Posted on another digest:

> "Protein Now  Link to Prevent Osteoporosis" By
> Steve Dow
> "Protein is almost as important as calcium in
> warding off osteoporosis, a
> growing body of research is showing. University of
> Sydney and Harvard
> University researchers have discovered a molecular
> link between protein
> and
> calcium uptake, suggesting that insufficient
> protein causes a receptor in
> the body to fail to switch off hormones that strip
> calcium from the
> bones....
>
> The finding built on earlier research by Yale
> University scientists who
> have
> shown that low protein disturbed the body's
> absorption of calcium from the
> gut and elevated a key calcium-regulating hormone
> in the blood.
> Dr Conigrave said his team's new research showed
> that the calcium-sensing
> receptor sampled both the calcium and..(amino
> acid) levels and then made
> decisions: whether to switch off bone-stripping
> hormones and calcium
> excretion into the urine, and perhaps switch on
> calcium uptake from the
> gut
> and bone formation through osteoblasts, the
> bone-forming cells..."
> The article goes on to say that average protein
> intake for Australian
> women
> is about 1 gram per kilo of bodyweight per day,
> and 1.7 grams for men. I'm
> actually pleasantly surprised it's so high! The
> research purports to show
> that problems start to occur at not much below
> these levels - at 0.7g per
> kilo. Dr Conigrave says there is "a question mark"
> over intakes higher
> than
> 2 g per kilo "because of the high acid load." This
> is just towing the
> current conventional medical line, but he doesn't
> sound too convinced
> about
> it.
>
> Conigrave says at the end of the article, "For the
> present, I do not think
> that we should be urging people to switch to a
> high-protein diet but
> rather
> to consider raising their protein intake to the
> average level if it is
> currently low."



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