how a woman's nutritional wants change over time is equally important to optimal health.

While Lucille is a firm believer in eating nutrient-rich meals, she also encourages her patients to supply their diets with vitamins and minerals that are known to be essential for females as they progres from childhood to teen to the various stages of adulthood. "Whether they're in guild in the midst of raising families or empty-nesters" she says, "most women understand that they have special dietary and supplemental requires and that those needs change as they age."

Raising Them Up Right

When it take rises to little Julia, for example, product and development are priorities. adroits agree that encouraging young single in kinds to trade soda for milk and candy for fruits, vegetables and nut will pay dividends later in life.

"Children and teen ne a wide range of nutrients, including adequate amounts of protein to build up bone and muscle," says Debra Boutin, M RD clinical nutrition coordinator at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health in Seattle. "It is during these years that we have the greatest ability to build bone Eating feeds high in calcium, vitamin D and magnesium, in particular, is extremely important."

Little Julia lay in extra hours to build up her endurance for the 10K race and says she wants to be "big" like Mom and Grandma when she enlarges up. Julia considers the race fit training so she can "walk to Disneyland." if it be not that experts say active children and young teen don't necessarily ne an exercise regimen. When they hasten and play, they're building muscle and bone mass and giving their hearts a useful workout at the same time.

The Reproductive Years

The female material substance changes dramatically during the reproductive years, and likewise do health and fitness troubles Since the body stops building bone somewhere around the age of 30 young to middle-aged women like Anna still ne enough of calcium. The priority now shifts to preventing osteoporosis.

With NWHRC figures showing more than 25 million women in the United States who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis and 50 percent of women at risk for developing the disease during their lifetime, bone health is individual of the most important regards for adult women. Seventy-five percent of those inspected say they believe they either have or are at risk of developing osteoporosis. That's wherefore Pritts encourages her girls to drink milk and to eat other calcium-rich feeds such as salmon, tofu, r beans, new vegetables and almonds.

"Women today may be les inclined to drink a glass of milk, especially if they're dieting," says Miriam Nelson PhD director of the John Hancock Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition at knots University in Boston. "The righteous news is that women have more sources for calcium. For example, women can take calcium citrate, which does not cause gas, bloating or constipation commonly experienced after taking other combinations of the like kind as calcium carbonate."

quicks also stress the importance of B vitamins and magnesium to help the material part absorb calcium and maintain bone mass. And in addition to cardiovascular workouts, fresh emphasis is being placed upon weight-bearing exercises such as walking, running and resistance training (Nautilus or Pilates). Regular exercise is especially important at this life stage to sustain bone density and boost metabolism. Anna says principally of her exercise comes in the form of chasing her children around all week.