Bone Vitality

For some reason I was awake and listening to the People's Pharmacy on KERA 6am Saturday morning. I hardly ever listen to this show in part for the obvious reason, but I felt fortunate to listen to this one. It was on bone vitality. The first guest was medical journalist Michael Castleman who with a coauthor recently came out with the book Building Bone Vitality: A Revolutionary Diet Plan to Prevent Bone Loss and Reverse Osteoporosis.

At least in the radio show, Castleman's main point was that taking calcium supplements Or drinking alot of milk has not been shown to make much of a difference in bone vitality. Rather, a diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables plus exercise is the best prescription for maintaining strong bones. The reason is that there are other nutrients besides calcium that are necessary for bone health (I think manganese and phosphorus were a couple mentioned), and one gets these from fruits and vegetables.

Also pointed out was that a diet high in animal protein causes the blood to become acidic, and this causes calcium to come from the bones to maintain a ph balance in the blood. I first read about protein leeching calcium from the bones 20 years ago during the early days of my vegetarian period. Perhaps this view is gaining traction.

The second guest on the show was Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, and a chairman of the nutrition department at Harvard's school of public health. He was of course more politically non-committal about Castleman's claims, particularly about animal protein, but he didn't refute Castleman's calcium claim. He was behind a diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. What nutritionist wouldn't be?

One small negative about the show is that Joe Graedon, one of the show's hosts, seemed to distance himself from Castleman's protein claim ("it's out there") when talking with Willett. Yet when he and his wife Terry were talking to Castleman earlier, there wasn't any skepticism expressed on either hosts' part. A little two-faced I thought.

The Origin Of Species

From Wikipedia

It's a day to remember Charles Darwin. It's 150 years ago today that his On the Origin of Species was published.

The Debt Buildup

The New York Times has a foreboding article today about the national debt. The interest on it could get very expensive pretty soon adding to an already ballooning debt.

But as the HuffingtonPost points out, Paul Krugman has this opposing view, and Dean Baker has this opposing view.

Animal, Vegetable, Miserable

Karen Barbour

The New York Times rather stunningly published a strong op-ed today by Gary Steiner on veganism. Steiner's opinion is not focused on the health or environmental benefits of veganism but rather on the humanitarian reasoning. I have to commend the Times for publishing the opinion.

 

The Fall of Greg Craig

    Doug Mills, The New York Times

 An interesting narrative in Time magazine (link below) about Greg Craig, Obama's former (or soon to be former) White House counsel. It is about what happens to someone who tries to follow the policies that Obama set out during the presidential campaign and early in the administration. He gets cut off at the knees.

The Fall of Greg Craig

Eating Animals

Sue Coe, "My Mother and I Watched a Pig Escape From a Slaughterhouse"

 The New Yorker's November 9 edition was a good issue. Lawrence Wright has an extensive article on Gaza, and Elizabeth Kolbert reviews Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals". I like the issue of eating animals (and the alternative, vegetarianism/veganism) receiving more national media and serious prominence. The review is good up until the Kolbert gets a bit silly by asking whether veganism is enough in solving all our environmental problems. Of course not, but it would certainly have desirable effects in that area.

The Warning

Frontline had a very good program on a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, one can still watch it online which I just did. The program is about the unregulated market in derivatives and how a woman named Brooksley Born (above) back in the 90's tried to warn the government that there needed to be regulation of this dark market. Unfortunately, the economic powers that were, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, held sway, and nothing was done, despite events at the time! And today, we've seen how derivatives brought Wall Street to its knees and how the government has had to step in and bailout a number of firms. Hopefully, there will finally be some regulation enacted, but it is slow going, particularly with Obambi in the White House.