Dairy for Osteoporosis?

February 16, 2003

------ Start of Forwarded Message ------

JoAnn Guest <joguest@m...>

Fri, 12 Apr 2002 20:03:51 +0000

Melanoma@t...

Osteoporosis--Low Calcium Intake?

Osteoporois and Calcium intake

The Dairy Industry and milk processors invest hundreds of millions of

dollars each year to guarantee that Americans will continue to drink

milk and eat dairy products, investing their money to continually let

Americans know that milk tastes good and the intake of milk and dairy

products must be continued to insure good health.

Milk mustaches are stylish. Drink milk and you're beautiful! Gorgeous

models, actors, actresses, sports heroes, even President Clinton and

Bob Dole have posed for milk advertisements.

All have asserted by the milky white goo artificially applied to

their upper lip that drinking milk is healthful and wholesome. Who

would argue with such an overwhelming endorsement?

Billboards spanning America ask the question, " Got milk? " Cal Ripken

of the Baltimore Orioles broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive

major league baseball games played. Ripken, holding a baseball bat,

smiles from inside the front cover of a " GOT MILK " brochure

proclaiming, " With all the skim milk I drink, my name might as well

be Calcium Ripken, Jr. "

Common knowledge of osteoporosis is based upon false

assumptions.

American women have been drinking an average of two pounds of milk or

eating the equivalent milk in dairy products per day for their entire

lives.

Doctors recommend calcium intake for increasing and maintaining bone

strength and bone density which they call bone mass. According to

this regimen recommended by doctors and milk industry executives,

women's bone mass would approach that of pre-historic dinosaurs.

This line of reasoning should be equally extinct. Twenty-five million

American women have osteoporosis.

Drinking milk does not prevent osteoporosis. Milk contains calcium.

Bones contain calcium too.

When we are advised to add calcium to our diets we tend to drink milk

or eat dairy foods.

In order to absorb calcium, the body needs comparable amounts of

another mineral element, magnesium.

Milk and dairy products contain only small amounts of magnesium.

Without the presence of magnesium, the body only absorbs 25 percent

of the available dairy calcium content.

The remainder of the calcium spells trouble.

Without magnesium, *excess* calcium is utilized by the body in

injurious ways.

The body uses calcium to build the *mortar* on *arterial* walls which

becomes *atherosclerotic* plaques.

Excess calcium is converted by the kidneys into painful stones which

grow in size like pearls in oysters, blocking our urinary tracts.

Excess

calcium contributes to arthritis; painful calcium buildup often is

manifested as gout.

The USDA has formulated a chart of recommended daily intakes of

vitamins and minerals. The term that FDA uses is Recommended Daily

Allowance (RDA).

The RDA for calcium is 1500 mg. The RDA for magnesium is 750 mg.

Society stresses the importance of calcium,---

but rarely magnesium.

Yet, magnesium is vital to enzymatic activity.

In addition to insuring proper absorption of calcium, magnesium is

critical to proper neural and muscular function and to maintaining

proper pH balance in the body.

Magnesium, along with vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), helps to dissolve

calcium phosphate stones which often accumulate from excesses of

dairy intake.

Good sources of magnesium include beans, green leafy vegetables like

kale and collards, whole grains and orange juice.

Non-dairy sources

of calcium include green leafy vegetables, almonds, asparagus,

broccoli, cabbage, oats, beans, parsley, sesame seeds and organic

tofu.

Osteoporosis is NOT a problem that should be associated with lack

of calcium intake.

Osteoporosis results from calcium **loss**.

The massive amounts of protein in milk result in a---

50 percent *loss* of calcium in the *urine*.

In other words, by doubling your protein intake there will be a loss

of 1-1.5 percent in skeletal mass per year in postmenopausal women.

The calcium contained in leafy green vegetables is more easily

absorbed than the calcium in milk,--- and plant proteins do not

result in calcium loss---

the same way as do animal products.

If a postmenopausalwoman loses 1-1.5 percent bone mass per year, what

will be the effect after 20 years?

When osteoporosis occurs levels of calcium (being*excreted*from the

bones)intotheblood are high.

Milk only adds to these high levels of calcium which is excreted or

used by the body to add to damaging atherosclerosis, gout, kidney

stones, etc.

Bone mass does not increase after age 35. This is a biological

fact that is not in dispute by scientists.

However, this fact is ignored---

by marketing geniuses in the milk industry who make certain that

women this age and older are targeted consumers for milk and dairy

products.

At least one in four women will suffer from osteoporosis with

fractures of the ribs, hip or forearm. In 1994, University of Texas

researchers published results of an experiment indicating that

supplemental calcium

is ineffective in preventing bone loss.

Within 5 years of the initial onset of menopause, there is an

accelerated rate of loss of bone, particularly from the spine.

During this period of time,the correct estrogen/progesterone ratio

is most

effective in preventing rapid bone density loss.

For much more on the subject of calcium visit

http://www.notmilk.com/dairy

Human breast milk is Mother Nature's PERFECT FORMULA for baby

humans.

Even dairy industry scientists would not be foolish enough to debate

this UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED FACT.

In her wisdom, Mother Nature included 33 milligrams of calcium in

every 100 grams, or 3 1/2-ounce portion of human breast milk.

Adults do not drink human breast milk. At the end of this

column is a list of calcium values in the foods we eat.

.. You might be surprised to learn how many foods naturally contain an

abundance of calcium.

One must wonder why Asians traditionally did not get bone-crippling

osteoporosis...that is, until they adopted the " American Diet, " a

diet of milk and dairy products.

Calcium Content of foods (per 100 gram portion)

Human Breast Milk -33 mgs

Almonds- 234 mgs

Amaranth- 267 mgs

Apricots(dried)-67 mgs

Artichokes -51 mgs

Beans(can: pinto, black)- 135 mgs

Beet greens (cooked)- 99 mgs

Buckwheat - 114 mgs

Swiss Chard (raw)-88 mgs

Chickpeas (Garbanzos)-150 mgs

Collards (raw leaves)-250 mgs

Cress (raw)-81 mgs

Dandelion greens- 187 mgs

Figs (dried)- 126 mgs

Filberts (Hazelnuts)-209 mgs

Kale (raw leaves)-249 mgs

Kale (cooked leaves)-187 mgs

Lettuce (dark green)-68 mgs

Molasses (dark)- 684 mgs

Mustard Greens (raw)-183 mgs

Okra - 92 mgs

Olives - 61 mgs

Parsley - 203 mgs

Pistachio nuts - 131 mgs

Raisins - 40 mgs

Rhubard (cooked) -62 mgs

Sesame Seeds-1160 mgs

Tofu (organic)-128 mgs

Spinach (raw)-93 mgs

sunflower seeds - 120 mgs

Turnip Greens (raw)-246 mgs

Water Cress-151 mgs

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

Friendsforhealthnaturally

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

February 16, 2003

thanks Joann for posting

... just trying to figure all this out because so much seems to be on the

line right now and everything I read these days seems to contraindicate the

other thing I read...

for example.. below contradicts everything you said

ahhhh.. going crazy here

trying to find truth

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There seems to be some evidence that it is

> _pasterized_ dairy that is linked with bone

> loss. There are at least some groups that

> consume large quantities of raw milk products

> and do not suffer bone loss such as remote

> Swiss villages and the Masai of Africa.

>

> This is anecdotal, but I met a woman recently

> who told me of an accident she had where her

> ankle was crushed. The bones were pinned into

> place, and waited a few weeks before the first

> XRay, only to find the bones completely healed.

> Her astonished doctor, is now writing up a paper

> for publication. The doctor could only assume

> that it was the large quantities of raw milk

> she consumed that were responsible.

>

> I also recently read of a dentist in Washington,

> DC that had noticed a small percentage of his

> patients (<3%) had teeth that were rock hard,

> while most patient's teeth were much, much softer.

> On questioning, he found that 100% of those with

> the very hard teeth consumed raw milk.

Phosphatase is essential for the absorption of calcium and is plentifully

present in raw milk but completely destroyed by pasteurization. The

" decalcification " of pasteurized and formula milks which are fed to children

may be a major cause of osteoporosis later in life. We now know low

calcium absorption in even healthy women may cause a loss of spinal bone

mass as early as age 20. Such women may lose 50% or more of their bony mass