This finding may be one of the reasons why vegetarians have less osteoporosis than meat eaters. However, I am convinced that acidosis can also occur from too much flour or sugar. Metabolic acidosis from excess acid forming foods in general would then have a calcium wasting effect, or drain. The theory that protein foods such as red meat cause bone loss was debunked by the studies of Herta Spencer of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois, in the 1980s (cited in Health Journal, Summer 1996). Dr Spencer found that studies correlating calcium loss with high protein diets used fractionated, isolated amino acids from milk or eggs; complex dietary proteins such as red meat did not cause calcium losses.

In the last quarter century we have focused on the excess of animal proteins in the diet and found them damaging. Many studies of protein foods determined that their acid residue is bad for the bones. However, Weston Price, DDS, author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, who traveled all over the world in the early 1930s studying the health and diet of traditional societies, observed that excellent bone health is found in traditional populations with diets high in fish and meats, so long as they also contain plenty of animal fats and vegetables.

Although much attention has been paid to protein, refined carbohydrates have received relatively little notice, mostly because of the unfortunate viewpoint that "all carbohydrates are equal". In traditional societies, such as those examined by Dr Price, osteoporosis only appears in countries where the diet includes the habitual use of refined foods. The natives who remained on their traditional diet, regardless of the amount of protein consumed, were, on the other hand, found to be without these defects and in good health.

As their metabolic byproducts include carbonic acid, carbohydrate foods, particularly refined carbohydrates, are seriously acid forming. The regular consumption of white flour, white rice and refined sugar will, therefore, contribute mightily to bone weakness; these are, without a doubt in my mind, probably your worst calcium drainers. Perhaps that explains the high rates of osteoporosis in Western countries whose inhabitants, in addition to dairy and meats, also consume a high proportion of white breads, sweet snacks and pastries.

Refined white sugar also interferes with the absorption of calcium and magnesium and so contributes to osteoporosis even further.

Caffeine

A number of studies have shown that caffeine intake is related to both fractures and calcium depletion. A six year study by Stampfer and Colditz in the early eighties, completed at the Department of Medicine of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, followed 84,484 women aged 34 to 59, and found that those with a higher caffeine intake (five or more cups of coffee daily) had an almost three times higher risk of hip fractures (Am Clin Nutri, 1991; 54: 157-63).

Caffeine consumption increases the excretion of calcium as well as magnesium through the urine, which indicates bone loss. Young women seem to be able to compensate for this loss and make it up faster through increased and more efficient calcium absorption from the intestines. Older women, on the other hand, with age and hormone related calcium imbalances, do not seem to be able to compensate as efficiently, and are at higher risk for thinning bones, especially if their calcium intake is low.