Calcium
Guest post: The dairy dilemma
28/Feb/12 06:30 PM Filed in: Guest post | Nutrition
Guest post originally published by Shelly Reitkop, ND
The simple truth
Lets start from the beginning. Milk IS good – that is, BREAST MILK. When a baby is born, a mother produces enough milk to help her infant grow from an 8-pound newborn into a 24-pound toddler. Milk accommodates for a 300% weight gain over the first year of life. When the child is anywhere between 12-24 months, a mother’s milk dries up and she stops breast-feeding. It is at this point of life where humans lose 95% of the digestive enzyme lactase, a substance necessary to break down lactose, the sugar in milk. The human body is not meant to digest dairy once the breast-feeding period is over.
Let’s be honest. Most babies DO consume milk after foods have been introduced. Most people consume dairy products throughout their entire lives. The difference between cows’ milk and human milk is that cows’ milk, by design, is meant to grow a 90lb calf into a 2,000lb cow over 2 years. By the laws of deduction, if you want to lose weight, eliminating dairy is a must.
It’s not only about weight management. The sad truth is, dairy is one of the most common culprits of gastrointestinal inflammation. It quickly triggers the immune system to produce inflammatory molecules resulting in a variety of conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and dermatological conditions, as well as autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. The reason? We aren’t supposed to be consuming dairy!
Got Milk? Marketing misconceptions & the truth about calcium
Having calcium leech from the bones isn’t the worst part about the dairy dilemma: acidic foods affect the body’s functioning, right down to the cellular level. Acidic blood is a reflection of significant free radical damage and low antioxidant levels. Acidic blood levels are associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes, elevated cholesterol and cancer.
Your heart does NOT love dairy
Your taste buds may LOVE the taste of cheese and dairy products but I can assure you, your heart does not feel the same. Many dairy products are high in saturated fat and high saturated fat intake is associated with heart disease. Eggs, which are classified as dairy products, are widely known to elevate cholesterol and increase cardiovascular risk.
Hormonal havoc: the dairy dilemma continued
One major concern about dairy products is the exposure to hormone disrupting antibiotics, chemicals and growth hormones. Hormonal imbalances are implicated in certain types of cancers such as breast, uterine, ovarian and prostate cancer. According to some Harvard researchers, the hormone composition of milk may increase the risk of ovarian and other hormone-related cancers.
Recent studies have found that male athletes who consumed high doses of calcium (2000mg+) were almost twice as likely to develop prostate cancer compared with men who consumed 500mg per day. Something worth thinking about.
Another study found that elevated levels of galactose, a sugar byproduct that is released when we digest dairy products, may be linked to the development of ovarian cancer. Researchers conclude that high dairy consumption is not necessarily safe.
The bottom line
To learn about substitutions for dairy products, stay tuned for my upcoming blog: Simple Solutions to the Dairy Dilemma. If you have specific questions you would like me to address, please comment and I will be sure to respond!
References:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/calcium-and-milk
Comments
Kate's favourite things 2012: Supplements
04/Mar/12 01:04 PM Filed in: Nutrition | Natural medicine
by Kate Whimster, BCom, MIFHI, ND
For several years I’ve considered writing a “favourite things” blog (a la Oprah’s favourite things). These are all things I use myself (as evidenced by the photos of this stuff in my house!) and LOVE (not just like). This is NOT an endorsement or advertisement and I’m not getting paid by anyone to put a product in this blog.
D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition
D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition is a line of supplements and products formulated by Peter D’Adamo, ND based on his life’s work in epigenetics, the Blood Type Diet, and the GenoType Diet. In Canada, these supplements are available from Right For Your Type. Right now, I carry the blood typing kits and secretor test kits in my offices, but as my practice grows, I hope to eventually carry a selection of the products in my office. For now, I direct patients to the online store. My top 5 favourites are Deflect O, Catechol, Polyflora O, Phytocal O, and Proberry 3 Liquid.
B vitamins
B vitamins are really effective for stress management and gentle liver support as well as having lots of other benefits for your skin, brain, hair, energy, etc. Not all Bs are the same and I have a few favourite brands: NFH B Complex SAP, AOR Advanced B Complex, Genestra Orti B, and Thorne B complexes.
Thorne MediClear Plus
I often recommend dietary changes in my practice, including an elimination/hypoallergenic diet or a detox diet in many cases. I’ve also done this type of diet/detox myself and used Thorne MediClear Plus for protein, liver support, and cofactors for detoxification. I usually prefer the MediClear Plus over the regular MediClear because it has no added flavours or sweeteners but it doesn’t have the great flavour of Mediclear. However, I actually really like the way it tastes mixed into a fruit smoothie!
Earthrise spirulina powder
Spirulina is a blue-green algae that is high in antioxidants, iron, and protein. Spirulina is a diamond superfood in my SWAMI GenoType personalized nutrition plan and I use Earthrise spirulina powder in my favourite smoothie recipe every morning! When I started taking it, I used only 1/2 teaspoon per smoothie but now I’m up to the full 1 teaspoon serving and I find it blends well with fruit so that you can’t even taste it! And it gives your smoothie an “interesting” colour, the mark of a true health nut.
Ascenta Nutrasea liquid fish oils
Fish oil is one of those supplements with just about a million benefits and I think Nutrasea is one of the best tasting liquid fish oils. My personal favourite right now is the Nutrasea+D since it also has 1000IU of vitamin D per teaspoon. “But,” you say, “I don’t want to take a liquid, it’s gross! I want to take a capsule!” Nutrasea also comes in capsules, but I really prefer the liquid because dose is important and most people simply do not take enough capsules to get a dose that will benefit them.
Natural Calm magnesium powder
Natural Calm magnesium powder is exactly what it sounds like - magnesium powder, that’s all. You dissolve the powder in warm water and drink it! I enjoy taking this in the evening as a relaxing drink and to help my muscles relax before bed. I usually use the Original flavour and mix in a bit of lemon juice for taste.
For several years I’ve considered writing a “favourite things” blog (a la Oprah’s favourite things). These are all things I use myself (as evidenced by the photos of this stuff in my house!) and LOVE (not just like). This is NOT an endorsement or advertisement and I’m not getting paid by anyone to put a product in this blog.
D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition
D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition is a line of supplements and products formulated by Peter D’Adamo, ND based on his life’s work in epigenetics, the Blood Type Diet, and the GenoType Diet. In Canada, these supplements are available from Right For Your Type. Right now, I carry the blood typing kits and secretor test kits in my offices, but as my practice grows, I hope to eventually carry a selection of the products in my office. For now, I direct patients to the online store. My top 5 favourites are Deflect O, Catechol, Polyflora O, Phytocal O, and Proberry 3 Liquid.
B vitamins
B vitamins are really effective for stress management and gentle liver support as well as having lots of other benefits for your skin, brain, hair, energy, etc. Not all Bs are the same and I have a few favourite brands: NFH B Complex SAP, AOR Advanced B Complex, Genestra Orti B, and Thorne B complexes.
Thorne MediClear Plus
I often recommend dietary changes in my practice, including an elimination/hypoallergenic diet or a detox diet in many cases. I’ve also done this type of diet/detox myself and used Thorne MediClear Plus for protein, liver support, and cofactors for detoxification. I usually prefer the MediClear Plus over the regular MediClear because it has no added flavours or sweeteners but it doesn’t have the great flavour of Mediclear. However, I actually really like the way it tastes mixed into a fruit smoothie!
Earthrise spirulina powder
Spirulina is a blue-green algae that is high in antioxidants, iron, and protein. Spirulina is a diamond superfood in my SWAMI GenoType personalized nutrition plan and I use Earthrise spirulina powder in my favourite smoothie recipe every morning! When I started taking it, I used only 1/2 teaspoon per smoothie but now I’m up to the full 1 teaspoon serving and I find it blends well with fruit so that you can’t even taste it! And it gives your smoothie an “interesting” colour, the mark of a true health nut.
Ascenta Nutrasea liquid fish oils
Fish oil is one of those supplements with just about a million benefits and I think Nutrasea is one of the best tasting liquid fish oils. My personal favourite right now is the Nutrasea+D since it also has 1000IU of vitamin D per teaspoon. “But,” you say, “I don’t want to take a liquid, it’s gross! I want to take a capsule!” Nutrasea also comes in capsules, but I really prefer the liquid because dose is important and most people simply do not take enough capsules to get a dose that will benefit them.
Natural Calm magnesium powder
Natural Calm magnesium powder is exactly what it sounds like - magnesium powder, that’s all. You dissolve the powder in warm water and drink it! I enjoy taking this in the evening as a relaxing drink and to help my muscles relax before bed. I usually use the Original flavour and mix in a bit of lemon juice for taste.
Calcium and vitamin D
by Kate Whimster, BCom, MIFHI, ND
A recent article in the New York Times questioned the need for high levels of calcium and vitamin D supplementation that has become the new norm. I have already had patients ask me about this, so I will try to address it here.
I am always in favour of obtaining nutrients the way human beings were designed to get them, which is through food. Calcium and vitamin D are actually quite different types of nutrients, so I will discuss them separately. The main take-home point of this blog is that ultimately we are all unique and the beauty of naturopathic medicine is that as an ND I am able to work with you individually to assess your needs and make a recommendation that is personalized to you as an individual. So ultimately, to figure out how much calcium and vitamin D you should or should not take, talk to your naturopathic doctor!
Calcium
I am asked quite often how much calcium we need, what is the best source, etc... Osteoporosis is far too common in western society and yet we get lots of calcium here too! What’s going on? The short answer is that there is so much more to bone health than just calcium. There are three things to look at with regard to bone health.
First, the raw material needed to create bone. Calcium is just one of many building blocks necessary to make bone but it is definitely not the only one! Magnesium, phosphate, boron, and other minerals are all necessary.
Second, a pile of bricks does not make a house just as lots of materials (calcium and other minerals) do not automatically make bone. Bone has to be built and weight bearing exercise is a key factor to signal our bodies to take those materials and do something with them. When more stress is applied to bone, it becomes stronger. There are also other factors in building bone, such as proper blood flow (yes, bone is living tissue and needs blood!) and other signals like vitamin D (see below!) going on in the body.
Finally, we must prevent our bodies from breaking down bone to use those materials elsewhere. This is another complex area but in a nutshell, if your body needs some calcium to buffer your blood to keep it at the perfect pH level (which keeps you alive, by the way), it will draw this from bones. An acidic environment in our tissues increases the need to use bone to balance pH. And what causes an acidic environment? Stress, lack of sleep, caffeine/alcohol, sugar, dairy, and other acidifying foods...
While dairy groups and marketing boards have done an amazing job convincing people they need to eat a lot of servings of dairy products each day to get enough calcium, there are many other great sources of calcium that most people overlook. One great way is to make bone broth! You can also get calcium from leafy green veggies, nuts and seeds, and many other diverse food sources. For more info, check out the World’s Healthiest Foods site listing for calcium.
Vitamin D
In the case of vitamin D, our bodies use cholesterol (it’s not all bad!) to make vitamin D when our skin is exposed to the sun. For example, a caucasian person out in summer sun in just a bathing suit until his or her skin just begins to turn pink produces between 10,000 and 50,000IU of vitamin D. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and can therefore be stored by our bodies so that we can make it through winter off the supply we’ve built up in the summer. Lighter skinned people make more vitamin D from the sun so it’s no surprise that at higher latitudes you find blonder, paler people and near the equator (where there is more direct sun exposure and no long, dark winter) you find darker skinned people. Anyway, before there were ever vitamin D supplements, humans spent much of their time, particularly in the summer, outside and likely made enough vitamin D to last through each winter.
However, this is not the world we live in anymore! Unfortunately most people spend nearly all their time indoors during the day and therefore cannot make vitamin D from sun exposure. This alone is a powerful argument for supplementation, not to mention the greater issue of how our incredibly unnatural lifestyle impacts our health, but that is a topic for another day. In addition, there have been many studies on vitamin D in the past few decades demonstrating how vitamin D impacts so much more than bone health. Vitamin D is in fact a hormone, a key signalling system in the body that can impact all kinds of conditions. There are far too many studies for me to summarize here, but if you want to learn more, you can start with reading the response to the article linked above written by the Executive Director of the Vitamin D Council.
So how do you know what to do? Again, the best way to determine if supplementation is right for you and how much to supplement is to see a naturopathic doctor who can assess your unique situation. You can also ask your doctor to run a blood test for 25-hydroxy vitamin D. The province of Ontario has recently put more restrictions on this test because it became so popular but if you have a condition for which vitamin D is important or that puts you at greater risk for deficiency, such as osteoporosis, parathyroid disease, pregnancy, or kidney disease, speak to your doctor about testing your levels.
A recent article in the New York Times questioned the need for high levels of calcium and vitamin D supplementation that has become the new norm. I have already had patients ask me about this, so I will try to address it here.
I am always in favour of obtaining nutrients the way human beings were designed to get them, which is through food. Calcium and vitamin D are actually quite different types of nutrients, so I will discuss them separately. The main take-home point of this blog is that ultimately we are all unique and the beauty of naturopathic medicine is that as an ND I am able to work with you individually to assess your needs and make a recommendation that is personalized to you as an individual. So ultimately, to figure out how much calcium and vitamin D you should or should not take, talk to your naturopathic doctor!
Calcium
I am asked quite often how much calcium we need, what is the best source, etc... Osteoporosis is far too common in western society and yet we get lots of calcium here too! What’s going on? The short answer is that there is so much more to bone health than just calcium. There are three things to look at with regard to bone health.
First, the raw material needed to create bone. Calcium is just one of many building blocks necessary to make bone but it is definitely not the only one! Magnesium, phosphate, boron, and other minerals are all necessary.
Second, a pile of bricks does not make a house just as lots of materials (calcium and other minerals) do not automatically make bone. Bone has to be built and weight bearing exercise is a key factor to signal our bodies to take those materials and do something with them. When more stress is applied to bone, it becomes stronger. There are also other factors in building bone, such as proper blood flow (yes, bone is living tissue and needs blood!) and other signals like vitamin D (see below!) going on in the body.
Finally, we must prevent our bodies from breaking down bone to use those materials elsewhere. This is another complex area but in a nutshell, if your body needs some calcium to buffer your blood to keep it at the perfect pH level (which keeps you alive, by the way), it will draw this from bones. An acidic environment in our tissues increases the need to use bone to balance pH. And what causes an acidic environment? Stress, lack of sleep, caffeine/alcohol, sugar, dairy, and other acidifying foods...
While dairy groups and marketing boards have done an amazing job convincing people they need to eat a lot of servings of dairy products each day to get enough calcium, there are many other great sources of calcium that most people overlook. One great way is to make bone broth! You can also get calcium from leafy green veggies, nuts and seeds, and many other diverse food sources. For more info, check out the World’s Healthiest Foods site listing for calcium.
Vitamin D
In the case of vitamin D, our bodies use cholesterol (it’s not all bad!) to make vitamin D when our skin is exposed to the sun. For example, a caucasian person out in summer sun in just a bathing suit until his or her skin just begins to turn pink produces between 10,000 and 50,000IU of vitamin D. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and can therefore be stored by our bodies so that we can make it through winter off the supply we’ve built up in the summer. Lighter skinned people make more vitamin D from the sun so it’s no surprise that at higher latitudes you find blonder, paler people and near the equator (where there is more direct sun exposure and no long, dark winter) you find darker skinned people. Anyway, before there were ever vitamin D supplements, humans spent much of their time, particularly in the summer, outside and likely made enough vitamin D to last through each winter.
However, this is not the world we live in anymore! Unfortunately most people spend nearly all their time indoors during the day and therefore cannot make vitamin D from sun exposure. This alone is a powerful argument for supplementation, not to mention the greater issue of how our incredibly unnatural lifestyle impacts our health, but that is a topic for another day. In addition, there have been many studies on vitamin D in the past few decades demonstrating how vitamin D impacts so much more than bone health. Vitamin D is in fact a hormone, a key signalling system in the body that can impact all kinds of conditions. There are far too many studies for me to summarize here, but if you want to learn more, you can start with reading the response to the article linked above written by the Executive Director of the Vitamin D Council.
So how do you know what to do? Again, the best way to determine if supplementation is right for you and how much to supplement is to see a naturopathic doctor who can assess your unique situation. You can also ask your doctor to run a blood test for 25-hydroxy vitamin D. The province of Ontario has recently put more restrictions on this test because it became so popular but if you have a condition for which vitamin D is important or that puts you at greater risk for deficiency, such as osteoporosis, parathyroid disease, pregnancy, or kidney disease, speak to your doctor about testing your levels.
