Let me explain

Root vegetables are the part of the plant that grows underground. Our grandmothers and all the mothers who went before them relied on these roots for solid nutrition during long cold winters.

The simplest roots that we grew up with are potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, radishes, turnips, parsnips, beets, and rutabagas. But there are plenty of others like ginger, horseradish, turmeric, daikon radish, burdock root, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, kohlrabi, jicama, and more.

Because these vegetables grow deep in the ground, they absorb vitamins and minerals from the earth. And they also have special benefits for your bones.

5 good reasons to eat more root vegetables:

1.Stay Alkaline

 Your bones need a good balance of acid and alkaline foods.

 Why?

Our blood maintains a pH balance in a very narrow range. The food we eat can disrupt that balance. That’s because some foods form acid byproducts when we digest them while others form alkaline byproducts.

Acid-forming foods include most processed foods, sugar, coffee, alcohol and grains. Most high-protein foods, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, most beans and peas are also acid-forming.

When the pH balance shifts even a little to the acid side, your body starts sucking alkalizing minerals like calcium out of your bones to reduce acid levels.

Before that happens add some root vegetables to your diet. They are high in alkalizing potassium and help keep your pH in the healthy range.

2. Boost Your Carotenoids

Root vegetables are great sources of carotenoids like beta-carotene. Your body converts beta-carotene to vitamin A. That’s important because your bones need vitamin A for their remodeling process. Good choices for beta-carotene are sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, and other orange and red roots.

3. Get More Vitamin C

Root vegetables are also high in vitamin C. That helps build the collagen matrix of your bones – the part that keeps them flexible, so they bend instead of break.

4. Beat Stress

It’s true that sugar and processed carbohydrates give you quick energy. But it is also nervous energy. If you are already feeling anxious, sugar will just make things worse.

On the other hand root vegetables grow deep into the ground. They have a strong downward energy - exactly the opposite energy as the processed foods that crowd most supermarket shelves.

Root vegetables are great for grounding us when we feel unfocused, nervous, stressed or over-stimulated. And as you know by now stress is a big factor in thinning bones.

5. Zap Your Sugar Cravings

When you eat too much sugar, your body becomes overly acidic and starts leaching calcium out of your bones and excreting it. If you do it enough, you’ll be losing lots of calcium and your bones will be weaker.

Excess sugar also depletes your body of phosphorus, a mineral that is important in helping your bones absorb calcium.[i]

When you slow roast root vegetables the natural sweetness helps satisfy your sweet cravings.

Try this delicious roasted root vegetable recipe.  It’s one of my favorites and my "bone" clients as well!

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As a thank you, I'm offering a simple alkalizing salad/veggie recipe video on the other side just for you.

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[i] “The Health Hazards of Drinking Coca Cola and Other Soft Drinks.” The Organic Consumers Association https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/school/cocacola021605.php (Retrieved 6/16/15)

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1. Kale is an alkalizing food.

Eating too much protein and too many grains makes your body produce more acid. When your blood becomes too acidic, your body sucks alkalizing minerals like calcium out of your bones to rebalance everything. But that leaves you with weaker bones. Kale can help counter that calcium leaching. When you digest kale, your body produces alkaline byproducts to lower acid levels naturally.

2. Vitamin K.

Green leafy vegetables from the cabbage family – like kale – are rich in vitamin K1. That’s the vitamin that helps your blood clot. But in your gut, bacteria convert vitamin K1 to vitamin K2. And that’s critical for healthy bones.

You see, vitamin K2 puts calcium where it belongs – in your bones. Without K2, bones become porous and calcium collects in the arteries or organs and hardens there. In addition, K2 works with vitamin D3 to help produce cells that build bones (osteoblasts). K2 plus D3 also inhibits production of cells that break down bone (osteoclasts).

3. Vitamin A.

Kale and other dark leafy greens are rich in beta-carotene. Your body converts beta-carotene to vitamin A. That’s important because your bones need vitamin A for their remodeling process.

But excess vitamin A from supplements or animal foods like liver, eggs, and butterfat has been linked to bone loss and an increase in the risk of hip fracture. Researchers think too much vitamin A could trigger an increase in bone-busting osteoclasts. It may also interfere with vitamin D which you need for building bone.

But getting vitamin A from kale is safe. Beta-carotene hasn’t been linked to any adverse bone effects.

4. Vitamin C

Osteoporosis has been called “scurvy of the bones.” You see, your body needs vitamin C to maintain a healthy balance of bone-building osteoblasts and bone-destroying osteoclasts. When your levels of vitamin C are low, you have trouble building new bone and your bone breakdown speeds up.

Vitamin C also helps build the collagen matrix of your bones – the part that keeps them flexible, so they bend instead of break.

5. Calcium.

You’ve heard me say before that I like to get my calcium from leafy greens. But some greens are better than others when it comes to calcium absorption. Spinach and Swiss chard contain oxalates which bind to their calcium and prevent your body from absorbing it. Kale, on the other hand, has low levels of oxalates so your body can absorb all that good calcium.

6. Magnesium.

Without enough magnesium, bone nutrients like calcium and vitamin D can’t do their jobs. Your body needs magnesium to convert vitamin D into its active form. If it’s not activated it can’t turn on your body’s calcium absorption.[i]

You also need magnesium to stimulate the hormone calcitonin. That helps draw calcium out of the blood and soft tissues and put it back into the bones. Too much calcium floating around in your blood and tissues can increase your risk of arthritis, heart attack, and kidney stones, as well as osteoporosis.[ii]

Kale’s best bone nutrients:

Here’s the recipe for Skelly’s favorite bone-healthy snack.

Best Kale Chips Recipe

Printable Version Click HERE

Ingredients:

• 1 Bunch of dinosaur (lacinato) or curly kale
• 1 or 2 Tb of extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt to taste.
• You can also add any additional spices you like such as onion or garlic powder, turmeric, etc.

Or for my more experimental readers, create this lovely spice blend from Practical Paleo.  Keep leftover in your cabinet and label with the "date made"

• INDIAN SPICE BLEND:
• Yield - 4 1/2 tablespoons
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preparation:

• Pre‐heat oven to 350º F.

• Cut stems off the kale and remove center stalk.

• Wash the kale and dry thoroughly (otherwise your chips will be soggy).  TIP:  I usually wash the kale before making the kale chips, wrap them tightly in paper towel and put the paper towel in a plastic bag then place in the fridge overnight.

• Cut or tear the kale into 2 inch strips with a knife or kitchen scissors. Toss the kale with olive oil, sea salt and any spices.

• Spread kale out in a glass baking dish or a stainless steel cooking sheet (non-aluminum) and bake for 5‐

• Turn chips over and bake for another 5‐7 minutes. Caution: This is no time for multi-tasking. You need to keep an eye on these treats so they don’t burn.

It’s best to consume kale chips immediately while they’re crisp. But if you have leftovers keep them fresh in a glass jar.

My question for you.

When it comes to choosing the right foods to optimize your bone health, what is the single biggest challenge, frustration or problem you’ve been struggling with?

Please let me know so I can write content that meets your needs.
Plus I have wonderful alkaline salad dressing waiting for you on the other side to thank you for your time 🙂.

Click here to share your challenges ----> HERE

From my delicious bones to yours,

Irma

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[i] Saggese, G. Bertelloni, S. Baroncelli, G. I. Federico, G. Calisti, L. Fusaro, C. Bone demineralization and impaired mineral metabolism in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. A possible role of magnesium deficiency. Helv Paediatr Acta. 1989 Jun; 43 (5-6): 405-14. Pubmed 2787312

[ii] Zofková I, , Kancheva RL. The relationship between magnesium and calciotropic hormones. Magnes Res. 1995 Mar; 8 (1): 77-84. Pubmed 7669510

The post 6 Reasons Why Your Bones Love These Kale Chips appeared first on Food For Healthy Bones.

But no matter what kind of mushrooms you eat (except the poison ones!) your bones will thank you.

My personal favorite is the shiitake.  In Asia, shiitakes are a symbol of longevity because of all their health benefits.  The Chinese have used them as medicine for more than 6,000 years.

1. Balance Your Acid

 Mushrooms are a great alkaline food.  And as you know, alkaline foods are what we need to balance our acid-heavy modern diets of processed foods and not enough vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables.  Acidic foods leach minerals like calcium from your bones.  So adding some mushrooms to a meal can help bring down the acid.

2. Copper

You don’t need much copper but it’s essential to healthy bones.  Copper helps produce collagen, a key fiber in building connective tissues, bones and joints.  And although a copper deficiency is rare, it can reduce your bone density.

All mushrooms are a good source of copper but shiitakes have the highest levels. One cup of cooked shiitakes contains about 65% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 900 mcg.

3. Zinc

Zinc is a superstar when it comes to building healthy bones.  It works two ways.  First, it stimulates production of osteoblasts that build new bone.  But it also slows down the action of osteoclasts that break down old bone.

The RDA for zinc is only 8 mg.  One cup of cooked shiitakes will give you almost 25% of that.  But as we get older our zinc levels decline.  This is especially true for women after menopause.

You might want to boost your zinc levels even more.  In a two-year study of postmenopausal women, those who got between 8 and 20 mg per day had healthier bones than women who got more than 8 or less than 20 mg.[i]

That goes for men, too.  A study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found zinc levels were lowest in men with osteoporosis.[ii]

4. Selenium

Selenium deficiency may be a risk factor for osteoporosis.  It’s already been associated with osteopenia in animals.  In humans, it’s linked to osteoarthropathy (diseases of the bones and joints).[iii]

Many of us are deficient in selenium because this trace mineral is lacking in most US soils. Just one cup of shiitake mushrooms will give you a whopping 65% of your 55 mcg RDA.

5. Vitamin D

Mushrooms are the only vegetarian source of ergosterol, a precursor to vitamin D.  And as you know, vitamin D is essential to steering calcium into your bones.

Ergosterols are especially abundant in shiitake mushrooms.  In fact, according to Annemarie Colbin, just one ounce of dried shiitake mushrooms contains 46% of the RDA of vitamin D for a 55 year old woman.

Put Mushrooms To Work For Your Bones

Next time you go to the store pick up some shiitake mushrooms.  Store them in the refrigerator in a loosely closed paper bag. They will keep fresh for about one week. Dried mushrooms will keep six months to a year in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator or freezer.

But don’t keep them that long.  Put them to work for your bones ASAP.  Try this great bone-building mushroom soup from my friend Vicki whose cooking talents are award winning.  It has a yummy smooth velvety texture but it’s completely dairy-free.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you enjoy it.  I think you’re going to love it!

Velvety Mushroom Soup

4 Servings

Ingredients:

• 4-5 cups of a variety of mushrooms (such as maitaki, shiitake, crimini, royal trumpets)
• 4 tbsp organic olive oil or organic coconut oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cups vegetable broth – (I use organic bouillon cubes)
• Juice of ½ to 1 lemon to taste
• 1/4 cup sherry – I use Harvey’s Bristol Cream
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Clean and cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces (not too small)
2. Sauté mushrooms and onions in the oil until nicely browned and mushrooms are cooked
3. Place half the mushroom mixture in Vitamix or other heavy-duty blender.
4. Add 1.5 cups of the vegetable broth and blend until creamy
5. Return the blended mushroom mixture to the remaining unblended sautéed mushrooms and heat on the range top.
6. Add the lemon juice and sherry.
7. Add more vegetable broth to reach desired consistency
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper

Recipe from Vicki Sarnoff’s Intuitive Kitchen.

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From my delicious bones to yours,

Irma

Where's Irma?   Besides dancing with Skelly?

5/17/15- Will Your Bones Live As Long As Your Do?

A FULL Day of Healing - Stockton, NJ

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5 Integrative bone practitioners will guide us into a deeper understanding of bone health.  Please bring your bones to this very important presentation.

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I was recently intrigued by a report on PBS about how the rising acid levels in the oceans are eating away at the coral reefs.  Those mineral-rich “bones” of the sea suffer from their own version of “osteoporosis.”

And it’s not just the coral.  Marine animals like scallops, oysters, and clams that rely on calcium to build their shells are having a harder time as carbon dioxide raises the acid levels of their environment.  Shells are becoming thinner, and shell growth is slowing down.

Just as shellfish and the coral reefs are the foundation of marine ecosystems, your skeleton is the foundation of your body.  And like the coral reefs and shellfish, your skeleton can get eaten away when its environment becomes too acidic.

That’s why it’s so important to keep a healthy balance of acid and alkaline foods in your diet.

What is The Acid/Alkaline Balance?

Our blood maintains a pH balance in a very narrow range and the food we eat can disrupt that balance.  That’s because some foods form acid byproducts when we digest them while others form alkaline byproducts.

Acid-forming foods include most processed foods, sugar, coffee, alcohol and grains.  Most high-protein foods, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, most beans and peas are also acid-forming. Alkaline-forming foods mostly include fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

When the balance shifts even a little to the acid side of the pH spectrum, your body doesn’t wait for you to wake up and change your diet.  It has its own coping mechanism.

What Does the Acid/Alkaline Balance Have to Do With Your Bones?

When your blood is too acidic it looks around for something alkalizing to balance itself.  Your skeleton comes to the rescue.  You see, your bones are the storage tank for calcium compounds that help reduce the acid levels of the blood.

When your pH is too acidic, your blood sucks alkalizing minerals like calcium out of your bones.

That’s why it’s so important to eat your fruits and veggies.  When you digest kale, your body produces alkaline byproducts.  But when you eat protein and grains, your body produces more acid.

We have an epidemic of osteoporosis because our diets have gotten out of whack.  The standard American diet is full of white flour, sugar, meat, dairy, and sodas.  At the same time our diets are very deficient in fresh fruits and vegetables.  That’s a recipe for turning up the acid content of our blood and turning down our alkaline levels.

Does this mean you should give up steak and oatmeal and stick to fruits and vegetables?  Absolutely not.  It’s all about balance.  We need protein to build the collagen matrix that makes our bones flexible.  Remember that adults need about 50 grams of protein a day, with women needing slightly less and men needing slightly more.

But it does mean we have to remember to include lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds with our meat, dairy and grains.

If you know you’ve been indulging in too many acidic foods, a good rule of thumb is to try to eat about 80% of your foods from the alkaline group and 20% from the high protein and acid group.  Once you’re more balanced, you can change that ratio to 65% alkaline and 35% acid.

3 Easy Ways to Boost Your Alkaline Levels

The very basic acid/alkaline balanced diet eliminates processed foods, caffeine, sugar and white flour.  At the same time it increases whole foods, particularly vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and beans.  It also reduces the amounts of meat, fish, eggs and dairy.

Here are three tips you can use to save your bones from swimming in an ocean of acid:

1.                  Add lemon or lime juice to your water. Although you might think that citrus fruit is acidic, lemons and limes are actually alkalizing in your body.  Squeezing some lemon or lime juice into your water will throughout the day will help balance your blood pH.

2.                  Eat more lentils.  Lentils are a great bone food.  They are high in protein but unlike animal meat and other legumes, they have an alkalizing effect on your body.  Try making it a point to eat them once a week.

3.                  Make a bone stock.  While an animal’s meat is acid-forming, a broth made from animal bones is very alkalizing.  That’s because slow cooking the bones draws out all of those alkalizing minerals into the broth.

Click here for my extraordinary Chicken Bone Stock recipe.***

Make it and your bones will thank you.

What's your favorite stock?   I’d love to hear from you!

***Enhanced recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

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From my delicious bones to yours,

Irma

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