Healthy teeth and healthy bones go together naturally. Have you noticed Skelly’s pearly whites? Dazzling!

Teeth aren’t bones but they have lots in common. Both are hard, white and full of calcium.

If you have osteoporosis, you may have a higher risk of losing your teeth. When your jawbone becomes less dense, teeth can loosen. In fact, women with osteoporosis tend to have fewer teeth than women with normal bone density.

Fortunately, some of the same foods that make your bones strong also make your teeth strong. Here are a few bone-healthy foods that also protect your teeth.

1. Grass-fed Cheese. Vitamin K2 from grass-fed dairy helps increase production of osteocalcin in the cells that build bones (osteoblasts). It also inhibits production of cells that break down bone (osteoclasts).

Cheese is also rich in calcium and vitamin D, both essential for bones and teeth. But cheese also has the milk protein casein that helps build up tooth enamel.

2. Sardines. I always say eat bones for your bones. That’s why I love sardines. Three ounces of canned sardines give you almost as much calcium as a cup of milk.

These tiny fish also have a big supply of vitamin D. That’s also key for your teeth. Vitamin D boosts your immune system to keep mucosal tissues in your mouth healthy. It may also support remineralization of your tooth enamel.

3. Bone Broth. As chicken bones simmer in the pot for hours they release collagen, the material that helps keep your bones flexible. They also release minerals that go into building up your teeth. These include phosphorus, an important mineral that protects your tooth enamel. Other good sources of phosphorus include grass-fed beef and fatty fish like wild-caught salmon. Click here for my Bone Broth recipe.

4. Berries. Their beautiful reds, blues, blacks, and purples tell you that berries are full of natural antioxidants. Studies show that blueberries protect bone mineral density from free radical damage.[i] Berries like cranberries also help prevent pathogens from attaching to teeth and damaging them. Please read my BLOG how to prevent berries from getting moldy.

5. Kiwi fruit. Vitamin C helps new osteoblasts form to build new bone. It also impedes the destruction of bone by osteoclasts.

But vitamin C also helps build the collagen network in your gums. It helps prevent gum infections and prevent periodontal disease. Kiwi a great source of vitamin C. So are berries, citrus fruits, bell peppers, dark leafy greens, broccoli, and papayas.

6. Chocolate. Without enough magnesium, bone nutrients like calcium and vitamin D can’t do their jobs. Cacao provides your body with the magnesium needed to convert vitamin D into its active form. If it’s not activated it can’t turn on your body’s calcium absorption.[ii] Cacao is also good for your teeth. It helps reduce gum inflammation and prevents tooth erosion and decay. Nibbling a piece of dark chocolate may protect your teeth. Just make sure it’s doesn’t have a lot of sugar in it. Aim for 70% raw cacao in your chocolate.

7. Green tea. Research shows green tea helps improve bone health in post-menopausal women.[iii] It also has anti-inflammatory powers that support your teeth and gums. It makes your mouth more alkaline, freshens your breath, and slows the growth of cavity-causing bacteria.

8. Sesame Seeds. These tiny seeds are rich in calcium. That’s why I love tahini, the paste made from grinding sesame seeds. I use tahini on wraps, in veggie dips, and in salad dressings. But sesame seeds also keep teeth healthy. They help dissolve the plaque that builds up on tooth enamel.

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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 bones to yours,

Irma

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[i] Lydia Kaume et al. “Antioxidant-rich berries exert modest bone protective effects in postmenopausal smokers.” FASEB J. April 2012 26 (Meeting Abstract Supplement) 1033.14

[ii] 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.

[iii] Shen Cl et al, “Effect of green tea and Tai Chi on bone health in postmenopausal osteopenic women: a 6-month randomized placebo-controlled trial.” Osteoporos Int. 2012 May;23(5):1541-52.

The post Loose Teeth - Weak BONES? appeared first on Food For Healthy Bones.

There’s snow on the ground today and my Skelly is chilled to her marrow. It’s the perfect day for bone broth.

Your grandmother knew a rich stock made from the bones of a chicken could cure a winter cold or flu. It soothes sore throats and builds up strength. An old proverb even claims “good broth will resurrect the dead.”

But did you know that bone broth will also build your bones?

As chicken bones simmer in the pot for hours they release the minerals that went into building them up. Stock from bones contains calcium in a form your body can easily assimilate. It also gives you other bone minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, and sulphur. And you get silicon and other trace minerals.

Cooking bones also breaks down cartilage and tendons into the building blocks your body uses to construct your own cartilage and tendons. It releases glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate– the same compounds people spend hundreds of dollars on for arthritis and joint pain.

And bone broth is rich in collagen, the material that helps keep your bones flexible. As the collagen cooks it forms gelatin. That’s what makes your soup stock congeal when it cools down.

To get the most gelatin into your broth it’s important to use joints and feet. These have the highest levels of collagen and cartilage. I always add two to four chicken feet to the pot to get a good gel.

The French have used gelatin as a health food for hundreds of years. And for good reason. In your gut, gelatin attracts and holds on to liquids. That helps attract digestive juices to the food in your stomach to break it down.[i] So you get more nutrients from the food you eat. And the gelatin also helps soothe, heal, and seal your gut lining.

I recommend drinking a cup of bone broth every day.

Don’t Shortcut Your Bones

Now I won’t try to kid you. Bone stock takes a little more effort than opening a can of College Inn chicken broth. But there’s really no comparison.

Today instead of gelatin, soup producers use chemicals and emulsifiers to thicken broth. They also add “meat-like flavors” from the laboratory. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the most common flavoring you’ll find in soups, bouillon cubes, and dehydrated soup and sauce mixes.

And although you may be tempted to use those boxes of chicken broth in the supermarket, it’s just not as good. I recently compared five of the brands on the shelf. And four out of the five contained some form of MSG and sugar. Even the organic brands. When was the last time you added sugar to your homemade chicken soup?

The best way to feed your bones is to make your own bone broth. Here’s how I make soup for my Skelly.

Click HERE:

THE POWER OF BONE BROTH:

People spend a lot of money on expensive joint supplements for arthritis.  These include substances like glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and methylsulfonylmethane (or MSM, another sulfur-containing compound). People also spend a lot of money on hyaluronic acid join injections.  I prefer a more natural approach: Get all these joint-strengthening, bone-building substances and more by making your own bone broth and drinking it every day.  Bones with cartilage and tendons attached have more glucosamine to help benefit bones and joins even more.  Those with a lot of marrow have more DHA fat, which, is really good for you, too!" 

 

Terry Wahls, MD from The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine pg 346

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 bones to yours,

Irma Jennings, INHC

Your Holistic Bone Coach

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[i] https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/broth-is-beautiful/

The post Feed Your Bones With Homemade Bone Broth appeared first on Food For Healthy Bones.

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

The post Is Your Blood Sucking the Life Out of Your Bones? appeared first on Food For Healthy Bones.