The Alkaline Diet - Ostoporosis by Jeanne Grunert

No matter where you turn these days, you're exhorted to drink your milk or pop prescription pills to prevent osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, or weakening of the bones, affects millions of people yearly. The resulting fractures send thousands to hospitals – and even lead to death for the complications associated with healing serious fractures and the resulting immobility. While osteoporosis is a serious condition, a little known fact is that it may be prevented, or even reversed, on an alkaline diet.

Milk Seen From Another Perspective

Milk and dairy products are considered good sources of calcium by nutritionists, and even the government-approved food pyramid lists milk and dairy as a food group. Yet milk is one of the most acidic foods you can consume.

What happens when you drink milk? The body must buffer all of the acid residue from milk digestion into a more alkaline form. It does this by using available minerals such as calcium and magnesium to buffer the acids.

But wait – isn't calcium what you need for strong bones and teeth? Yes, plus vitamins D and many other minerals including magnesium.

So the very milk you're drinking actually needs calcium and other minerals in the milk to make it digestible and usable...and sometimes, if there is a chronic deficit in the body of valuable minerals, the body actually takes calcium OUT of the bones to use as a buffer! Chronic acidity leads to mineral deficiency, which weakens bones and teeth, setting the stage for osteoporosis and related conditions.

Western and Eastern Diets

Consider this interesting fact about osteoporosis: it's virtually unknown in Eastern countries, such as Japan, but in Western countries like the United States, it's at record highs. Considering how much the average American eats, and how much money is spent on marketing dairy products, it's amazing that our bones aren't fit and strong into our nineties. If milk could ward off osteoporosis, dairy guzzlers would clearly show above-average bone density. 

Japanese women who follow a traditional diet of rice, vegetables, seafood and sea vegetables, on the other hand, typically have stronger bones and fewer incidences of osteoporosis-related complications.

Alkaline Diet

The secret in the Japanese diet isn't the intake of calcium, but the intake of alkaline-rich foods and the absence of most typical Western acidic foods like white sugar and flour. Sea vegetables are some of the most alkaline foods available, as are most vegetables. White rice and seafood, while more on the acidic scale, are much less acidic than dairy foods. These foods nourish bones rather than leech vital minerals from them.

The alkaline diet, with its emphasis on plant-based food sources and low-acidic proteins, includes an abundance of vitamins, minerals, macronutrients such as protein and carbohydrates, and fiber.

It is this overall abundantly healthy diet that helps prevent osteoporosis. When combined with exercise, especially weight-bearing exercises or strength training, many people can avoid costly and unnecessary prescription medications to improve bone density.

So eat alkaline-rich foods, sip ionized alkaline mineral water, and helps your bones remain strong and vital. The alkaline diet benefits health in so many ways. Your bones will thank you for it!

-- --
These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration.  The preceding information and/or products are for educational purposes only and are not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness. Please consult your doctor before making any changes or before starting ANY exercise or nutritional supplement program or before using this information or any product during pregnancy or if you have a serious medical condition