Dr. Campbell writes in The China Study: “Dairy products are particularly rich in calcium, so the dairy industry eagerly supports efforts to boost calcium consumption. Something is amiss, though, because those countries that use the most cow’s milk and its products have the highest fracture rates and the worst bone health.”

Dr. Campbell goes on to explain:

• 70% of the fracture rate was attributable to the consumption of animal protein.
• Animal protein, unlike plant protein, increases the acid load in the body.
• In order to neutralize the acid, the body uses calcium, which it pulls from the bones, thereby increasing the amount of calcium in the urine.
• A high ratio of vegetable to animal protein consumption was found to be impressively associated with a virtual disappearance of bone fractures.

Dr. Campbell advises: “Eat a variety of whole plant foods, and avoid animal foods, including dairy. Plenty of calcium is available in a wide range of plant foods, including beans and leafy vegetables. As long as you stay away from refined carbohydrates, like sugary cereals, candies, plain pastas and white breads, you should have no problem with calcium deficiency.”

Another problem of too much animal protein and calcium intake is the negative effect it has on Vitamin D in our body. Dr. Campbell asks, “So what food substance has both animal protein and large amounts of calcium?  Milk and Dairy foods.”

For a complete explanation of the mechanism of action, please refer to The China Study. The bottom line is this: the Vitamin D process that occurs in our bodies is directly correlated with prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, osteoporosis, and autoimmune diseases. As discussed in yesterday’s blog article, recall also that the ability of cow’s milk protein to initiate Type I diabetes is well documented.

Dr. John Lee and Virginia Hopkins write in What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause that adequate calcium intake can be accomplished by any good diet, even without milk. “A cup full of spinach contains 300mg, and a tablespoon of cheese contains 300mg. Tofu, black-eye peas, leafy green vegetables, and broccoli are good sources of calcium in the diet.”

Dr. Joel Fuhrman also advises in Disease-Proof Your Child that good calcium food choices include vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. “We can eat greens directly for calcium, the place where cows get it to begin with.”

Dr. Fuhrman also advises, “The fat in our children’s diet should mostly come from avocadoes, nuts, and seeds, not cows.”

I will write more on this topic tomorrow, but for now, let me leave you with this eye-opening comment from Dr. Fuhrman:

Our body is formed from the foods we have consumed in our life. A body made from refined foods, white flour, oils, sugar, and other highly processed ‘fake’ food develops into a sickly human, with allergies and autoimmune diseases, such as colitis, psoriasis, lupus, and asthma, who suffers from indigestion, reflux, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, fibroids, tumors, and fatigue in early adulthood. Serious diseases that interfere with one’s quality of life are born out of our childhood diets. Junk food isn’t cheap; we pay a steep price for it years after consuming it.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 8:09 am and is filed under Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.