Improve Your Bone Health With Fruits and Vegetables

By E. Jean Perrins

In the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers show that increasing the alkaline component of your diet will reduce mineral loss from your bones and improve bone health.
Lead author in the study, Bess, Dawson-Hughes is saying "When it comes to dietary concerns regarding bone health, calcium and vitamin D have received the most attention, but there is increasing evidence that the acid/base balance of the diet is also important."
Diets high in protein and cereal grains including wheat produce an excess of acidic build-up in the body which can cause an excess of mineral excretion from the bones, organs and teeth, which can affect bone health and strength.
Every manufacturer in the health supplementation industry seems to be jumping on the bone health bandwagon. Bone health seems to affect the demographic of the population that is aging. As we get older, our bone health can deteriorate causing a condition called Osteoporosis. Bottles of 'cures' and preventatives are popping up like mushrooms after a rain. After all, women currently have a lifetime risk factor of 30 to 40 percent for an osteoporotic fracture. Men only have an approximate 13 percent chance.
As dietary choices hover more to the acidic forming foods, metabolic acids over the years, actually reduce the body's ability to excrete acidic accumulations, explains Dawson-Hughes. As the acidic levels rise in the body, the body reacts by initiating a process called bone resorption. This process breaks down bone, releasing minerals such as calcium, phosphates and alkaline salts into the blood where the major alkalizing process takes place. Over time, bone resorption weakens the bones and increases the risk of fractures.
During the study, researchers from Tufts University and scientists from Northeastern University in Boston, studied 171 men and women, aged 50 and older. Each of the study participants were randomly assigned to receive supplements of potassium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, potassium chloride or a placebo for three months.
Reports indicate that study participants that received bicarbonates had significant reductions in calcium excretion which tells researchers there is a reduction in bone resorption. Dr. Dawson-Hughes reports "When fruits and vegetables are metabolized, they add bicarbonate, an alkaline compound to the body. Our study found that bicarbonate had a favorable effect on bone resorption and calcium excretion. This suggests that increasing the vegetable alkali content of the diet may attenuate bone loss in healthy older adults."
"Achieving alkali-producing diets would require drastic changes in food choices and be challenging in older people who tend to have long-established dietary patterns," wrote the researchers. "Should it be shown to be beneficial, an alternative approach may be to administer bicarbonate in supplement form or to lower the acid-producing capacity of selected foods through alkali fortification," they added.
Leafy vegetables and some fruits have been shown to have higher concentrations of potassium in the form of alkali salts. These alkali salts are very stable in the body and help to fortify bone minerals and prevent resorption. Citrus fruits like lemons and limes in addition to above ground vegetables should constitute the major portion of our diets to restore the blood pH of 7.365. Research has shown that chlorophyll is very similar in structure to the blood and can be easily converted to blood constituents by the body.
Scientists suggest if you eat vegetables and fruits grown within 100 miles of where you live the natural bicarbonates will buffer they acidity formed by your food processing and create a healthier alkaline terrain. The potassium concentrations in green leafy foods is bicarbonate in nature, helping to keep bones and teeth strong and healthy. The challenge will be to get older adults to modify their diets enough for the alkali bicarbonates to be effective.

Jean Perrins is a retired nurse and an alkaline, ionized water specialist. She has been field testing the effects of structured water on health in her clinic with sometimes astounding results. It is clear that water has an affect on health that we, in the West are just beginning to understand.
Jean is currently working with a team to develop microbicidal and Free Active Chlorine applications to revolutionize industrial and agricultural methods using Invins-AbleTM electrochemically activated water. She and her team believe that Invins-AbleTM will help eliminate antibiotic and hormone use in food animals and will allow cleaning and chemical services to do more and more processes with this structured water. The economic and environmental savings are astounding.

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