April's CR Diary

Hooray for a successful meeting where you didn't have to defend yourself *too* much. Did you get your venti Starbucks afterward to celebrate?

Yes! Actually it was a grande because I just refilled the beautiful travel mug MR got me (along with a Hello Kitty backpack!) and that's a grande size. Here's the weird thing: they just gave me the coffee for free! I always get a discount with the mug, but this time they said, "Is that all? No charge today."

It's a good sign!

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Calcium is the thing I am having problems with, personally.

(I'm vegan, which makes life tough. I am thinking that supplementing is going to have to be the way to go.)

Glad the doctor went OK!

Juliet, I often get all my calcium from vegan sources. Today, it's mainly from spinach, broccoli and yu choi - other leafy greens are also good sources. Sesame seeds are another good source.

I do eat yogurt more days than not however, and I supplement as well. If I were vegan, I'd definitely supplement - I just wanted to point out that you don't NEED to.

There's a free 12oz coffee giveaway going on at Starbucks from 10am 'til noon on the 15th. Maybe someone got the day confused?

Or maybe they just like you. :-)

"It seems a little BS-ish?"

Coming from a medical professional addicted to BK Quad Stackers that's a little bit of the pot calling the kettle fat...

Thanks Emily - I do try to eat plenty of greens but it seems to take an unrealistically large amount of 'em to get to 100% calcium! (e.g. a kilo of raw spinach, or 2kg broccoli which is a bit much really...) I didn't realise sesame seeds were good as well, though, that's useful to know.

I need to find a decent supplement; having trouble locating (in the UK) a vegan supplement as they tend to have gelatin in :-/ .

Hi Juliet,

Thou hast no right but to do thy Will.

You note the hard time that vegans have in getting enough calcium in their diets, and note, "I do try to eat plenty of greens but it seems to take an unrealistically large amount of 'em to get to 100% calcium! (e.g. a kilo of raw spinach ...". You should know that the bioavailability of calcium in spinach is next to zero, beacuse it's all bound up with oxalates, forming inabsorbable complexes.

OTOH, the bioavailability of Ca from kale is excellent; but as you note, it still takes quite a lot of kale to get a reasonable amount (in this case, 600 g (about a pound and a half) to get 810 mg (likely enough for an ad lib eater, though CR people should aim higher).

As to a vegan calcium supplement: you should be able to find straight calcium *tablets* fairly easily. If you're interested in a more complete bone formula, AOR does offer OrthoBone Vegan:

http://aor.ca/int/products/ortho_bone_vegan.php

Please note my ego inflation and 'soft' conflict of interest on the matter: I formulated this product, did so as part of my job at the time, am still friends with the company's founder, want them to succeed, and still occasionally offer my input on things -- and it's conceivable that I might some day do consulting or other work for them as an income source again.

Love is the law, love under will.

-MR

I eat dark chocolate, but was looking to cut calories and saw a bar at Trader Joes that contained maltitol. I researched it at pubmed and one interesting article was:
"The Maltitol-induced Increase in Intestinal Calcium Transport Increases the
Calcium Content and Breaking Force of Femoral Bone in Weanling Rats1,2
Toshinao Goda*,3 Kazuhiro Kishi*, Ikuko Ezawa† and Sachiko Takase,*"

And keep the maltitol under 30 grams unless you (and your partner) like flatulence.

Thanks for the suggestion, MR! And also the note about spinach & kale. I've just acquired a pot of calcium tablets for the moment, but I'll have a look for the OrthoBone stuff when that runs out (if I can find it in the UK - there are AOR distributors in London but it's not clear whether they necessarily carry the whole range. I'll check it out when I've got through the current lot, anyway; thank you!