Dr. Dodge: Passion for Health

Building Bone Vitality is a remarkable book about keeping bones healthy, preventing bone loss, and reversing osteoporosis. Dr. Amy Lanou, an authority on nutrition and wellness, is assistant professor of health and wellness at the University of North Carolina. In this book, she and co-author Michael Castleman summarize over 1200 research studies on calcium and bone health.

Conventional wisdom tells us that drinking milk, eating dairy products, and taking calcium pills are the way to improve bone vitality. Lanou and Castleman show us that conventional wisdom is wrong.  In world-wide research studies done over the last thirty-five years, 72 percent show that milk, dairy foods, and calcium fail to prevent bone fractures. 

The epidemiological evidence is also compelling. Hip fractures are a major indicator of severe osteoporosis. Countries that consume the most milk, dairy, and calcium have the highest hip fracture rates, while these rates are lowest in countries that have little or no dairy consumption. 

If dairy products, calcium pills, and drugs are not the way to improve bone health, why not? The calcium theory is based on the assumption that since osteoporotic bones are deficient in calcium, the best way to make them stronger is to increase calcium intake. Even though this seems logical, the problem is that it doesn’t work, as the evidence cited by Lanou and Castleman shows. 

Increasing research explains why. Our blood stream is very finely balanced. Blood pH must be maintained close to 7.4 (slightly alkaline,) or we die. Because of this, our bodies are programmed to go to great lengths to maintain normal pH. Since many of the foods we eat are acid-producing, our bodies do all they can to neutralize this acidity.  The way they do this is to leach calcium, which is alkaline, from our bones to keep blood pH in proper balance.

High-protein foods such as meat, cheese, and other dairy foods are acid-producing because of their high amino acid content. Even though dairy foods are high-calcium, their net effect on body calcium is negative because more calcium is leached from bone than is taken in. Calcium balance studies confirm that with dairy foods, the amount lost in urine exceeds the amount ingested.

Veggies and fruits are the most alkaline-producing foods for our bodies. It turns out that they are also the most beneficial foods for our bones, amazing as that may seem. Although their calcium content is lower than that of dairy foods, it is used more effectively in the body to maintain bone health, without having the calcium-leaching effect of the high-protein foods.

Dr. Lanou advises minimizing meat and dairy intake, walking 30 minutes daily, and eating at least six servings of veggies and fruit every day. That is the best prescription for building bone vitality!