Introduction

Preventing bone loss in older adults became more important as we age as healthy bones reduce our risk of accidental fractures.

Why do we think that milk, dairy foods and calcium supplements prevent the broken bones (fractures) that osteoporosis causes?

The reason is because we have been told since young by our teachers, doctors and advertisers that we need lots of calcium to keep our bones strong as we age.

Have you wondered why so many of us still end up with brittle bones, height loss and hip fractures even though we consumed lots of dairy products as we age?

Large intake of calcium supplement does not guarantee that the calcium will make it into the bone and stay there.

How does body absorb more calcium?

Modern living in air-conditioning environment where we mostly kept ourselves INDOOR had resulted in many people having Vitamin D deficiency. 
Vitamin D boosts the body's ability to absorb calcium.

Vitamin D is a kind of unique nutrients that the human body can self-produce.  Yes, it is possible to obtain small amounts of Vitamin D from food supplement like fish liver oils and tuna, cod, halibut, sea bass, sable and swordfish but most of it is produced by the skin when we exposed ourselves to SUNLIGHT.

How does our body get bone strength?

It is rather strange to many but bone strength start in our bloodstream.  Human blood is much more than the red stuff that conjures visions of Band-Aids.   Blood is one of the most complex tissues in our body.  Among its many functions, human blood:

1) Transports oxygen to every cell to fuel all physiological processes.
2) Transport dozens of nutrients to nourish every cell.
3) Helps keep cells hydrated adequately.
4) Collects metabolic wastes and delivers them to the lungs, kidneys, liver and digestive tract for elimination.
5) Carries the many hormones that influence everything from metabolism to energy to reproduction.
6) Provides a path for the cells and proteins of the immune system that defend the body against illness.
7) Plays a key role in the body's self-repair mechanisms, delivering the building blocks of new cells where they are needed.

The human blood had many vital responsibilities and the blood's composition is constantly changing as oxygen, nutrients, hormones and other compounds enter it and as waste, hormones and other compounds depart.   At the same time, to function properly, the blood must maintain a very narrow chemical range.  It's a delicate balancing act that makes the blood a marvel of self-regulation.

One crucial aspect of the blood's constant self-regulation is its pH, how acidic or alkaline it is.The letter pH stand for "Potential of Hydrogen".Hydrogen ions determine acidity.  As hydrogen ions increase, the solution becomes more acidic.  The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14.  A neutral solution neither acidic or alkaline (basic) has a pH of 7.  A pH below 7 means the solution is acidic.  A pH above 7 is alkaline.

Our blood is slightly alkaline.  Its normal pH VARIES from 7.35 to 7.45.  If the blood's pH falls below 7.35 or rises above 7.45, the body cannot function properly.  As a result, the body expends considerable energy to keep the blood's pH within its normal range.

How does our body lose calcium?

Calcium compounds pulled into the bloodstream quickly neutralize the flood of amino acids from digested protein.  In the process, more calcium is drawn into the blood than is optimal.  The kidneys filter this excess calcium from the blood, returning some of it to the bloodstream as needed and incorporating the rest into urine, flushing your bones down the toilet.As the amount of protein in the diet increases, so does the amount of calcium excreted in urine.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, "1 gram of dietary protein increases urinary calcium excretion by 1 to 1.5 mg."  One to 1.5 milligrams may not sound like much, but a four-ounce serving of chicken or beef contains abound twenty grams of protein.  Eat a chicken breast or a hamburger and you lose twenty to thirty milligrams of calcium.   Over a lifetime, if that calcium is not returned to the bones, the loss can add up to a good deal of the skeleton and eventually osteoporotic fractures.

In addition to pulling calcium out of the blood, the kidneys process excess amino acids into ammonia, which is acidic and toxic to the central nervous system.  The liver quickly converts ammonia into urea, also acidic and incorporates it into urine, increasing urinary acidity.

What type of foods is the issue for osteoporotic fractures?

Compared with fruits and vegetables, animal foods increase blood acidity much more for 2 reasons:

Animal foods contain the most protein but they are low in natural alkaline buffers.

Just as most foods contain protein, they also contain alkaline nutrients, calcium compounds and other minerals, notably potassium and magnesium. But like protein content, the alkaline content of foods varies considerably. 

Animal foods, especially cheeses and meats, don't contain much alkaline material.As animal foods get digested, their alkaline nutrients enter the bloodstream along with their amino acids and neutralize the blood's acidity to some extend.  But compared with fruits and vegetables, animal foods are considerably higher in protein and lower in alkaline nutrients. 

Animal foods do not contain enough alkaline material to neutralize all the acids they introduce into the bloodstream.  As a result, animal foods reduce the blood's pH.  The body must draw calcium compounds from bone to restore optimal blood pH.

Why are fruits and vegetables better for body?

Fruits and vegetables are low in protein and high in alkaline nutrients.  As fruits and vegetables get digested, only small amounts of amino acids enter the bloodstream, along with lots of alkaline nutrients.  The alkaline material completely buffers the acids, and the body does not have to reach into bone for calcium compounds.

How to save your bones?

Eat a low-acid diet.

Vegan eating is likely to best for bone vitality, assuming that the vegan diet contains lots of fruits, vegetables and legumes (a type of vegetable, if you like beans or peas, then you’ve eaten them before)and only moderate amounts of mildly acid-forming cereals, breads and pastas.  A diet based on fruits and vegetables with some legumes and grains, contains more than enough calcium for strong bones and more than enough protein for good health.

The protein in fruits and vegetables comes with a great deal of alkaline buffering material, so the body does not have to reach into bone for calcium compounds.  Finally, plant foods also contain the many non-calcium nutrients essential for building strong bones, nutrients often deficient in diets based on animal foods.

Some common good-for-you legumes include:

• Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans
• Peanuts
• Black beans
• Green peas
• Lima beans
• Kidney beans
• Black-eyed peas
• Navy beans
• Great Northern beans
• Pinto beans
• Soybeans
• Lentils

A way to determine your protein need is to multiply your body weight by 0.36 g/lb weight (0.8 g/kg weight).   For a 140 pound person that would be a 0.36 grams per pound multiplied by 140 pounds, 50.9 grams.

How to have strong bones for our body?

Our body needs more than calcium to have strong bones.  Our BMD (Bone Mineral Density) require other nutrients to build strong bones where calcium alone had been commercially over rated by diary suppliers. 

The followings are other minerals that our BMD required:

1) Boron - Without enough, the body cannot efficiently use calcium, magnesium and vitamin D to make strong bones.
2) Copper - Necessary for collagen formation and bone mineralization.  Low levers increase risk of osteoporosis.
3) Fluoride - Helps harden the minerals in bones and teeth.
4) Magnesium - Without it, vitamin D can't move calcium into bone.  Magnesium deficiency is a major risk factor for osteoporosis.
5) Manganese - Necessary for both collagen formation and bone mineralization.  Deficiency is a major risk factor for fractures.
6) Phosphorus - For strong bones, calcium must combine with phosphorus.
7) Silica (Silicon) - Necessary for crystallization for calcium.
8) Zinc - Helps build the collagen framework for bone.  In addition to minerals, strong bones require many vitamins.
9) Vitamin A - Bone building osteoblasts cannot develop properly without it.
10) Vitamin C - Necessary for the formation of bone collagen.
11) Vitamin B6 - Without enough, bones are weak.
12) Vitamin B12 - Osteoblasts cannot build bone without it.
13) Vitamin D - By itself or with calcium, it's no osteoporosis cure.  It is necessary, but not sufficient, to build bone strength.  Vitamin D is needed for incorporation of calcium and phosphorus into bone, and many studies show that people who suffer osteoporotic fractures have low levels.
14) Vitamin K - Crucial to incorporation of mineral crystals into the collagen matrix.  Low levels increase fracture risk.
15) Folic acid - Helps prevent bone demineralization.  Finally strong bones require:
16) Essential fatty acids - These good fats are necessary for a healthy collagen matrix and for normal bone mineralization.
17) Protein - Although a flood of poorly buffered amino acids from animal protein destroys bone, a modest amount of protein is a key component of bone's collagen matrix.

Therefore, before checking the label on your vitamins to make sure they contain all these nutrients, know that you don't need supplements to obtain them. 

With the exception of vitamin B12, all these nutrients can be found easily, affordably and in the proper proportions in the foods humans evolved to thrive on which are fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.

Does fruits and vegetables supply essential bone building nutrients?

Fruits and vegetables are alkaline.  When you ate lots of them, your body has no need to draw calcium from bone to buffer the acids formed by meats, milk, dairy foods and grains.  Unlike high-protein foods, they contain all the other nutrients essential for strong bones except vitamin B12.

Compare with animal foods, fruits and vegetables are much richer in the ‘mortar’ nutrients necessary for strong bones.  The following are good fruit and vegetable sources of mortar nutrients:

1) Born – All fruits and vegetables contain some.
2) Copper – Beans, raisins and nuts.
3) Fluoride – Tea, beans, potatoes and carrots.
4) Manganese – Avocados, seeds and nuts, especially pecans and hazelnuts.
5) Phosphorus – Beans and nuts.
6) Silica (Silicon) – Coffee and all fruits and vegetables.
7) Zinc – Beans, especially peanuts.
8) Vitamin A – Carrots, cantaloupe, apricots, spinach, sweet potatoes, yams, kale and greens.
9) Vitamin B6 – Carrots, spinach, peas, walnuts, sunflower seeds, cabbage, cantaloupe, avaocados, bananas and beans.
10) Vitamin C – Oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, cantaloupe, strawberries, bell peppers, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, potatoes and tomatoes.
11) Vitamin D – Mushrooms but the main source is the body’s production in the skin in response to sunlight.
12) Vitamin K – The richest sources are lettuce, spinach, chard, cabbage, broccoli, collard and turnip greens.
13) Folic acid – Spinach, broccoli, asparagus, chard, kale and beet greens.
14) Essential fatty acids – Walnuts and pumpkin seeds.
15) Protein – All fruits and vegetables contain some.  The riches plant sources are beans, nuts, seeds and soy foods.

It is not necessary for one to be obsessed about eating these specific fruits and vegetables.  Just eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.  Have fruits and vegetables at every meal.  Eat a serving of beans or peas daily and snack on fruits and nuts.

Nutrients from supplement or fruits, vegetables and other products?

Supplements are isolated nutrients as they do not supply much of the alkaline material necessary for strong bones.    Even if you take every supplement available, you get only a tiny fraction of the necessary nutrients.  For example, vitamin A, it’s not a single nutrient, but a huge family of them, the carotenoids, including more than 600 compounds.  The vast majority of supplements contain only one carotenoid, beta-carotene.  But all 600 are important to good health.  
Perhaps you’ve heard of lycopene, found in tomatoes. It reduces risk of prostate cancer.  Lycopene is a carotenoid available in supplements.  If you take a multivitamin with beta-carotene and lycopene, you get two of the 600 carotenoids. 

How can you obtain the other 598? 

Eat a wide variety of green and yellow-orange fruits and vegetables, including carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, apricots, parsley, spinach and kale.

Fruits and vegetables contain the alkaline material that maintains optimal blood pH.  Humans evolved to function best on the combinations of nutrients found naturally in fruits and vegetables.  Too much of one supplemental nutrient can interfere with the metabolism of others. 

The easiest cheapest, safest way to get enough of all of them in the proper proportions is to eat lots of fruits and vegetables.  For a long healthy life with a low risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions, eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and the more the better.

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