84-Lanc«»ter Farming, Saturday, March 30, 2002 Family Living Focus by Margaret R. Malehorn Cumberland Co. Extension Agent Teens Are Building Bones Your body has 206 living bones that continually buildup and breakdown. The body starts to form most, 75-85 percent, of its bone mass before the teen years. Women reach their bone mass about age 25 and men at age 30, depending on your genes. By middle age the bones begin to lose density due to calcium with drawn for such tasks as blood clotting and muscle contractions, like our beating heart. You can’t do anything about the genes you have, but you can reduce the risk of fractures with good health habits and other life style choices. The main mineral is calcium. It adds strength and stiffness to bones that support the body. To lengthen long bones during growth, the body builds a scaffold of protein and fills this with calcium-rich mineral. Between the ages of 11 and 25, you’ll need about 1,300 milli grams of calcium each day. Dur ing adolescence your body has a higher capacity to absorb and re tain calcium. The body also needs vitamin D to move calcium from the intestine to the bloodstream and into bones. You get vitamin D from short, normal exposure of arms and legs to sun and the foods fortified with the vitamin. Also needed are vitamins A, vita min C, magnesium and zinc, as well as protein for building the scaffold. Automatic Headgate Finished with a zinc rich undercoat & TGIC polyester topcoat Call or Write for Additional Information & the Name of Your Nearest Dealer Paul B. Zimmerman, Inc. 295 Woodcorner Rd. • Lititz, PA 17543 • 1 mile West of Ephrata 717/738-7365 Hours: Mon. thru Fri.: 7-5; Sat. 7-11 Mother Nature provides many foods with these nutrients. One stands out, however, as “almost a perfect package.” Milk is rich in calcium and high-quality protein. Most milk has vitamins D and A added and magnesium and zinc. All foods from the Food Guide Pyramid offer some calcium, from the grain based foods, the produce and high- protein, up to the fats and sweets “use sparing ly” group at the top. To learn how much calcium is in the food, read the food label’s Nutrition Facts panel. FDA allows these terms on product labels: 20 percent of the daily value (DV) - “rich in calci um”, 10 percent to 19 percent DV - “good source of calcium” and 10 percent DV - “calcium enriched or calcium fortified.” An easy plan to build your bones is to drink a glass of milk at each meal and eat one calcium food as a snack. If you are unable to digest the lactose sugar in milk, try lactose reduced or lactose-free milk. When fortified, these products can have up to 50 percent DV for calcium in one serving. There are also lactose drops and tablets to help digest dairy products like ice milk, yogurt and cheese. Growing bones are sensitive to the impact of weight and muscle pull during exercise resulting in building stronger and denser bones. That’s why it’s important while you are growing to be phys- Ivantages: urable 2 coat finish that stands up to daily use. ull roof cover for outdoor protection. eavy duty latch for positive bcking. louble linkage for extra stability. ast, easy adjustments to match animal size & neck size from 5” :o 7” landle for manual operation for slow or horned cattle. ue With Our 2 Coat Process! \ ;tep metal preparation, including iron ite conversion coating, to enhance adhesion mt undercoat corrosion, ich epoxy powder undercoat polyester powder top coat, baked at 400° to its, forming a cross link molecular bond. Weird Winter Likely To Limit Maple Sugar Production UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) There’s no point in trying to sugar coat it, warns an expert in Penn State’s College of Agri cultural Sciences the unusually warm winter is likely to result in lower amounts of maple sap pro duced by trees in Pennsylvania. “The season started much earlier this year than usual,” says Jim Finley, associate professor of forest resources. “In much of the state, sap started flowing in Jan uary before anybody was ready to ically active on a regular basis. Jumping appears to be the best activity. Just do something to get off the couch and get moving at some activity. It really is a matter of use it or lose it! Avoid bone risks such as skip ping meals that would reduce your chance to get a third of your calcium that day. Replacing milk with non-dairy drinks like soda pop or fruit flavored drinks is an other habit that prevents bone from getting the calcium and other nutrients they need. Alco hol and smoking can also hurt bones. Eating disorders can weaken bones as does extreme exercising. Osteoporosis may seem too far away to worry about when you are a teen. But small changes today for better bones tomorrow may be more important than you might guess. Get the immediate benefit of a calcium rich diet: feel stronger and more fit now! For more information about health and nutrition or other family living issues, contact Penn State Cooperative Extension in your county. Horse Hide CAROLINA* 6” Work Boot ■Mil II 111 with Smooth Cork Sole #344 “Made in USA ” “A Shoe For Farm And Work” D EE EEEE x x xxxx x x xxx ■ Weaver’s Store, Inc. 5“ S, Route 897, Fivepointville, PA • (717) 445-6791 8:00^ d ;.| :^ PM; H 1-800-856-4031 skmam'-skwpm collect it. We may produce a lot less maple sugar this year be cause producers missed part of the season.” Normally, the state’s approxi mately 700 maple sugar produc ers tap trees in mid-February and collect sap until the end of March. Finley believes the season for sap-collecting ended in some parts of the state the first week of March. “I saw red maple bud ex pansion by then in many places,” he says. “That usually indicates the time for sap collection is over.” According to Finley, Pennsyl vania ranks fifth to eighth among states in maple sugar production most years. The output of maple sugar from Quebec, Canada, dwarfs American production. He says Pennsylvania produces about a million pounds of maple sugar annually, which translates to 900,000 gallons of syrup and 43 million gallons of maple sap. If the* sugar content of the sap is 2.S percent, it takes 43 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. Ironically, another aspect of the weather drought was ex pected by many to stymie maple sugar production, but Finley ex plains why the recent lack of pre cipitation probably won’t be a factor. “The sugpr collected this sea son was produced last summer by the trees and then stored over the Choose Healthful Foods SIZES IN STOCK 7 iV2 8 ey 2 9 9% io ioy 2 n 12 13 XXXX X X XXX We will ship to your door U.P.S. Shipping Add $7.50/Pair X X X X winter,” he says. “The trees are converting the carbohydrates to sugar as they come out of dor mancy. So precipitation in the last few months is not really much of a factor.” Finley is aware of drought con ditions that affected much of the state last summer, but says trees in the primary maple-sugar-pro ducing area across the North ern Tier counties didn’t suffer significantly. “Drought can affect the sugar content in maple sap,” he says, “and if we continue to have a drought this summer, it may limit syrup production next year. But I don’t believe the drought had much of an impact on pro ducers this year.” Even producers who tapped maple trees early this winter probably didn’t get the volume of sap they usually do, Finley be lieves. It was unseasonably warm in January, got cold, then warm again. Sap flow started, mostly stopped and started again. “A tap hole where you put a spile (spout) only has so much life,” says Finley. “Almost instan taneously when it is drilled, yeast, bacteria and fungus start growing in the hole. Eventually they liter ally plug the hole. Most produc ers, to protect their tree and min imize wood damage, won’t drill a second hole the same year. They just give up on the year.” American Heart frA Association.^^ Fighting Heart Dtaaaaa and Strok* XXX
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