Those bones need calcium but I’m afraid a glass of cold milk doesn’t contain as much calcium as you think!
Osteopenia and osteoporosis are health conditions that weaken bones and skeletal health. They’re similar, but they aren’t the same thing. Osteopenia is when you have weaker bones than most, but they haven’t crossed the threshold of no return. In other words, they won’t break as easily as the bones of people who have osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis weakens bones to the point that they are more likely to break. While both of these conditions are more common in the older generations, it’s not unusual for people to develop osteopenia or osteoporosis before the age of 45.
What many people don’t realize (because their doctors aren’t telling them any of this), is that osteopenia and osteoporosis have everything to do with your diet and your digestion.
To watch the video on this topic hit play below, or read on for more…
I’m about to blow all of this wide open and share how you can potentially reverse or at the very least, regain bone strength and skeletal health so that osteopenia and osteoporosis don’t rule your entire life.
How are osteopenia and osteoporosis linked to digestion?
Osteopenia and osteoporosis are connected to your three micronutrients:
- Carbs
- Fats or lipids
- Protein
What you need to know about osteopenia and osteoporosis is that both are involved with losing bone mass. The skeletal structure is primarily made up of calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Calcium is the main component, taking up approx. 99% of your skeletal system.
How refined sugars lead to calcium loss
Let’s talk about how osteopenia and osteoporosis affect carbohydrates. Let’s say you’ve eaten a lot of refined sugar. It probably tasted good in the moment, but you’re not going to feel too great afterwards because your body loses calcium to digest refined sugar.
Your ratio to calcium to phosphorus is around 2.5: 1. Your body needs to create energy to digest refined sugar, which means it needs phosphorus to help it do so. However, in doing so, the body pulls out calcium in the process.
When you consume refined sugar, you need to digest it. Digesting it requires energy, which leads to a loss of phosphorus, which leads to a loss of calcium. As a result, the 2.5:1 ratio becomes imbalanced and the body reacts by losing calcium to help keep things balanced.
Eating refined sugar can lead to osteoporosis because you’re losing phosphorus and calcium in order to digest all of the refined sugar. And, as you probably already know, calcium is necessary for bone health.
How fats/lipids lead to calcium loss
During the digestive process, fats and lipids must be ‘degreased.’ In other words, your body has to prep fats and lipids for proper digestion. The stomach acid in your bile plays a key role here but if you have deficient stomach acid, you won’t have an adequate supply of bile flow.
Insufficient bile flow is bad news because you need bile to emulsify the fats and lipids. If emulsified fats aren’t digested properly, it leads to calcium loss because calcium sticks to emulsified fats.
Digesting fats is very taxing on the human body. One of the main functions of bile is to clear the outer layer and begin the process of emulsifying fats. But, un-emulsified fats whereby calcium binds to it will simply be excreted by the human body.
When this happens, you’ve lost the calcium that your body could have used to help your bone health. This lack of calcium can be a contributing factor to osteopenia and osteoporosis.
How protein can lead to calcium loss
50 to 55% of calcium must bind to protein to be absorbed.
So, how can you know if you’re eating enough protein for calcium to be absorbed?
Well, I always suggest that my patients eat at least 60 grams of protein (bare minimum). I would be much happier (and so would they) if they consumed closer to 80 grams of protein.
Many people misjudge how much protein they consume. Just because you think you are eating a lot of protein doesn’t mean you are.
Like I mentioned above, 50 to 55% of calcium attaches to protein in order to reach the skeletal system. If you don’t consume enough protein, you won’t get enough calcium. It’s as simple as that.
How to get more calcium in your diet
Calcium is plentiful. Calcium is in a lot of foods such as green leafy vegetables. Now, here’s the hard truth that might surprise you… you won’t find sufficient calcium in dairy products.
You can gulp down one glass of milk after the other and you still won’t get the good bone health the milk industry advertises to the masses. When you consume a lot of dairy products, you actually lose calcium. This is because there’s a lot of phosphorus in dairy products.
Organic dairy is great as a fat/protein course. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that consuming lots of dairy is going to give you strong bones, because that’s nothing more than a myth stirred up by the milk industry to sell more milk. It’s sad but true.
If you want a solution to your osteopenia or osteoporosis, I can help. Food is the real medicine and when it comes to osteopenia and osteoporosis, we need to start looking at your digestive health and the gut. What are your deviations from normal, and how can we bring you back to homeostasis?
Osteopenia and osteoporosis are almost always caused by nothing more than digestive issues. So, if you need help reversing your osteopenia and osteoporosis, you can work with me by going to: www.gutprotocol.com
You can also work with me long-distance and set up a consultation via www.longdistancedoc.com