​Let’s talk about dairy and calcium. We have been brainwashed to believe that we must consume dairy to be healthy and that dairy is the only dietary source of calcium. We’ve also been told that if we don’t consume milk or other dairy foods, we can’t possibly get enough calcium. But is that really true or is it just a myth that we need dairy in order to be healthy and get enough calcium? Let’s find out.
 
We’ll start with an interesting story that Dr. Neal Barnard shares in his book “21-Day Weight Loss Quickstart” about a man who was raised in Asia and came to the U.S. to go to college. He began having gas, bloating, cramps, and diarrhea. His doctor thought he had a parasite, but found nothing after a series of tests. Meanwhile, the symptoms continued. After seeing various specialists, there was still no explanation for the man’s problems and his symptoms continued. He was miserable!
 
After struggling for two years with his intestinal problems, a new doctor asked the man a few simple questions about his diet. Did he drink milk back home? No. Milk was not part of his culture other than breast-feeding. Has he been drinking milk since coming to the U.S.? Yes.
 
The doctor suggested he stop drinking milk, and within two days, his symptoms completely disappeared!
 
It’s not natural for us to drink milk other than our own mother’s breast milk during infancy. We are the only species that drinks milk after being weaned and we are the only species in nature that drinks milk from another animal.
 
Lactase is an enzyme that our bodies produce to digest the milk sugar lactose. Our bodies normally stop producing lactase after we’re weaned because in nature, we no longer require lactase past weaning. Once our bodies stop producing lactase, dairy consumption is likely to cause gas and pain. In other words, we develop lactose intolerance.
 
By continuously drinking milk and/or consuming other dairy foods after being weaned, we trick our bodies into continuing to produce lactase well past the time that it normally would have stopped. Some people produce lactase well into adulthood and tend not to have intestinal discomfort from drinking milk or consuming dairy.
 
However, most people develop lactose intolerance sooner or later. That’s because we were not designed by nature to drink milk or consume other dairy foods past infancy.
 
Milk is the perfect food…for a calf. Milk is loaded with growth hormones (IGF1) that are designed to rapidly grow a calf to ~1,000 lbs. So what do you think milk does for our bodies? It “beefs us up”. In other words, it makes us fat. Plus, it loads our bodies with growth hormones, something tumors love because growth hormones help tumors grow quickly!
 
Here’s something else to consider: we’ve all been told over and over to drink milk to get our calcium so that we can develop and keep our bones strong and healthy. Here in the U.S. we are among the top in the world in terms of dairy consumption, and according to that logic, we should also be among the top in the world in terms of strong, healthy bones.

​Yet we’re not. Instead, we are among the top in the world with hip fractures, a sign of osteoporosis. We are not alone, because so are all the other countries that sit alongside us with high dairy consumption.
 
That’s in part because our bodies don’t absorb as much calcium from milk and other dairy foods as we do from plant-based foods. Animals, including cows, do not produce calcium. Cows get their calcium from eating grass. And if cows are not eating grass, as most are not these days, then they get their calcium from supplements, typically made from limestone (a rock) and shells (same as the supplements sold in stores). Calcium from these sources is less absorbable and less bioavailable compared to calcium from plants such as grasses, greens, and beans. Plants get calcium by absorbing it from the soil they’re grown in, making the calcium in plants more readily absorbable by our bodies.

And in part because milk and other dairy (and other animal-based foods as well) cause our bodies to lose calcium. Animal-based foods lower the pH of our blood, making it more acidic. Our bodies have a natural pH buffering system for our blood, and that’s the calcium and phosphate that’s in our bones! Our bodies leach material from our bones, including calcium, to keep our blood pH in the proper range of 7.35 – 7.45. Once our blood pH is corrected, the calcium that was leached from our bones does not go back into our bones. Instead, it gets eliminated in our urine (we pee it out).

It’s the dairy industry that’s been telling us for generations that we have to get our calcium from milk. They just happen to ignore two little details that they don’t want us to know about, including that milk is not the only source of calcium, and that drinking cow’s milk is indeed not natural for humans.
 
So if dairy is not the best source of calcium, then what is the best source? It turns out that plant-based foods are loaded with calcium, especially leafy greens and beans. There are several great plant-based sources of calcium, including tofu; edamame (fresh soy beans); leafy green vegetables such as kale, spinach, collard greens, chard, mustard greens, and turnip greens; beans such as black-eyed peas, chickpeas, black beans, and pinto beans; and nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, and cashews.
 
Many whole, plant-based foods provide us with more calcium per 100 calories than milk and are the healthiest sources of calcium. For example, 100 calories of whole milk (2/3 cup) has 188 mg of calcium. Compare that to the calcium levels in 100 calories of some leafy greens: a cup and a half of spinach, which would make a very nice spinach salad, has 216 mg, and likewise, a cup and a half of kale has 271 mg.  Even a whole orange has approximately 60 mg of calcium!
 
Beans are also great plant-based sources of calcium. One cup of boiled beans such as regular white beans has 161 mg of calcium, small white beans has 131 mg of calcium, navy beans has 126 mg of calcium, great northern beans has 120 mg of calcium, yellow beans has 110 mg of calcium, regular black beans has 239 mg of calcium, and small black beans has 102 mg of calcium.
 
In particular, soybeans and soy products are especially good sources of calcium, including boiled soybeans (175 mg calcium/cup), roasted soybeans (237 mg calcium/cup), tempeh (184 mg calcium/cup), calcium-enriched soymilk (299 mg calcium/cup), tofu yogurt (309 mg calcium/cup), and frozen, prepared edamame (98 mg calcium/cup). Raw regular and firm tofu prepared with calcium sulfate top the list with 434 and 861 mg of calcium per half cup respectively!
 
There are many great ways to enjoy beans and greens together. Try a black bean burger with tomato slices and a few kale leaves, or a tofu scramble with wilted spinach. How about an arugula salad with chickpeas and quinoa or a bean burrito with brown rice and Swiss chard. One of my favorites is a warm whole grain tortilla topped with about a quarter cup of hummus, a large handful of arugula, kale, or spinach, and a sprinkle of rice vinegar, then folded in half like a taco.

Back to the question: is it just a myth that we need dairy in order to be healthy and get enough calcium? It turns out that it is a myth. Not only can we get all the calcium we need from whole plant-based foods, those same plant-based foods promote good health and protect us from chronic degenerative diseases.

Did you know that manganese is a metallic chemical element that is an essential trace nutrient? Dietary manganese, commonly referred to as a trace mineral, plays a large role in optimizing our health, and here’s why:

• Our bodies need manganese for healthy bones and normal bone growth. Manganese contributes to bone density, which may help prevent bone fractures and slow the progression of osteoporosis.
• Manganese helps our bodies absorb nutrients, including important vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B1 vitamin E, calcium and magnesium,
• Manganese helps us metabolize fat, cholesterol, amino acids, and carbohydrates.
• Manganese is a component of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD), which neutralizes the toxic effects of free radicals and prevents or minimizes damage to cell membranes, proteins, and DNA throughout our body to slow aging and protect against diseases such as heart disease and cancer.     
• We need manganese for healthy brain and nerve function, and to protect against epileptic seizures. Manganese also improves electrical impulse transmission throughout our body by binding to neurotransmitters, which may speed up our cognitive function.
• Manganese is involved with production and secretion of insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels and has implications for diabetes.
• Manganese helps our liver and thyroid gland function properly.
• Manganese has anti-inflammatory properties that are beneficial to arthritis and especially as a remedy for ankle sprains.
• Manganese helps the body form connective tissue, bones, blood clotting factors, and sex hormones.
• Low levels of manganese can contribute to infertility, bone malformation, weakness, and epileptic seizures.

Getting enough manganese from our diet is not difficult at all, yet it is estimated that over one third of Americans get less than the recommended dietary intake (RDI) of 2.3 milligrams (mg) for men and 1.8 mg for women.

Food is the best source of manganese, especially because too much manganese can be toxic and manganese toxicity, which can occur with supplements, is rare from foods.
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The best plant-based sources of manganese include:

Whole grains. While all whole grains are loaded with manganese, uncooked grains have even more manganese than cooked grains. A cup of dry, uncooked rice bran or wheat germ has a whopping 16.8 and 15.3 mg of manganese respectively. That means that if you sprinkle a couple of tablespoons over your cereal in the morning you will have easily met your day’s need for manganese. And that’s not to mention all the manganese in your presumably whole-grain cereal.

A cup of most cooked whole grains will get you close to or over your daily manganese requirement, including brown rice, quinoa, bulgur, amaranth, and spelt.

Some grains that you might enjoy without cooking include rolled oats, germ, and bran. Try soaking kasha (buckwheat), oats, or millet overnight and enjoy them cold the next morning.

The Standard American Diet tends to be much higher in refined grains than whole grains, and a significant amount of manganese gets removed from refined grains. So be sure to eat whole grains!
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​Nuts. Hazelnuts and pine nuts are at the top of this list: just one ounce gives you well over your daily requirement for manganese with 3.6 and 2.5 mg respectively. And one ounce of macadamia nuts, walnuts, and pecans gives you at least half your daily requirement. Other excellent sources of manganese include almonds, cashews, peanuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, and coconut meat.

Seeds. Hemp seeds top this list with 12 mg manganese per cup. Three tablespoons in a smoothie gives you an entire day’s worth of manganese with 2.3 mg. Other excellent sources include pumpkin and squash seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
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​Soy. In addition to other healthful benefits, soy is also a great source of manganese. A single cup of roasted soybeans, firm tofu, or tempeh gives you an entire day’s worth of manganese with 3.7, 3.0, and 2.2 mg respectively. Other great sources include edamame, sprouted soybeans, and soymilk.
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​Veggies. Manganese another good reason to eat your veggies. A one-cup serving of green beans and lima beans deliver an entire day’s serving of manganese with 2.2 and 2.1 mg respectively, and one cup of several veggies deliver a quarter or more of your daily manganese needs, including sweet potatoes, yams, potatoes, peas, squash, and beets.
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​Beans and legumes. All beans and legumes are great sources of manganese, and a cup of several beans deliver over half your daily manganese requirement, including chickpeas (1.7 mg), small red beans (1.3 mg), white beans (1.1 mg), and baby lima beans (1.1 mg). Other excellent sources of manganese include lentils, lima beans, navy beans, great northern beans, small white beans, black-eyed peas, yellow beans, split peas, pinto beans, black beans, and kidney beans.
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Fruit. Pineapple, blackberries, and raspberries top out this category with 1.5, 0.9, and 0.8 mg of manganese per cup respectively. Many other fruits such as grapes, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, persimmons, and apples, and including avocados, tomatoes, and peppers, deliver at least 10% of your daily manganese requirement, making them good sources according to FDA guidelines.
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​Greens and cruciferous veggies. Spinach tops this list with 1.7 mg manganese per cup of cooked spinach. Cooked garden cress (0.5 mg), kale (0.5 mg), Swiss chard (0.6 mg), beet greens (0.7 mg), and collards (1.0 mg) weigh in at over a quarter of your daily manganese requirement per cup. Other good sources include cooked and raw turnip greens, Moringa leaves, Brussels sprouts, garden cress, spinach, turnip greens, bok choy, dandelion greens, collards, Moringa leaves, cabbage, and broccoli.
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Chocolate. One ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder gives you half your daily requirement for manganese at 1.2 and 1.1 mg respectively. Now you have another reason to eat chocolate!
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And yes, mangoes do have manganese. In fact, there happens to be 0.1 mg of manganese in a cup of mangoes. 

​Cantaloupes are at the very top of my “favorite fruits” list. At their best, they are intensely sweet and refreshing, not too hard, not too soft or mushy. I love eating them chilled, and can eat almost an entire cantaloupe in a single sitting.
 
My Grandmother always kept fresh cantaloupe cut up in her fridge, and each piece I ate was as sweet and flavorful as the last and the next. Perfection in each and every bite, time after time, year after year!
 
I tried to achieve that perfection myself by buying cantaloupes that were cut in half so that I could see the flesh, because otherwise I didn’t know how to tell if it’s ripe from the outside. I thought that the bright fleshy-orange color was the key to a good cantaloupe. But the flavor and sweetness was never consistent, and finding a good cantaloupe was always hit-or-miss. I was always disappointed when I found what looked like a perfect cantaloupe, only to bite into watery, flavorless flesh that was tasteless and not sweet at all.
 
I finally asked my Grandmother how she found the absolute very best cantaloupes each and every time. And here’s what she told me. 

​1. Look at the stem end of the cantaloupe. That tells you how ripe the cantaloupe was when it was picked. Like belly buttons, cantaloupes have “innies” and “outies”. An “innie” shows that the cantaloupe ripened mostly on the vine and was picked at the right time. An “outie” shows that the cantaloupe was picked too early, and did not ripen on the vine. “Outies” are generally the cantaloupes that disappoint because once off the vine, they don’t ripen as well as “innies”. So only look at cantaloupes that have “innies”.

​2. Look at the color. All cantaloupes have what looks almost like a beige “netting” over the entire fruit. Look at the color under the beige. You want that color to be a pale yellowish-orange. That means it’s ripe. If it’s dark green, it’s not ripe. While a cantaloupe that has dark green color and an “innie” is not ready to eat now, it will likely ripen to a perfect cantaloupe in a few days.

​3. Smell the stem end for sweetness. A ripe cantaloupe will have a sweet, cantaloupe-smell that’s not too strong when it’s ready to eat. A strong cantaloupe-smell means that the cantaloupe is over-ripe and will likely be mushy. A cantaloupe with an “innie” and no smell is not ready to eat now, and will ripen in a few days.

4. ​Firmness. While all cantaloupes are generally firm, a ripe cantaloupe will have a little “give”, while an unripe cantaloupe will be hard.

​As long as you pick a cantaloupe with an “innie”, you should be fine. If it’s green, hard, and/or has not smell, that only means that it’s not ready to eat yet. And if you wait a few days or so until it softens slightly, has a yellowish-orange color, and a sweet smell at the stem end, you will enjoy cantaloupe perfection. 

​Is there anyone out there who hasn’t at least thought about being wealthy? Wealth to me is always having more money than I could or would spend. So by my definition, having as little as $1.00, or even $0.01 over that amount makes me wealthy. To someone else wealth could be having some number in the bank or in assets, such as $1 million, $10 million, or more.
 
It’s fun to think about what I would do if I were wealthy. I like to picture the things I would do and places I would go if I were wealthy. I would travel to far-away places with mountains, beaches, and rivers. I always picture myself being active and doing things. Walking. Biking. Skiing. Riding horse-back. Always in some kind of beautiful and exotic scenery.
 
I’m not that materialistic, so I don’t really think about having lots of things. Although one exception is to have a large, beautiful, and functional kitchen. I spend a lot of time in my kitchen cooking for my family and leading cooking classes because I love doing those things. So there would definitely have to be a nice kitchen.
 
I’ve asked others what they would do if they were wealthy, and they have all told me of things they would like to do and places they would like to go. Do and go. I think that the unspoken given for everyone is to be in excellent health and completely pain-free. Nobody has ever said to me that they envision having a chronic degenerative condition and/or have difficulty moving around, or worse, be unable to move around.
 
Which gets me to my next point: what good is having wealth if you don’t have your health to enjoy it? You need to be healthy to do the things you want to do and go to the places you want to go. In other words, you need to be healthy and feel good to be active.
 
I know several people who are not just envisioning wealth, they are wealthy. Some of those I know are obese and/or have some chronic degenerative condition along with having difficulty getting around. Mind you, none of the wealthy people I know were born into wealth. And I’m sure that when they imagined being wealthy, they didn’t imagine being in the conditions they are today.
 
Sure, if you’re going to be in poor health, being wealthy is probably better since it allows you the best possible treatment and care. But what does that mean? More pills? More procedures? Better walkers? Better beds? Bigger TV screens? Perhaps convalescing in a resort or spa while they’re turning you to prevent bed sores and helping you to the bathroom? So you’re sedated and oblivious. But I doubt that’s what you envisioned.
 
Many people just assume that they will end up with a chronic degenerative disease, and that it’s just a matter of time. And that is very likely to happen on a western diet that’s loaded with fat, sugar, salt, and highly processed foods.
 
The great news is that it doesn’t have to turn out that way. We have much more control over our health destiny than most of us realize. It comes down to the food choices we make with every bite.
 
A whole food plant-based diet has proven over and over again to prevent, stop, and even reverse chronic degenerative diseases by eliminating significant risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and obesity. A whole food plant-based diet prevents and reverses diabetes, heart disease, and erectile dysfunction (this is documented all over the scientific and medical literature). Additionally, a whole food plant-based diet prevents strokes and most cancers, and significantly lowers the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments as well as autoimmune diseases, neuropathies, and visual impairment.
 
And I’m talking about just with whole, unprocessed foods from any common grocery store. No special medications. No special supplements. Just plain, old groceries. Apples. Bananas. Berries. Melons. Tomatoes. Avocados. Lettuce. Spinach. Kale. Carrots. Cucumbers. Peppers. Potatoes. Squash. Brown rice. Quinoa. Whole grain pasta. Beans (not the kind with pork). Almonds. Walnuts. Sunflower seeds. Pumpkin seeds. Flax seeds. You get the idea.
 
By adopting a whole food plant-based lifestyle, you can have excellent health, along with more energy than you can imagine, which allows you to continue to do all the things you love to do. Now, isn’t that wealth?