>I apologize in advance for my ignorance, I'm new here, but if you >avoid
>nuts, how do you get enough calcium?

I'm no expert on this, but while interviewing Dr. Loren Cordain (whose name
you'll see here quite often) I learned what's wrong with the calcium
consumed by people in the modern, work-a-day world.  What follows is taken
from an article I wrote.  If I posted this earlier, sorry for the
redundancy.

<snip>

Here’s a point to ponder.  Early humans did not eat dairy, yet they had
strong bones.  How can you cut milk and other calcium-rich dairy products
from your diet and maintain a strong, healthy skeleton?  Good question.
“It’s a concept that’s been overlooked by virtually all of the nutritional
community and all the popular writers.”  Cordain says.

Calcium does more than build bones.  It also helps the body maintain a good
pH balance.  If there’s too much acid coursing through your veins, its up to
your kidneys to get things in order.  But they can only excrete so much acid
at a time.  Let’s say you drank a liter of Diet Coke, which has a high
potential renal acid load, on a hot summer day.  “In order to excrete the
excessive acidity, you’d have to excrete 33 liters of urine.”  Obviously,
this can’t be done!

“What does the kidney do, then, when it encounters high acid load in the
diet?  It buffers it,” Cordain says.  “It buffers it with alkaline agents in
the body.  What is the largest alkaline source in the body?  One is nitrogen
from muscle and two is, ultimately, calcium from the skeleton.  And recent
studies done within the last two to three years have clearly indicated that
the average American diet produces a slight net metabolic acidosis.  What
foods, then, are producing this slight metabolic acidosis?  Guess what!
Cereal grains are one of the highest acid loading foods, and paradoxically,
dry cheeses are the absolute highest acidic foods.  So here you are,
thinking you’re doing yourself good by eating some hard cheese to get your
calcium intake up, which is correct.  But you are increasing the calcium
going out because of the high acid load.”

<snip>

Makes sense to me!

Dori Zook
Denver, CO

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