Acidic Blood: Heart and Bone Disease

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Acidic Blood: Heart & Bone Disease

Food proteins are broken down by the human body into theirbuilding blocks,

amino acids. The amino acids are then usedto build new proteins. Proteins

consist of 28 amino acids.We manufacture 19 amino acids in our livers. Nine

essentialamino acids must be obtained from the foods we eat. Manypeople

believe that animal and plant proteins are exactlythe same. That is not

true.One of those " essential " amino acids is methionine.One needs methionine

for many human metabolic functionsincluding digestion, detoxification of

heavy metals, andmuscle metabolism. However, an excess of methionine can

betoxic and create that acid condition in your blood.The center atom of

methionine is sulfur. That's the problem.Eat foods containing too much

methionine, and your bloodwill become acidic. The sulfur converts to

sulfates and weakforms of sulfuric acid. In order to neutralize the acid,

inits wisdom, the body leaches calcium from bones. " Dietary protein increases

production of acid in the bloodwhich can be neutralized by calcium mobilized

from theskeleton. " {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995;61,4}Animal

proteins contain more methionine than plant proteins.Let's compare cow's

milk to soymilk:Methionine in 100 grams of soymilk: .040 gramsMethionine in

100 grams of whole milk: .083 gramsMethionine in 100 grams of skim milk:

..099 gramsNow, let's compare 100 gram portions of tofu to meat:(All of the

meat products are lean and without skin)Silken soft tofu: .074 grams of

methionineHamburger: .282 grams of methionineHard boiled egg: .392 grams of

methionineRoast ham: .535 grams of methionineBaked codfish: .679 grams of

methionineSwiss cheese .784 grams of methionineRoast chicken: .801 grams of

methionineWhy do nations with the highest rates of bone disease alsohave the

highest milk consumption rates? The highest ratesof osteoporosis are to be

found in Denmark, Holland, Norway,and Sweden.We are told to consume 1000

milligrams per day of calcium.Inuit Eskimos consume 3500 milligrams of

calcium each day,and by age 40 are crippled.THE KEY TO OSTEOPOROSISIt's not

how much calcium you eat. It's how much calcium youprevent from leaving your

bones.WHY DOES CALCIUM LEAVE BONES?In 1988, N.A. Breslau and colleagues

identified therelationship between protein-rich diets and calciummetabolism,

noting that protein caused calcium loss. Hiswork was published in the

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology(1988;66:140-6).A 1994 study published in

the American Journal of ClinicalNutrition (Remer T, Am J Clin Nutr

1994;59:1356-61) foundthat animal proteins cause calcium to be leached from

thebones and excreted in the urine.MORE SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: " Osteoporosis is

caused by a number of things, one of themost important being too much

dietary protein. " {Science1986;233, 4763} " Even when eating 1,400 mg of

calcium daily, one can lose upto 4% of his or her bone mass each year while

consuming ahigh-protein diet. " {American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition1979;32,4} " Increasing one's protein intake by 100% may cause

calciumloss to double. " {Journal of Nutrition, 1981; 111, 3} " The average man

in the US eats 175% more protein than therecommended daily allowance and the

average woman eats 144%more. " {Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and

Health,1988} " Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20years,

were associated with an increased risk of hipfractures... metabolism of

dietary protein causes increasedurinary excretion of calcium. " {American

Journal ofEpidemiology 1994;139}Can it get worse? Absolutely.The Framingham

Heart Study is the largest and most excitingheart study in the history of

mankind. Some of thehighlights of this exhaustive 50 year study:In 1960,

Cigarette smoking was found to increase the risk ofheart disease.In 1970,

high blood pressure was found to increase the riskof stroke.During the

1980's, high levels of HDL cholesterol were foundto reduce risk of death

from heart disease.In the 1990's, homocysteines were identified as key

factorsin heart attack deaths.Homocysteines are normal breakdown products of

METHIONINEand are believed to exert a number of toxic effects in thebody. I

recently spoke with the senior investigator of theFramingham heart study,

William Castelli, M.D. (E-mail:william_castelli) Dr. Castelli has

suggested thatan elevated homocysteine level is a risk factor for

heartdisease. The first evidence of this was published in theAmerican

Journal of Cardiology (Glueck, 1995;75:132Â & shy;6).Two recent publications

resulting from Framingham dataindicate a positive correlation between

cardiovasculardisease mortality and blood serum levels of

homocysteine.Bostom AG, et. al, Nonfasting plasma total homocysteinelevels

and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality inelderly Framingham men

and women. Arch Intern Med 1999;159:1077-1080.Bostom A.G., et. al,

Nonfasting plasma total homocysteinelevels and stroke incidence in elderly

persons: theFramingham Study. Ann Intern Med 131[5], 352-355, 1999.

 

 

 

 

Robert Cohen, author of: MILK A-Z

(201-871-5871)

Executive Director (notmilkman)

Dairy Education Board

http://www.notmilk.com