|
Thanks Bruce,
Yes indeed I was already aware on the macrobiotic views on bone-density and calcium intake. Besides that, I have four different articles made by non-macrobiotic related people that tell similar things. Including that more milk intake does most often not help in the fight against osteoperosis or even worsen the condition. I expect this to be true but it seems to me that my osteoperosis and those of some other people had a much different reason.
Perhaps it is because I still cannot digest the whole grains to a level that my body doesn't get undernourished. Perhaps the endless chewing, the stomach-massages, the one-hour walks and the longer cooking methods were not sufficient for me to digest the foods. I could be that my body wasn't giving up calcium because of an unbalanced diet but was simply consuming the bones because there was little fat and muscle left to consume. One person wrongly accused me of getting osteoperosis because he thought I had eaten too much animal food. Not such a weird thought if you consider the macrobiotic view on osteoperosis as written in those articles you reffered to. But in fact I had only eaten 70gr fish 2-3 times a week. Compare that to the tons of meat and dairy I ate prior to my 'macro' diet when still having strong bones. It seems to me that some people are focusing too much on excess as the cause of osteoperosis while in fact that is not always the cause (as also mentioned in one of the articles), especially for people who follow a macrobiotic way of eating. And furthermore, people who are young just like me can eat lots of protein/animal foods/dairy and stuff without getting osteoperosis.
A second possibility could be the sudden switch from animal-based calcium to plant-based calcium. My bones were almost completely build out of calcium from milk, and with the sudden switch to macrobiotics all this was left out. Suddenly my body had to take all its calcium from plantfoods, perhaps this was a problem for me.
I talked to one person who follows classes to become a cooking instructor and he told me he had met several women, aged somewhere in their menopause, who started macrobiotics and thereby got osteoperosis in a rapid rate. They were forced to return to the use of dairy in their diets. He pointed out that dairy is much easier to absorb/digest than the plant-food, that could be the reason (although this doesn't mean it's absorbed into the bones). He also said that the women are now no longer eating dairy, afters years of slowly cutting back on dairy their bodies have addapted (could this be the case for me too?). He himself as with many others switched to a macrobiotic diet without any problems and has been doing so succesfully for some decades.
Third reason, which is not really a third one but is still about the shortages/digestion, is hormones. The male hormones are essential for strong bone-density. Whener I try to get back on a macrobiotic diet the first thing I notice is a dramatic decrease of my sexual energy. In the last half year it was completely gone. The meat, fish, dairy and especially eggs have given my sexual energy back to me to a normal level. Could this be perhaps the reason why some long-term macro's have osteoperosis? I just find it hard to believe that one can have strong sexual energy by (nearly) only eating plant-foods. But then again, I'm now basing this idea on my own personal self and that is not the right thing to do.
Thanks Bruce, and others
Happy hugs,
Peter
|