Healthy Bone Week: Your Arsenal for Strong Bones is in Your Kitchen

Hey guys. I thought about doing a week devoted completely to osteoporosis and bone health. You have probably known someone who has been affected by this disease, and you know you need to take steps toward preventing it in your own life. But what can you do? There are some quite easy ways to tackle this issue.

This will be a three part series. Today will be your diet, tomorrow will be about drugs and vitamin D, and the final day will be focused on healthy exercises that you can do, right now, to help build your bones. Your mother was right--it's good to have strong bones.

You may not think that you will be affected by osteoporosis, a disease that results in weak and fragile bones; however, you may be surprised that there are factors in your everyday life which are influencing the rate at which your bones grow, or become weaker. How can you use natural ways to prevent this?

Your Diet and Your Bones

There is no doubt about that your diet affects many aspects of your health, including your bones. We have heard that we need to increase our calcium intakes, specifically in low-fat milk, in order to build stronger, healthier bones and teeth. This is simply not true. As you will read, there are many factors that contribute to healthy bones.

Calcium

Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body, and is one of the important minerals that help protect your bones. However, so much emphases has been placed in this mineral that we have created deficiencies in other essential minerals and nutrients that work synergystically with calcium to support bone growth. However, it should be mentioned here, as well as the best sources that can easily be absorbed by your body.

Low-fat pasteurized dairy already has problems of its own, including the potential for the risk of heart disease. Calcium, milk's “redeeming” quality, is actually only one of the many minerals needed for bone health, and it may even be one of the least important, when you consider the other nutrients that help propel its actions to protect our bones.

Cow's milk is rich in phosphorus which binds to the calcium, preventing its absorption by the body. So, if you are drinking milk, thinking you are doing your bones and body good, then think again. However if you are drinking raw, organic, grass fed milk, then you really are doing your body a tremendous amount of good, which can actually help increase your bone strength by providing amino acids, natural protein and unadulterated lactose.

Lactose is the milk sugar that helps facilitate calcium absorption; so, since the lactase (which helps break down lactose) in raw milk has not been harmed during any heating processes, it helps people with lactose intolerance digest milk easily, but I suspect that raw milk would also help facilitate calcium absorption.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Brain and Bones

Raw, organic and grass fed cows have higher levels of omega-3 fats in their milk, which are incredibly healthy, anti-inflammatory fatty acids your body needs through diet. Many people who eat processed foods, or who eat out all the time, are putting their bodies in a high inflammatory state due to the massive amounts of omega-6's in their diets.

A balance of omega-3's and omega 6's, two necessary fatty acids, in the diet has been shown to be directly linked to good bone health. Many people prefer to have a 1-1 ratio of omega-3's to omega'6's, and some people prefer a 1-3 ratio.

You find most of your anti-inflammatory, bone building omega-3's in your fish (choose low-mercury options, or supplement with a good fish oil supplement, preferably Krill), walnuts, chia seeds and flax seeds). Be liberal about the amount you use in your meal plan (while still eating based on what your body needs—don't go overboard!). Most of your omega-6's are found in nuts, grains, processed foods and vegetable oils. Try to limit these fats in your diet for optimal health.

Vitamin K-2

Vitamin K2 is the best form of vitamin K that helps deposit calcium from our diet into the correct places in our bones, and helps keep calcium deposits out of tissues (which results in what is called calcification). Calcification occurs a lot in our modern western diet due to too much calcium from processed foods and dairy products. We think we are taking in healthy calcium, but in fact, we are not supplying our bodies with the vitamin K2 to help bring it to the correct places in our bodies.

The best place to receive vitamin K is from kale and spinach, fermented raw cheeses and raw kefir. I love putting kale and spinach in the best darn green smoothie I make, because it helps me digest and assimilate the vitamin K easily into my body. These vegetables also have easily absorbed calcium.

Magnesium: Not Just for Your Muscles

Magnesium is also showing great promise for being a bone protector, and perhaps even be a fighter of osteoporosis. Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body (the others being phosphorus, iodine, iron, sodium and calcium), and, according to the National Institute of Health, it aids in bone strength.

Almonds and cashews are good sources of magnesium (I am hoping to have a recipe for homemade, sprouted and raw almond butter on the site within the next week), and the chlorophyll in spinach is also abundant in magnesium. Bananas, which are quite high in sugar, offer good levels of magnesium.

You are noticing a pattern here, I hope. Adequate vegetable and fruit consumption (specifically in their raw states) offer a better protection against osteoporosis by providing many nutrients and necessary minerals your body needs to support healthy bone metabolism. In fact, The Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that this may be the best way to support bone health.

Adequate Protein

Protein, and its building blocks amino acids, are also important for stronger bones. The complete protein found in meats, eggs and raw milk, are much easily assimilated due to their functional form. The protein in plants are not as complete, because they usually do not contain all the eight essential amino acids that animal foods do, unless you are talking about soy protein isolate, which is a big no-no in my health book.

Quinoa is a good complete source of vegetarian protein, but still doesn't quite measure up to the protein in grass fed animal foods and fish. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, talk to a trusted nutritionist about your meal plan so you can receive all the eight essential amino acids in your diet to protect your bones (without putting in that nasty, thyroid harming soy in your diet!).

Weak Bones? You Might Have a Gluten Intolerance

A surprising study has shown that gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, can prevent the body from absorbing calcium and iron in the body. Gluten has become much more harder to digest these days to modern processing and agriculture methods, and gluten intolerances can go undetected for years. Many breads, pastas and cereals we eat have not been prepared in the correct way (by soaking and sprouting), therefore containing many enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid. These compounds can also decrease absorption of calcium and iron from your diet.

If you find that you are eating a lot of white flour breads, wheat breads, oats (unless certified gluten free), pastas, cereals or other gluten containing products, it might be wise to back off them unless you know you are receiving all the nutrients your body needs. Many people do not realize that they are gluten intolerant until it is too late, or symptoms become too bad to handle. Don't be one of those people. I will also hopefully have a recipe for a raw granola, using gluten free, and grain free sprouted buckwheat as the oat substitute.

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This post on your diet and your bone health is by far from complete, and there is so much still needed to be said on this topic. However, I will leave you with this information to take hold of so you can do your own research on the topic, if you are so inclined.

In the next post, I will talk about osteoporosis drugs and treatments. Question: Are drugs an effective way to treat osteoporosis. Why or why not? Leave me your answer in the comments section.

Until then, this is “The Healthy Advocate”.

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REFERENCES

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0887/is_10_19/ai_66881128/

http://blogs.webmd.com/integrative-medicine-wellness/2007/04/omega-3-rich-foods-protect-bone-health.html

http://www.springboard4health.com/notebook/v_k2.html

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/magnesium.asp

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/1/142%20

My No-Grain Experiment

Hello all, this is the Healthy Advocate.

Back in early February I decided to go on an experiment that many before me have tried and succeeded in, with great health benefits to reap. This was a total elimination of all grains, in every form, from my diet.

I have been pretty much restrictive on my grains for almost a year already, consuming maybe a serving or two a day of whole, soaked or sprouted grains, sometimes gluten free. There has been a lot of new research coming out about the effects that grains, and in particular gluten, does to our health, which helped move me into following this no-grain 'diet'.

Many of the information I have received have obviously not been influenced by main stream health experts, but from alternative health experts well informed and motivated to educating others about the health effects of grains. Mainly those following a Paleolithic type diet have really helped show me what our bodies really are designed to eat (or what we, as humans, have been eating for the majority of our time on earth).

It was only 10,000 years ago that the cultivation of agriculture has been developed, and in this time diseases related to diet have increased and/or developed. Many of our ancestors who subsided mostly on meats, vegetables and some fruits had no problems with teeth, blood sugar or weight, and some studies suggested that they were much taller than their grain-eating descendants. Plus, grains stimulate your insulin levels, much more than vegetables, meats and moderate amounts of fruits--so, it is bizarre to me why the USDA is recommending most of our calories come from grains, even if they are low in fat.

Gluten Intolerance: A Small Minority?

I don't think so. I believe that there are MANY symptoms to gluten sensitivity and intolerance that don't seem to be connected to gluten, but really are. I have heard of those with depression and mood disorders go off gluten and grains all together, while increasing their mood and beating depression. Now these results may not be typical, but they may be, I don't know. I do believe, though, that anyone suffering from anything (depression, weight, irritable bowel syndrome, digestive disorders, acne, eczema, teeth problems, ect.) will be better by eliminating or reducing all grains.

It is estimated that one out of seven people in the US have an intolerance to gluten, but I suspect that it may be much higher as most people suffer different ailments, some of them minor, that might be related to gluten and grains. Some people can do very well on small portions of gluten, without any side effect; most people will do much better if the form of wheat they choose is in its whole grain form, rather than refined--this will add the extra fiber and minerals to slow down the blood sugar spike that happens with grains. I also believe that most people will fare even better on grains if they are soaked, sprouted and/or fermented as advocated by the Weston A. Price Foundation.

What I Have Experienced So Far

I never thought that gluten and grains would be a problem for me, because most of the time they weren't. I do not have celiac disease, and I do not suffer from any type of problems with my body after eating grains. However, for the majority of my time spent learning about nutrition, I have only consumed whole, unprocessed grains, usually in their soaked or sprouted forms. Even then I would only have about one serving per day, four to five days out of the week, something that I don't believe would cause a problem with me or anyone with no major problems with gluten and grains.

However I have noticed that the past week and two days without grains whatsoever, has given me a better digestion. I've also noticed, as I have before with eliminating grains, that I lose weight rather quickly without even trying. I absolutely don't need to lose weight, as I am already underweight, but even when I eat most of my calories from healthy fats and vegetable carbohydrates (with only a tiny amount of fruit), weight seems to come off easily than when I was eating grains. This has also happened with fermented and soaked grains, but not so dramatically.

After this experiement, which I was thinking would last for about 3 months (at least until May 2010), I might start incorporating grains back into my daily program again, although still relatively small, and still in their whole form (soaked, sprouted). I may even choose gluten free grains most of the time, in their whole form (soaked/sprouted) and as lone as they are relatively low on the glycemic index, which is rare for any grain.

I hope I have provided you a little insight on grains today, and maybe you can take this information and start studying on these issues for yourself. Who knows, maybe something that has been bothering you lately in your body will clear up after eliminating grains, sugar and dairy (at least the conventional ones you find in your local supermarket).

If you have any comments about this subject, or any questions, please post! You guys are important to me on my journey to learning more about nutrition and wellness. I don't claim to know everything, but I do know things, and I love sharing this knowledge. However, you guys also know things, and it doesn't help anyone to keep it to yourself. Let's all make a difference in the world of real health and overall wellness.

This has been the healthy advocate.

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Whole Grain Hooey