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Help your daughter develop bone strength with Viactiv Recipe
by Anne-Marie Nichols

My mom is one of those lucky older women who has excellent bone health and doesn’t have to worry about getting osteoporosis. She jokes that it’s because of all the yogurt she ate for breakfast when I was growing up. I’m sure having that daily source of calcium was a factor. It’s also why I worry about my own bone health and that of my daughter’s. I have a food sensitivity to whey, so I avoid milk and yogurt. Instead, I drink coconut milk that has added calcium and add it to my cereal, coffee and use it in cooking.

However, my daughter, Lucie, doesn’t drink milk or eat yogurt. In fact, the only dairy she gets is the occasional ice cream treat. She’s just like other kids as a recent federal survey shows that only 15% of high school students drink milk and 9% of them were teen girls. My son drinks gallons of milk per week, so I’m not worried about him at all.

My daughter also takes after my husband’s side of the family, which concerns me because his mother has osteoporosis. I’m sure part of the reason why my mother-in-law has osteoporosis is because didn’t have good nutrition growing up and even as a young woman and church missionary, she sometimes went without nutritious food.

You see, when girls are growing, so are their bones, and that’s when their bodies are most capable of absorbing calcium. However, if she isn’t getting the calcium and vitamin D she needs to build bone mass, she may develop osteoporosis later in life. (She also needs bone strengthening exercise, but I don’t worry about my daughter since she’s very active.) With 95% of peak bone mass is present by age 20, this is not a good time to be calcium deficient.

As a mom, what can I do? Well, I could sneak some calcium in her diet, but my kid is so picky that I never know what she likes to eat from week to week.

I could give her a calcium pill like I take. But Lucie has a hard time taking those big pills. In fact, while I need 1000 mg of calcium per day, as a teen she needs even more – 1300 mg a day. It’s no wonder that 68% of women and 86% of teen girls are calcium deficient, according to a 2010 study published in The Journal of Nutrition.

#BeActiv with Viactiv!

Luckily there’s Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews, the #1 doctor-recommended calcium supplement chew! It comes in two yummy flavors, milk chocolate or caramel flavor and isn’t gritty. It’s hard to believe it’s a nutritional supplement! It’s easy to take one of these delicious Viactiv Soft Chews with your lunch and another after dinner, that even the pickiest child won’t complain. One ViactivCalcium Soft Chew (500 mg of calcium and 500 IU of Vitamin D) taken twice daily provides 100% of the daily value of calcium for most women plus vitamins D and K.

What I like about Viactiv, besides the taste, is how convenient they are. You don’t need to take them with water either like a regular vitamin supplement and they’re portable. Just pop one in your purse, lunch bag, backpack, or briefcase.

Isn’t it time to #BeActiv with your health, get moving more, and making sure you and your teen get the recommended amount of daily calcium for bone health based on your age? Try it for yourself or your teen with this $2 off coupon on your next purchase of Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews.

Learn more about Viactiv at www.Viactiv.com and enter their current prize promotions on Viactiv's Facebook page www.facebook.com/Viactiv and new Instagram channel https://instagram.com/viactiv/.

This is a product-provided, sponsored conversation on behalf of Viactiv that contains affiliate links. I received Viactiv products for my own personal use. All opinions, text and experiences are my own.