Fwd: Green Pharmacy for Osteoporosis

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

 

I am actually considered a radical when it comes to osteoporosis. I

personally do not support calcium supplements. I much prefer to see

calcium (or any other nutrient) taken in food form (the whole food,

as nature intended) compared to the calcium/nutrition found in

manipulated pill/powder form.

 

Additionally, I think there is more to the condition of osteoporosis

than just pumping the body full of calcium. For instance, what is

the internal process that allows osteoporosis to exist? Will

pumping the body full of chemicals (calcium, or worse

pharmaceuticals) ever address & correct that subtle process?

 

For these reasons, for osteoporosis I strongly advocate homeopathy

to get to the subtle internal processes that become the rich soil of

disease as well as food based, proper nutrition.

 

For the sake of this article, I am going to stay focused on the food

based nutrition part of osteoporosis. But I will be sure to follow

this up with a discussion on homoepathic remedies as well.

 

There is one more thing I wanted to add to this article. For food

based calcium, I can not recommend sesame & sunflower seeds highly

enough.

 

Most of us don't sit down to eat a bowl of these seeds so let me

share how I include them in my diet. Sesame seeds can be ground up

to make tahini- basically sesame seed butter. It can be used the

same way as peanut butter is, and if need be- perhaps be a little

more creative until the taste become familiar. Tahini can also be

added to hummus- a delightful dip made from chickpeas. Here in New

Mexico, if you have not tried green chile hummus- you are in for a

treat!

 

You can grind up sunflower seeds too, just like the sesame seeds.

But to add a little variety, you can use these seeds to start

incorporating living foods into your diet. Living foods are those

that have been sprouted to start activating the enzymes, and jump

start the latent nutrition that lays dormant in seeds. Sprouted

foods can increase their nutritional worth by over 300%.

 

Soak either the sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, or a combination over

night. Drain, and I prefer to let them sit for a hour or two (or

more if possible) before using... Just to make sure they have more

time to start doing all their sprouting magic. I then place them

into a good blender (I use a vita mixer), add water/juice/milk

slowly- to give the seeds a chance to blend properly, perhaps then

add a bannana for smoothness, and/or fresh/frozen fruit for variety

and taste. Makes a great morning " shake " drink or snack, without

any powders or other manipulated foods.

 

Be Well, Misty

http://www..com

 

ps- Ok, ok, there is another thing I wanted to say... I am not so

sure about recommending soy- if you must consume soy, please look

for the non-genetically modified soy and increase your kelp intake.

-----------

 

If you're looking to consume less protein and more nutrients that

help prevent Osteoporosis, here are the plant foods I'd suggest.

 

Cabbage:

Boron helps raise estrogen levels in the blood, and estrogen helps

preserve bone. In my database, cabbage ranks highest in boron

content among leafy vegetables with 145 parts per million (ppm) on a

dry-weight basis.

 

I eat a lot of coleslaw, and it's easy to combine cabbage with

high-calcium broccoli, kale, beans and tofu in salads and steamed

vegetable dishes. Cabbage is also a key ingredient in my

Bone-strengthening Broth.

 

Dandelion:

Speaking of boron, dandelion shoots run a close second to cabbage,

with 125 ppm. Dandelion also has more than 20,000 ppm of calcium,

meaning that just ten grams (just under seven tablespoons) of dried

dandelion shoots could provide more than 1 mg of born and 200 mgs of

calcium. Dandelion is also a fair source of silicon, which some

studies suggest also helps strengthen bone.

 

Pigweed:

On a dry weight basis, pigweed leaves are one of our best vegetable

sources of calcium, at 5.3 percent. This means that a small serving

of steamed leaves provides a hearty 500 mgs of calcium. Other good

plant sources of calcium in descending order of potency include

broad beans, watercress, licorice, marjoram, savory, red clover

shoots, thyme, Chinese cabbages (bok choy), basil, celery root,

dandelion root, and purslane.

 

Avocado:

As one reputed vegetable source of vitamin D, avocados can help the

body turn calcium into bone. Some people shun avocadoes because they

are fairly high in fat, but if you eat a generally low-fat

vegetarian diet, I don't see much harm in them, especially if you're

at risk for osteoporosis. I suggest mashing an avocado into nonfat

organic cottage cheese or organic yogurt so you get your calcium and

some vitamin D at the same time. Avocadoes are also rich in heart

healthy vitamin E.

 

Beans:

(Glycine max) and other beans)

Vegetarian and Japanese women have a lower incidence of osteoporosis

and fractures than Western or meat-eating women. The reason,

according to James Anderson, M.D. of the University of Kentucky

College of medicine in Lexington, appears to be that Western diet

meat-eaters excrete more calcium in their urine.

 

Beans are a good source of protein, but they cause less calcium loss

in the urine than meat. In addition, soybeans and other beans

contain genistein, a plant estrogen (phytoestrogen) that acts like

the female sex hormone in the body.

 

Pharmaceutical estrogen replacement increases the risk of breast

cancer. Genistein from beans has never shown to increase cancer

risk, and I'd be willing to bet that a diet rich in beans would

strengthen bone and prevent heart disease as well as or equally as

well as, estrogen pills.

 

Black Pepper:

According to my database, black pepper contains four anti-

osteoporosis compounds. If you like pepper, you might consider

sprinkling it generously on your avocado or bean soup or salad,

assuming that every little bit helps.

 

Horsetail:

French research suggests that silicon helps prevent osteoporosis and

can be used to treat bone fractures. Horsetail is among the richest

plant sources of this mineral, in the form of the compound

monosilicic acid, which the body can readily use.

 

Aging and low estrogen levels decrease the body's ability to absorb

silicon. Some people recommend up to nine 350 mg capsules daily. You

should use this herb only in combination with a holistic

practitioner.

 

If you're advised to use horsetail tea, add a teaspoon of pure

natural cane sugar to the water along with the dried herb.The sugar

will pull more silicon out of the plant. Bring it to a boil, then

let it simmer for about three hours. Strain out the leaves, then let

the tea cool before drinking.

 

Parsley:

That dark green garnish, which is so often thrown away, instead of

eaten, is generously endowed with boron. It would take about three

ounces of dried parsley to provide the three mgs deemed that is

useful in osteoporosis. That's more than most people want to

consume, but every sprig helps.

 

In my database, parsley is also among the highest food sources of

fluorine, another bone strengthener. Freshen your breath, while you

save your bones by routinely eating every sprig of parsley garnish

on your plate in restaurants.

 

 

The other news about osteoporosis that few people know is that

high-protein diets leach calcium from bones. Nutrition experts I

rely on suggest that people at risk for osteoporosis limit their

protein intake to no more than one gram of protein per kilogram of

body weight, which translates into around two to three ounces of

protein—on the order of one Amish chicken breast or one Laura's Lean

beef hamburger (hormone and antibiotic-free-—daily for the average

woman.

 

Most Americans eat considerably more protein than this, running a

risk of calcium loss even if they consume a lot of the mineral.

 

Currently, this disease costs the United States some six billion a

year! My wife Peggy, who is under 65, diagnosed with osteoporosis

is doing well on this diet.

 

James A. Dukes Ph.D.

From the " Green Pharmacy "