Phosphorus- (i.e. Dairy) & Optimal Bone Health

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Phosphorus in Regards to Bone Health

JoAnn Guest

May 18, 2003 14:28 PDT

 

We need some phosphorus to help make bone. But most of us have far too much of

it, which upsets the calcium chemistry of the body.

Excess phosphorus in the bloodstream sends a message that more calcium is

required, and stores are released from the bones.

Some scientists believe that getting the calcium/phosphorus ratio right is more

important than calcium alone in protecting bones.

 

Its way too easy to consume too much phosphorus on a daily basis.

It's there in all kind of foods -instant soups and desserts, meat,

cheese and other Dairy, toppings, cola drinks, and carbonated beverages.

 

We need to cut down on all of these!

 

 

The ideal balance is equal parts of calcium to phosphorus.

But research suggests that we consume four times as much phosphorus as calcium.

Cottage cheese, for example, contains far more phosphorus

than calcium.

 

Diets deficient in vitamin B6 have produced osteoporosis in rats. It

appears to increase the strength of connective tissue in bone.

You can find vitamin B6 in many common foods such as organic whole grains, fish,

nuts, bananas, and avocadoes.

 

 

Vitamin K is known primarily for its effect on blood clotting.

But it is also needed to synthesize 'osteosalcin', a unique protein found

in large amounts in bone. Osteocalcin helps 'harden' calcium, so vitamin K is

vital to bone formation.

 

In one study of sixteen osteoporosis patients, blood levels

of vitamin K were found to be 35 percent lower than in healthy people of

the same age.

 

Frequent use of antibiotics can result in vitamin K deficiency.

 

The best source of vitamin K is green vegetables.

 

Zinc-

This important mineral helps the activity of vitamin D in promoting

calcium absorption. Osteoporosis sufferers are frequently low in zinc.

Good sources are oysters, fish, animal foods, pumpkin seeds, and eggs.

 

Boron-

Some minerals---phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium, for instance-are

termed macro- minerals because they are present in our bodies in large

amounts.

 

Zinc, manganese, copper, chromium, selenium, and boron, on the other

hand, are present in small amounts and are known as *trace* elements.

 

Boron is in fact an " ultratrace " element-

the amounts needed are even smaller. But, Boron is now believed to be

vital for a number of reasons.

 

A U.S, Dept. of Agriculture research study demonstrated that giving women a

short course of 3 mg. Boron supplements a day resulted in a 44 percent

'reduction' in the amount of calcium 'excreted' in their urine.

 

It also markedly increased the amount of the estrogen hormone estradiol in their

blood.

 

The conclusions of this rather dramatic Dept. of Agriculture Study were that

boron improved the metabolism of calcium, phosphorus,

and magnesium, helped raise estrogen levels in older women to the levels needed,

helped in the manufacture of vitamin D needed for calcium

absorption, and reduced calcium, magnesium and estrogen loss.

 

Boron is found to ALFALFA, KELP, CABBAGE, and LEAFY GREENS.

It is stored in our bones and any excess is excreted in the urine.

 

ALFALFA:

alfalfa has a superb calcium to phosphorus ratio and it is the richest

land source of the trace elements boron and silicon, both of which are

valuable for bone integrity!

 

Alfalfa has numerous herbal uses, but it really hits the jackpot when it

comes to rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, heart problems, high blood

pressure, labor and nursing, menopause, PMS and tooth decay.

 

Alfalfa won’t help with these problems if you consume sugar, white

flour,

processed chemical-laden foods, salt, caffeine and alcohol.

 

But if you cut these out of your diet and add alfalfa to your daily regimen, you

can gradually reduce bone loss and 'alkalize' the body to empty those

nasty acid deposits.

 

Alfalfa Beneficial for Tooth Decay

Many herbalists feel that taking two to three alfalfa tablets daily

helps prevent cavities. In combination with proper dental care, alfalfa

tends to ward off dental decay, especially for those people prone to

problems no matter how well they take care of their teeth.

 

 

You can take it in either tablet or tea form. (To make teas, steep 1

teaspoon of the herb in 8 ounces of hot distilled water). You’ll need

9-18 tablets per day to benefit from the herb. If you prefer the tea,

one to two cups a day is usually sufficient.

 

Drink it first thing in the morning and during the afternoon. I don’t recommend

it in the fluid extract form,

because the alcohol will destroy many of its life-giving vitamins and

enzymes.

 

Start with two to three alfalfa tablets and increase to six or ten, then

take that amount twice a day. The optimal dosage may be twenty to thirty

tablets taken throughout the day, until your bowels are regular. Then

cut back to three or four tablets a day.

 

The tablets may be taken at any time in a day and are rather inexpensive.

 

 

 

MAGNESIUM:

Like calcium and phosphorus, magnesium is required for strong,

healthy bones and teeth. This mineral plays an important part in bone

growth, and helps prevent tooth decay by holding calcium in tooth

enamel.

 

Food Sources:

Magnesium is widely distributed in foods. These foods with the highest

magnesium content include seafoods, nuts, blackstrap molasses, non-gmo soybeans,

seeds, and organic wheat germ.

 

Red and black grapes and wine are also excellent sources.

 

Magnesium is also present in whole grains such as oatmeal, and

brown rice. Dark leafy greens and green beans are also good sources.

 

Your body contains between 20 and 28 grams of magnesium.

Half of this

amount is found in the bones.

 

The remainder activates hundreds of enzymes throughout the body and is

CRITICAL for proper cell function!It has been estimated that as much as

60 percent of the U.S. population is at risk for magnesium deficiency.

 

For instance, people using a number of drugs, including antiobiotics and

diuretics may have depleted magnesium.

 

Understandably, poor magnesium intake has been implicated in disorders

such as Osteoporosis.

 

 

Vitamin D

This vitamin is fat-soluble, unlike vitamin C, and is acquired through

sunlight or diet.

 

It helps the vital absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the

digestive process, and helps put them into bone.

The body needs broad *daylight* to transform cholesterol

into vitamin D.

 

 

The " hormone " that increases dietary calcium *absorption* (calcitriol),

is composed of vitamin D.

Some say osteoporosis incidence is, therefore, higher in countries with

little sunlight.

 

However, if you consume some fish and / or organic egg yolk once in a while,

you'll absorb all the vitamin D you need -

even living in Greenland, Canada or Northern Europe.

 

Is osteoporosis incidence really lower in countries with more sunlight?

Not necessarily.

 

Though Italy is much sunnier than Poland, hip-fracture incidence in Italy is

much higher than in Poland (and Spain),

simply because in Italy 25% more dairy products are consumed.

 

Kuwait is extremely sunny, but, nevertheless, osteoporosis incidence in

Kuwait is about as high as in Great Britain and France, because in Kuwait, also,

lots of milk is consumed.

 

 

In 52% of examined Saudi Arabian females for example, vitamin D level

was extremely low (because of clothes that block almost all sunlight),

but their bones were not affected.

 

A deficiency of Vitamin D leads to 'decalcification' of the bones.

Good sources are fish and fish oils.

 

Osteoporosis and a high-fat diet

 

In general, we do not need much vitamin D to either inhibit PTH

secretion or to increase calcium absorption.

 

Hyperparathyroidism strongly increases both uptake of calcium into the

bones and deportation from the bones, eventually causing osteoporosis.

 

If too little calcitriol is available, the secretion of PTH is not sufficiently

inhibited.

 

When we eat many High-Protein Dairy products,

the animal Protein is broken down into by-products that are highly

acidic.However our bodies can only operate within a very narrow PH range between

acidity and alkalinity.

 

In order to neutralize the resulting acidity the body is required to

mobilize Calcium from the bones.

Once this is accomplished, the Calcium is lost in the urine,never to

be returned to the bones.

 

Studies 20 years ago showed that even when Calcium intake was increased to

Optimum high levels,...more Calcium was lost in the urine than added to the

skeleton on a highly *acidic* diet.

 

With this type of diet you will invariably flush 80 mgs of bone

away each day.

Stay on a High-Protein Diet for 40 years, and you'll inevitably lose

75 percent of your Skeleton!

 

The First step toward bone building is to eat fewer animal proteins

and more calcium rich vegetables/fruit! Replace dairy milk with non-gmo SOY,

RICE, or ALMOND milk in cooking and on your cereal.

 

Eat lots of dark leafy green vegetables, beans, lentils, broccoli,

hummus,

sesame seeds, oats, fruits, organic Soymilk and Tofu for strong bones.

 

 

Added hormones (artifical hormones such as rBGH) are commonly used

to increase milk production.

These hormones (59 of them, to be exact), as well as a variety of

antibiotics and pesticide residues, come through in cow's milk.

 

It takes seven gallons of milk to make one pound of cheese, so as

you can see...

the problem is triplicated with cheese consumption.

 

Constant exposure to rBGH and other articial hormones can cause

physical problems (Breast, prostate and ovarian cancer are directly

related to hormonal imbalances).

 

Statistics: And yes…...

 

For example:

In Greece the average milk 'consumption' doubled from 1961 to 1977

(and was even higher in 1985), and during the period 1977 - 1985 the age

adjusted osteoporosis incidence almost doubled too.

 

In Hong Kong in 1989 twice as much dairy productswere consumed as in 1966 and

osteoporosis incidence tripled

in the same period. Now their milk consumption level is almost

“European”, and so is osteoporosis incidence.

 

 

It is very simple:

where the most milk is consumed, the osteoporosis incidence is highest.

 

Compared to other countries, the most milk is consumed in Sweden,

Finland, Switzerland and The Netherlands (300 to 400 kg / cap / year),

and osteoporosis incidence in these countries has sky rocketed.

 

 

 

Like Australians and New Zealanders, Americans consume three fold

more milk than the Japanese, and hip-fracture incidence in Americans is

therefore 2½ fold higher.

 

In those within America that consume less

milk, like the Mexican-Americans and Black Americans, osteoporosis

incidence is two-fold lower than in white Americans, which is not

due to genetic differences.

 

 

 

Chinese consume very little milk (8 kg / year), and hip-fracture

incidence, therefore, is among the lowest in the world; hip-fracture

incidence in Chinese women is six fold lower than in the US. (30) (The

average American consumes 254 kg milk / year)

 

 

 

The less milk consumed,

the lower is the osteoporosis rate.

 

 

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 natural 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.

 

Organic Soybean:

(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.

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

I have nothing against calcium supplements but I firmly believe that

everyone should get as much calcium as possible from their foods. It’s

not only possible to do this, it’s better for your bones, because the

mineral strength of bone depends on more than calcium.

 

If calcium requirements really were four fold higher, pre-historic

infants would never have been able to grow up, and ultimately, to have

children.

 

If we really need cows' milk, man could never have existed.

 

Why ?

 

Because we have already been on this planet for millions of years. And

we have only consumed milk for a maximum of 0.01 million years.

 

This means that we did not drink a single drop of milk from other

animals in more than 99% of human existence; in our entire development

from ape to modern human being, we never drank, nor needed animals'

milk.

 

1.6 million years ago there were already humans well over 6 feet tall,

with apparently strong bones.

 

Some argue that our prehistoric diet contained more calcium, but that is

simply not true.

 

Phosphorus is important, but you also need magnesium, boron, zinc,

vitamin D and vitamin A

 

You can get all of these nutrients in supplements, but I prefer to get

them the way Nature intended—packaged all together in food!

 

Lower in animal protein, vegetarian diets are associated with

significantly higher BMD(bone mineral density)!

 

And because our natural plant foods, on the average, contain about as

much calcium as mother's milk, it is absolutely impossible that these

natural foods contain too little calcium.

 

Calcium in mg / 100 g

 

226 Hazelnuts

 

140 Organic Egg yolk

 

132 Brazil nuts

 

96 Olives, Extra-Virgin Olive oil and green olives

 

87 Walnuts

 

54 Figs

 

44 Black berries

 

40 Raspberries

 

20 Coconut

 

18 Grapes

 

16 Apricot

 

16 Pineapple

 

14 Plum

 

13 Salmon

12 Mackerel

 

11 Watermelon

 

10 Avocado

 

9 Banana

 

6 Muskmelon

 

 

Exercise

If osteoporosis was about a lack of exercise, all healthy but physically

inactive people would have osteoporosis, which is not the case.

That is why bone-loss with age cannot be explained by declining physical

activity levels.

 

Exercise causes microfractures which stimulates the osteoblasts to

increase their activity.

Logically, then exercise also increases the

death rate of osteoblasts. (excessive exercise is detrimental)

 

 

Taken from:

“Healing Power of Herbs” with Dr. John Heinerman

“Aging Without Growing Old” with Judy Lindbergh McFarland

“Nature’s Miracle Tonics” with Laurel Dewey,

“The Humorous Herbalist”- Ms. Dewey’s column appears in newspapers and magazines

nationwide.

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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