On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 37

healthybones.Othercountries,including
ChinaandJapan,suffermuchlowerfracture
ratesthantheUnitedStatesandmilk-loving
Scandinavia,despitethefactthattheirpeople
drinklittleornomilk.Soitseemsprudentto
investigatethemanyotherfactorsthat
influencebonestrength,especiallythosethat
slowthedeconstructionprocess(seebox,p.
15).Thebestanswerislikelytobenota
singlelargewhitebullet,butthefamiliar
balanceddietandregularexercise.
TheManyInfluencesonBoneHealth
Good bone health results from a proper
balancebetweenthetwoongoingprocesses
ofbonedeconstructionandreconstruction.
These processes depend not only on
calcium levels in the body, but also on
physical activity that stimulates bonebuilding; hormones and other controlling
signals; trace nutrients (including vitamin
C, magnesium, potassium, and zinc); and


otherasyetunidentifiedsubstances.There
appear to be factors in tea and in onions
and parsley that slow bone deconstruction
significantly.VitaminDisessentialforthe
efficient absorption of calcium from our
foods, and also influences bone building.
It’s added to milk, and other sources
include eggs, fish and shellfish, and our
own skin, where ultraviolet light from the

sunactivatesaprecursormolecule.
The amount of calcium we have
available for bone building is importantly
affected by how much we excrete in our
urine.Themorewelose,themorewehave
totakeinfromourfoods.Variousaspects
of modern eating increase calcium
excretion and so boost our calcium
requirement. A high intake of salt is one,
and another is a high intake of animal
protein, the metabolism of whose sulfurcontainingaminoacidsacidifiesoururine,
and pulls neutralizing calcium salts from