18 Dietary systems that include these foods invariably contain considerable quantities of milk and milk products: pizza, eggplant parmigiana, potatoes with sour cream, and so on. My theory is that the high amounts of calcium in the milk products are held in check by the nightshades, perhaps destroyed or used up, and so balance is maintained. In my own experience and that of some of my students, consuming nightshades on a dairy-free diet has resulted in a loss of calcium, evidenced by brittle nails, painful gums, and dental caries. Eliminating the nightshades, rather than increasing the dairy, solved the problem. It is also interesting to note here the results of one study of osteoporosis sufferers: It was found that three-quarters of them smoked between one and two packs of cigarettes daily. 19 Tobacco, of course, is a nightshade. WINE, VINEGAR, AND CITRUS These foodstuffs, because of their natural acidity, require the buffering action of calcium during metabolism and will find it either in a high-dairy diet or by removing it from the teeth and bones. In other words, it’ s wise to have wine accompanied by cheese, or vinaigrette on the salad only if there’ s cream or cheese in the rest of the meal, or orange juice only if one also has milk or cream cheese for breakfast. In a diet low in or devoid of milk products, such foods as wine, vinaigrette dressing, or orange juice will decalcify the system. Tea with lemon is a particularly corrosive drink; if it’ s served in a Styrofoam cup, it will eventually eat holes in it. My own nails began to grow normally once I stopped drinking that beverage completely, and several of my students found that getting off orange juice had a similar effect. People with low calcium reserves may develop brittle nails when consuming other juices as well. COFFEE, ALCOHOL, AND SALT Caffeine, alcohol, and salt all bring about calcium losses. The effect of coffee is minor, it would take eight or more cups of coffee per day for the calcium loss to be significant. Several studies show that alcohol consumption interferes with the absorption of calcium and can be toxic to bone cells. Social drinkers run two and a half times the risk of contracting osteoporosis than nondrinkers do, and alcoholics are known to lose bone mass. As far as salt is concerned, in one study Dutch students excreted 20 percent more calcium when they consumed 6,000 milligrams of sodium than when they ingested only 3,000 milligrams daily. 20 On the whole, it seems quite likely that any acid-forming foodstuffs in appreciable quantities demineralize the system. These include, besides sugar and high-protein foods, flour, bread, legumes, and grain, either whole or refined. Any time such foods are consumed, it is important that they be balanced by alkalinizing ones, preferably vegetables and seaweed.( See this page,“ Acid and Alkaline” for more details.) Otherwise, buffering minerals, including calcium, will be removed from the body’ s storage places, such as teeth and bones. MEAT
• Contractive
• Acid-forming
• Warming
• Buildup food Thousands of words have been written both praising and decrying the use of meat. §
I can think of no other food that has excited the passions of food theorists as much as meat— a fitting metaphor, perhaps, for meat in the diet has a reputation for exciting our passions. ‖ Meat has traditionally been associated with strength and the male principle of action and expansion. Warriors and rulers were fed meat, while monks and scholars, especially in the Orient, ate simple vegetarian fare. Because of its high protein content, meat is a building food. Its fat content makes it especially warming as well. In amounts appropriate to a given organism, it energizes and helps build strength. An excess of meat, on the other hand, quickly causes problems of accumulation of matter: clogged vessels and organs, putrefaction, infection. Eventually, it makes the muscles slack and the joints stiff. Daily consumption of meat, together with dairy products, is at the core of our excessive protein intake, which has been associated with dehydration and heatstroke in athletes, fatal exacerbation of kidney and liver malfunctions, increased acidity of body fluids, infant deaths, premature aging, heart disease, and cancer. 23
A high-protein diet creates toxic by-products in the form of unused nitrogen; excreting these can seriously overtax the kidneys, unless large amounts of water are taken to flush them out. In our modern times, one of the greatest problems with meat, as with almost all other foods, is the degeneration of its intrinsic quality. There is a vast difference in effect between eating the meat of a recently caught wild deer and eating that of a steer that has been penned up for months at a time and was suffering from tuberculosis and