Building Strong Bones

The quick answer:  When dealing with complexity, simple rules (like the Word of Wisdom) can be the best guide.

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The Value of Simple Rules

Nutrition is incredibly complex.  In fact it’s so complex, scientists won’t figure out an optimal diet in our lifetime and likely never will.  In cases of overwhelming complexity, simple rules can be lifesavers.  Mike Pollan, in his bestseller In Defense of Food, suggested a diet based on just seven words:  Eat food.  Mostly Plants.  Not too much.  Actually, Pollan could have skipped the last three words because if you eat mostly plants, which are filling, it’s hard to eat too much. 

The Word of Wisdom could be paraphrased to this brief statement:  Eat seasonal plants (grains, vegetables, and fruits) close to how they were created, with a little (pastured) meat.  This eliminates the highly processed food-like products of the modern American diet (MAD).  So the simple counsel of the Word of Wisdom remains a reliable guide. 

For most people, the hardest things are to slash their sugar intake and eat more vegetables.  Fruit and grains aren’t hard to eat; it isn’t even that hard to be sparing with meat.  But replacing sugary processed foods with fresh vegetables requires a primal shift in our food culture—and the creative act of cooking.   For that reason, 8 of our 52 Healthy Changes address vegetable intake, and 4 aim to slash sugar intake.

Osteoporosis

Despite the past practice of broadly prescribing calcium pills to post-menopausal women in the hope of preventing osteoporosis, it’s starting to look like the Word of Wisdom was always the best advice.  In her book Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox, Kate Rheaume-Bleue cites studies showing calcium supplements do more harm than good.  One study, for example, showed that of 1000 patients, three would be protected from bone fractures but six would have a stroke or heart attack as a result of taking calcium supplements.  A bone fracture can usually be healed, but the consequences of strokes and heart attacks are more difficult. 

So what should you do to prevent osteoporosis?  The best advice is to study the subject and consult your doctor.   Patients who come prepared will get better guidance—most doctors plan just 15 minutes for appointments and that limits what can be done with the uninformed and perhaps confused patient.  Consider these Healthy Changes in your preparation:

1. For best mineral balance, eat vegetables, fruits, and grains rather than processed foods.  Basically, vegetables, especially the dark leafy greens, are rich in bone building minerals, including calcium.
2. Make strong bones by building muscles through exercise (for more go here). Muscles are attached to bones and both grow in unison.
3. Get a little noonday sun on your skin to make vitamin D (read more here.)
4. Eat animal products from pastured animals rich in vitamin K-2 (read more here).  Basically, vitamin K2 helps the body get dietary calcium to the right place—your bones.  Vitamin K1 is found in plants, K2 is found in animals that eat plants—meaning pastured meat and free-range eggs. 

Please comment:  Share you experience with bone-building, whether by exercise or diet.  Have you received helplful guidance from your doctor?  Please share.