I would like to add,

therer is no mention of the importance of magnesum and Vitamin D
to aid absorption of calcium.

I would hve thought these are also important as in particular Vitamin D is known be widely deficient as sunlight is the main source.

So there must be other factors here - if male meat eaters only loose 7% and female vegos loose a whopping 18% - what could they be????

Any statistics and information on osteoporosis in Asia? Thinking of people not consuming diary products due to religion or lactose intollerance. I reckon a significant percentage of the world's population would be in this group. What do they do that prevent widespread osteoporosis?

I agree that the article should have discussed magnesium and vitamin D. It should also have discussed the need for boron, vitamin K and potassium. This is not a good health article.

Great article, It is much more imporant to focus on what is taking the calcium from our bones. True Magnesum, Vit D, boron are all important to keeping bones strong. But don't single out certian elements we need them all for balance. If you are consuming the higest quality food grown in mineral rich solutions like OceanGrown you are providing the elements not only to keep your bones strong but your whole physical,mental and emotional being.

yes a good article but no mention of excess phosphorous (could have had a short note in high acidity/sugar diets and forced farming) and and weight bearing exercise as we are all becoming so lazy :)

The woman in Africa is exposed to far more natural Vitamin D by sunlight than the women in the Scandinavian countries or the Eskimo women. Vitamin D!! Let's see more investigation into what appears to be the common denominator.

I'm glad to learn of these things. I'm suffering from osteopenia and eat lots of the acid forming foods. Shocked at some on the list which are on my healthy diet! As to Vitamin D, I agree with the other comments. Now, my question is what are some more good PROTEIN foods that we can or should add to our diets to replace meat?

In follow up to this wonderful information. I recommend that everyone check out Dr. Amy Lanou's; Building Bone Vitality. She talks about the hoax of the dairy industry implying that dairy can be the only source of calcium. She then lays out a plan with foods and recipes to build stronger bones. In the book she also describes the make up of bone and which vitamins (as well as where they are found) play a crucial role in calcium retention in bone.

All in all, the article does not mention the way forward to the problem in question or what can be done to prevent the issue.

I find it very strange that you make no mention of the role of exercise which is a key factor in osteoporosis.

How does one explain away the Maasii people? Who ate nothing but milk and blood and were disease free until they came in contact with "white mans food"?
When the Eskimo's were first contacted they too were disease free. THEY WERE DISEASE FREE. Much has changed in their world.
Read Weston Price people. He took a "snapshot" of the health of tribal peoples all over the world in the 20's and 30's. He found that they were disease free and basically cavity free.
To bash dairy and meat without qualification is just silly.
Yes, we want factory farming to stop. But to reach these conclusions by these "correlations" and 'correspondences" is highly ignorant.
Pasteurization, hormones in meat, antibiotics in meat and milk, GMO feed, inorganic feed.
To think you can point the finger at one thing when the issue has become so complex, well I'm not impressed.
America has become infected with 1+1 =2 thinking. Utterly unwilling to do any long division or give any credit to the brains of the public.

According to this registered dietitian: there is one word for every diet that tries to exclude an entire component of the diet: M-O-D-E-R-A-T-I-O-N! And trying to place a label on acid/alkaline producing foods is so individualized! It all depends on what other foods are being consumed at the same time and your own individual physiological factors. Eating a diet based on fruits and vegetables along with a balance of lean proteins, a moderate amount of dairy and healthy fats will yield the best, most nutritious diet for the body.

The fear-mongering tactics that the dairy industry uses to sell their product is, unfortunately, in line with every other socially irresponsible, self-serving group grappling for domination.

Calcium and protein from a cow is nothing more than a by-product of that cow. Where does the cow get its nutrition? Free-range from the grass and other greens of the fields. Factory farm cows consume corn which is hard to digest, even for the cow with its 4 stomachs. It's so counter-productive (but cheap) to feed corn to our cows because holes have to be drilled in the side of their stomachs so the balled up mess created by corn consumption has to be scooped out by a technician, thereby reducing the risk of e coli and other bacteria being passed on to us.

As for the milk, calves with their 4 stomachs easily digest their mother's milk. Humans have only one with which to digest theirs. So why are we are the only species that suckles from another mammal?

Movies to watch besides the one here, are Food Inc., and The Future of Food.

Having been a medical doctor for a while and a vegetarian for 30 years before reviewing that and starting to eat some white meats I can say that there is often more misinformation out there than meets the eye.

I'd recommend getting some more information before basing any potentially life changing dietary changes on this.

Like the Weston-Price foundation recommended by Madelaine in comments.

One of my personal favourites is the Metabolic Typing information. Mercola is one of the proponents of this.

It's certainly been life changing for me.

To your health and wellbeing
Darag

In today's society there is too much importance placed on supplementation of calcium rather than gaining it from calcium producing organically grown foods. Magnesium, boron, Vit K, and Vit D help build strong bones without calcifying the body's cells which ultimately leads to cancer.

Interesting article, but not totally correct.
They are stating that excess protein causes calciuria (loss of calcium in the urine), but it is fairly controversial whether the calciuria contributes to bone resorption (or bone loss). I looked up some research, and I found a good review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/90/6/1451
In fact, there are articles stating that protein contains factors (such as IGF-1) that exert positive activity in skeletal development and bone formation.
(http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/24/suppl_6/526S)
I'm also concerned that the article also uses African womens low protein intake to explain decreased osteoporosis - did they consider life expectancy!!?
I'm also concerned that the ONLY research mentioned in this article is over 25 years old! And any other research is not referenced.
I also agree with comments after the article that discuss the lack of discussion on vitamin D in the article (Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption).
As well, adequate calcium intake (among other things) is very important ...as per the following article regarding calcium and osteoperosis - "... low calcium and vitamin D are established risk factors"
(http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/full/23/4/303)
Overall, I would interpret this article with a lot of caution.

How does one explain away the Maasii people? Who ate nothing but milk and blood and were disease free until they came in contact with "white mans food"? When the Eskimo's were first contacted they too were disease free. THEY WERE DISEASE FREE. Much has changed in their world. Read Weston Price people. He took a "snapshot" of the health of tribal peoples all over the world in the 20's and 30's. He found that they were disease free and basically cavity free. To bash dairy and meat without qualification is just silly. Yes, we want factory farming to stop. But to reach these conclusions by these "correlations" and 'correspondences" is highly ignorant. Pasteurization, hormones in meat, antibiotics in meat and milk, GMO feed, inorganic feed. To think you can point the finger at one thing when the issue has become so complex, well I'm not impressed. America has become infected with 1+1 =2 thinking. Utterly unwilling to do any long division or give any credit to the brains of the public.

The woman in Africa is exposed to far more natural Vitamin D by sunlight than the women in the Scandinavian countries or the Eskimo women. Vitamin D!! Let's see more investigation into what appears to be the common denominator

So there must be other factors here - if male meat eaters only loose 7% and female vegos loose a whopping 18% - what could they be????

Ha-ha,
I did not have enough time to read allthe comments but this article is a bit narrow minded, Eskimos with the highest level of ostheoporosis, funny, how did the survive ten thousend + years up north, and then comparing us, Europeans and Americans living in a mild to cold climate to people living in Africa who have been consuming what was available since the beginning of times, I stopped eating bread and other refined carbs and 70% of my diet is meat and fat, sometimes raw, (steak tartar, roll mops, raw eggs, barely cooked liver and steak) and only raw or steamed vegetables very little fruits and almost NO sugar, flour, table salt and PASTURIZED dairy), I make my own kefir, and drink RAW organic milk every day, train 4 times a week and my body fat % is ca. 10-15% all year around, oh and have no problem with my teeth, twisted my ankles stepping off a bench with 50 kg in my hand still didnt break, dairy is a good source of calcium provided its raw, meat is not evil, if it was we wouldnt be here today, processing food until it doesnt even remind us on the source of it leaves you with enzymes making your body look for nutrients that are not present and will have to "withdraw" minerals from the "calcium" bank. So eat as much meat and dairy as you want, get some sun, eat whole foods and organic produce and you will be fine, by the by, humans are desinged to eat animal protein, til we didnt start hunting the size of our brain was half of what it is today, we need fat, a lot, 30% of the dry mass of your brain is fat, plus your bone marrow, and fat comes with meat, dairy and whole food, but there is a good point made in this article, dairy is not the primary source of calcium, cant be as we only started domesticating animals a few thousand years ago, fresh vegetables are the key to most minerals.
Good luck with becoming vegetarian!
Just because an Indian Guru tells you its a good thing to do, it might not work for you because your ancestor were hunters and his parents were gathering berries.
good day

OK Matyas, You are so much more informed, and doing so much better than the rest of us, we look to you for guidence. I haven't read a note like this since high school. I think the artical was good for those of us, that have a diet so far out in left field, to awaken in us the desire to eat healthier so we can live longer, healthier lives. For me, it's a beginning.

sorry, I didnt mean to be rude or anythign its just the fact that I see articles everywhere that say meat is bad and we should all eat less meat, but noone thinks whats the motive behind all this, the only thing I can think of is that crops are much cheaper to grow and a much bigger profit can be gained by selling cereal, bread and pasta like it was a staple in human diet and people who are blinded by consumerism wonder why we are dying at the age of 50 and why our kids have ADHD and ostheoporosis at the age of 30.
But I will keep quiet in the future

Matyas, do you think that this article is promoting a diet of "cereal, bread and pasta"? Or that vegetarians strive to eat all refined carbohydrates? I find this article to be extremely informative in calcium research.

I recently had a friend tell me that I needed to drink more milk--a dietician's advice. Instead of buckling, I have been researching for more ways to get the vitamin intake that I need. Surprisingly, greens supply a myriad of nutrients that meet so many of my cellular needs!

I learned more from the comments about this article than from the article itself! I give it a 5 for stimulating discussion and helping to stir up the pot!

i love Joh Robbins

Robert Barefoot wrote "The Calcium Factor" , "Death by Diet", and "The Disease Conspiracy" which I urge everyone to read. He is an internationally renowned expert in minerals, especially calcium and tells the TRUTH about government manipulation and cover-ups within the FDA, Health Canada and the pharmaceutical industry today.



I went to the expert in the cal

Please keepit up, more info the better. What about bone vibration?? I am serious.....

This artical goes some of the way to point out that the ph balance is a factor in osteoporosis, however Matyas commnet was far more balanced and informative.

matyas told us that the human brain had grow by the grace of eating meat. Historicaly this is not correct. The human brain grew when we started living next to the sea. So it was sea-food that made our brains grow. Not that eating fish would make you smarter. This is not howit works. Today we still need the so called omega's fatty acid, the are essential but we only need a small ammount.
I noticed that there was a little envy towards vegetarianism. The twist of the story, connecting human brain growth with living by the sea and eating marine food filled with omega-fat is that fish do not produce the essential fat themselves; is the algae they eat that do this. It'sthe some story as with the grass or cornfed cows. What is put in the organism determines what it contains. So you see. I wouldnt want to talk about compairing your teeth to those of a real carnivorious animal. Or perhaps measering the length of your colon tho figure out what are diet should consist of. That would be to obvious.
In response to your other commentary about it being cheaper thus more profit can be made. That shouldn't be the idea behind it. Cheaper so we can feed everybody. That sounds more like it.
Oh and another thing. It wasn't until man grew his own grains and veg that he started to build cities and invent technology so there.
Happy hunting

THEY WERE DISEASE FREE. Much has changed in their world. Read Weston Price people. He took a "snapshot" of the health of tribal peoples all over the world in the 20's and 30's. He found that they were disease free and basically cavity free. To bash dairy and meat without qualification is just silly. Yes, we want factory farming to stop. But to reach these conclusions by these "correlations" and 'correspondences" is highly ignorant. Pasteurization, hormones in meat, antibiotics in meat and milk, GMO feed, inorganic feed.Where does the cow get its nutrition? Free-range from the grass and other greens of the fields. Factory farm cows consume corn which is hard to digest, even for the cow with its 4 stomachs. It's so counter-productive (but cheap) to feed corn to our cows because holes have to be drilled in the side of their stomachs so the balled up mess created by corn consumption has to be scooped out by a technician, thereby reducing the risk of e coli and other bacteria being passed on to us. As for the milk, calves with their 4 stomachs easily digest their mother's milk. Humans have only one with which to digest theirs. So why are we are the only species that suckles from another mammal?how did the survive ten thousend + years up north, and then comparing us, Europeans and Americans living in a mild to cold climate to people living in Africa who have been consuming what was available since the beginning of times, I stopped eating bread and other refined carbs and 70% of my diet is meat and fat, sometimes raw, (steak tartar, roll mops, raw eggs, barely cooked liver and steak) and only raw or steamed vegetables very little fruits and almost NO sugar, flour, table salt and PASTURIZED dairy), I make my own kefir, and drink RAW organic milk every day, train 4 times a week and my body fat % is ca. 10-15% all year around, oh and have no problem with my teeth, twisted my ankles stepping off a bench with 50 kg in my hand still didnt break, dairy is a good source of calcium provided its raw, meat is not evil, if it was we wouldnt be here today, processing food until it doesnt even remind us on the source of it leaves you with enzymes making your body look for nutrients that are not present and will have to "withdraw" minerals from the "calcium" bank. So eat as much meat and dairy as you want, get some sun, eat whole foods and organic produce and you will be fine, by the by, humans are desinged to eat animal protein, til we didnt start hunting the size of our brain was half of what it is today, we need fat, a lot, 30% of the dry mass of your brain is fat, plus your bone marrow, and fat comes with meat, dairy and whole food, but there is a good point made in this article, dairy is not the primary source of calcium, cant be as we only started domesticating animals a few thousand years ago, fresh vegetables are the key to most minerals. The twist of the story, connecting human brain growth with living by the sea and eating marine food filled with omega-fat is that fish do not produce the essential fat themselves; is the algae they eat that do this.
It'sthe some story as with the grass or cornfed cows. What is put in the organism determines what it contains. So you see. I wouldnt want to talk about compairing your teeth to those of a real carnivorious animal. Or perhaps measering the length of your colon tho figure out what are diet should consist of. That would be to obvious. In response to your other commentary about it being cheaper thus more profit can be made.