Elderly women who get too much protein from animal products
like meat and cheese risk fractures and bone loss. Improving
bone health can be as easy as using vegetables as a great
source of
protein. In a study published in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, women who received a higher ratio
of their protein from meat or dairy products rather then vegetables,
had three times the rate of bone loss.
Researchers gave more than 1,000 women a questionnaire, which
covered 64 different kinds of foods. They then broke the results
down to show how much of each group the women ate and looked
at how much protein the women got from animal products and
how much from vegetables. They were then categorized by intake
level of animal protein.
Vegetables have some acid, but they also have a substance
called base (a biocarbonate), which neutralizes acid. Our
bodies don't like too much acid, like the levels found in
meat/dairy protein, so our kidneys help us adjust by excreting
acid in urine. Because we get older, our kidneys become less
and less capable of excreting the acid. As a result, bones,
which are partly made up of base, step in to try to neutralize
the acid. Over decades, this process causes the bone to dissolve,
causing it to lose bone mass and calcium, which increases
the risk of fractures.
The point is not to stop eating meat and cheese, but to eat
more fruits and vegetables instead. Talk to your doctor of
chiropractic about the basics of a healthy, balanced diet.
For online information on nutrition, go to https://www.chiroweb.com/tyh/nutrients.html.
Reference:
Sellmeyer DE, Stone KL, Sebastian A, et al. A high ratio
of dietary animal to vegetable protein increases the rate
of bone loss and the risk of fracture in postmenopausal women.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2001:73,
pp. 118-122.
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