This study is more confirmation of the importance of consuming one pound of vegetables for every 50 pounds of body weight to optimize your health. Not only will the vegetables provide the vitamin C necessary to protect against oxidation of your healthy omega-3 fats as evidenced in the last issue of this newsletter, many of the beneficial phytochemcials in the vegetables will serve to optimize all your systems.

Osteoporosis is also a major concern for many people and one of the most potent ways that one can build strong bones is to have large amounts of fresh vegetables.

A recent university study showed that herbs and vegetables can improve your bone metabolism. Researchers found that rats that ate common herbs and vegetables, such as onion, parsley and salad greens, had significantly less bone loss than rats not on the special diet.

A number of vegetables and vegetable mixtures produced significant effects on the rate of bone loss, such as 500 mg daily each of onion and Italian parsley, and 100 mg each of a mixture of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, arrugula, onion, garlic, wild garlic, common parsley, Italian parsley, and dill.

Interestingly, soybeans and milk powder -- foods thought to help slow the process of osteoporosis -- had no effect on the rats' rate of bone resorption. Another recent study also showed a major link between vegetable and fruit intake for increased bone density, but no such effect for dairy products.

Researchers suggested as far back as 1968 that the minerals in your bone serve as a buffer against all the acid foods you eat. After a lifetime of buffering the acid load from eating diets that are full of grains, this leads to gradual loss of minerals in the bones and secondary bone loss. It was suggested that:

"The therapy of osteoporosis may lie in its prevention...it might be worthwhile to consider decreasing the rate of bone attrition by the use of a diet favoring 'alkaline ash.' This type of diet would emphasize the ingestion of vegetables, fruits, vegetable and protein."

Two nutrients that may have the necessary buffering effects are potassium and magnesium. They are found in a variety of whole, unrefined foods, including vegetables and fruits. Diets high in vegetables and fruits produce more alkaline urine by contributing a variety of compounds that accept hydrogen ions during their metabolism.

These researchers showed almost 40 years ago that there is a significant and important link between bone density and consumption of potassium and magnesium in the form of vegetables and fruits.

There are theoretical reasons to expect a link between bone and potassium and magnesium. For instance, metabolic balance studies have shown that potassium helps your kidney retain calcium, whereas low potassium intake leads to increasing losses of calcium in your urine.

The bottom line: It is important to increase your consumption of vegetables if you have low bone density. One of the best ways to do that and normalize high body acid levels would be with vegetable juice. Vegetable juice is also high in vitamin K (phylloquinone) that will actually cement the calcium into your bone matrix.

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