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.
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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-
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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.
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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
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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.”
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