Our bone density begins declining earlier than you might think. But ensuring our diet is rich in certain nutrients can help to keep our skeletons strong.

Drinking milk will help you to grow strong bones. This is some of the first health advice many of us receive. As children, many of us were encouraged to finish our milk at break time with the promise that the calcium would help us to grow a strong and healthy skeleton.

But though this dairy-heavy advice is often seared onto our memories from an early age, what’s less talked about in my social circles now is just how common fragile bones are later in life – and how if we don’t protect our bones when we are younger, we open ourselves up to an increased risk of fractures.

Luckily, there is something we can do about it, whatever age we are. With a diet packed with the right nutrients, alongside staying active, we can all have healthier bones – and no, it’s not just about drinking more milk.

Our bone health is shaped decades before they start to show signs of frailty. The skeleton we carry in later life depends on the bone reserve we build during childhood and early adulthood, when bones grow stronger and denser before reaching their peak in early adulthood, says Kate Ward, a professor of global musculoskeletal health at the University of Southampton in the UK.