Bones contain calcium, potassium, manganese, magnesium, silica, iron, zinc, selenium, boron, phosphorus, sulfur, chromium, and more – but the dairy industry tries to tell us all we need for strong bones is calcium?
Cows eat nothing but grass – and we can’t compare with their bone strength (granted, they have different stomachs than we have – but I also haven’t asked you to eat grass…).
Vegetables contain enough calcium for strong bones. Plus they contain all the other minerals healthy bones require. We don’t need fortified, adulterated, hormone-injected dairy products for our bones. Also, the daily requirements for calcium seem to be put artificially high: In one study in Africa, women took in about only half the recommended dose and maintained excellent bone health.
Nuts are also full with all the different minerals we need. The problem with nuts of course, are allergies and reactions to lectins. So, if nuts don’t agree with you, don’t push them! And beware of rancid/roasted nuts! Their bad fats do more harm than good whereas fresh nuts contain beneficial omega-3’s.
Another problem with dairy is that it provides protein – and the Standard American Diet (SAD) contains too much protein as it is. We are omnivores by nature – once in a while a piece of meat (not deli!) between our teeth provides us with essential nutrients like vitamin B12 that are hard to come by otherwise – just not every day. But too much protein leaches out calcium from the bone – at least that is one theory. It says that the metabolic products of protein digestion are acidic, and need alkaline buffering for buffering, and so calcium is leached out of the bones. Regardless if this hypothesis is true, high protein (meats and dairy) diets have been linked to osteoporosis.
Lists of calcium contents, comparing dairy with vegetables, often show higher values for dairy products. What these lists don’t tell you is that calcium from dairy is not as easily absorbed as from vegetal matters (fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts – everything that has really grown) because high protein hinders calcium absorption.
Don’t think you get much benefit from a calcium supplement! Number one, the calcium without the other minerals will not do you much good. Number two, as a physician I am all too familiar with that oblong white spot on an x-ray of the bowels – the not-absorbed calcium pill. You better put your money into fresh produce!
Did I mention movement for bone health? I should. Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
Dairy I: Basics
May 24, 2010
Milk is unnatural, slow-poison food for grown-ups.
Mother's milk is a food designed to put fast weight on newborns, making breastfeeding essential. But we are no babes anymore; we are no calves, either. Therefore, we don’t need milk.
Worse: Milk makes us sick. Milk is linked to pimples, obesity, heart disease, dementia, allergies, asthma, cancer, depression, arthritis, autoimmune and a host of other diseases. On top of it, it tastes terrific and is addictive.
Why is dairy linked to so many diseases? It is highly inflammatory, wreaking havoc in your body, in virtually every organ.
I used to admire my vegetarian patients – until I found out that pizza, donuts and ice-cream are considered vegetarian. Nothing healthy in that fare!
When people settled and became farmers, leaving behind the hunter-gatherer days, milk was a life saver - at that time, starvation was the killer number one (childhood infections came later, when communities had grown big enough to have a virus going around for a long time; in the small hordes of hunters/gatherers, viruses had not chance of surviving long). But we long left behind starvation times; now the opposite is the problem: an abundance of calories, the whole day long.
As if the onslaught of calories from dairy were not bad enough, modern milk is even worse because it is greatly adulterated by pasteurizing (perhaps unavoidable), homogenization, adding of vitamins (notably D and A) and, since 1993, growth hormones. Growth hormones help you “grow” (which you might want to avoid) and helps grow cancer cells (which you certainly will want to avoid). Read More
Celebrate!
May 22, 2010
Today we celebrate our summer party – a little early this year. Roses and irises honor us by opening this morning for the first time - the garden could not be lovelier!
For a day like this, I want to give you my favorite piece of health advice: On a day like this, go out and celebrate with gusto, eat all the wrong foods – don’t sit around at the party and be on a diet!
This, of course, does not apply if you have food allergies and intolerances. Then you have to stick to your diet, needless to say.
But for all the others of us who just want to get to better health or lose a few pounds – which is commendable! - don’t do it today: Go out and have a good time!
Because, what really counts in the long run, is what you keep in your fridge and in your pantry – not what you eat occasionally when you are with friends - unless you are a professional party-goer, like politicians for instance! If you are, this is a little trick: Don not eat lunch on days when you expect a big dinner. Just skip lunch – you won’t starve. But you will prevent that you look like so many politicians: over-stuffed.
For everybody else: Enjoy the feast! But it would not hurt if you would go through your fridge, freezer and pantry right now and throw out everything that shouldn't be in there: TV dinners, sweets (except for dark chocolate without milk), chips, “nutritional bars, dairy (cheese, yogurt, milk), processed meats (bacon!), instant soups – you probably find more what should not be in there. No regrets, just throw it out! Don 't give it away because it is not healthy for the next person either.
That way you can go to your summer fest and enjoy it – knowing that once you will be back home, only healthy foods will await you.
P.S. If you cheat, observe how you feel afterward, and the next morning. Do you feel great? Lousy? Overhung? Bloated? Achy? Write it down so that you remember why you wanted to live healthier in the first place! Read More