Food for Life: How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life (6 page)

This seasonal variation has had an interesting effect on hair research. Dutch researchers recently tested a Chinese herbal extract, dabao, for its ability to promote hair growth. The research subjects began using the herbal treatment in September and, as spring approached, they reported a significant increase in hair growth. The investigators also tested a placebo, and found that it, too, helped hair grow.
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The problem was that hair always grows more as spring approaches. (Even so, dabao did show somewhat more effect than did the placebo.)

Nature’s hormone peak every fall causes a transient thinning of the hair. But people on meaty Western diets have a sustained hormone elevation of about the same magnitude
^34
,
39
as the autumn hormone peak, perhaps causing a year-round tendency toward hair loss.

What is important in baldness is not the amount of hormones in the blood,
⁴⁸
but the amount in the hair follicle itself. In balding areas of the scalp, the oil glands in the hair follicle are larger.
²⁹
These oil glands hold the enzyme machinery that converts testosterone into DHT.

In 1985, a Japanese researcher, Masumi Inaba, published a novel theory. He noted that, as diets in Japan become more like diets in the West, with rice being replaced by burgers and roast beef, the Japanese are experiencing an increasing incidence of baldness.
⁴⁹
He hypothesized that the increased intake of animal fat causes the oil glands in the hair follicles to grow in size. The result, Inaba wrote, is accelerated production of DHT and more rapid
damage to the follicle in genetically prone parts of the scalp. It is also known that higher amounts of circulating hormones, which occur in higher-fat diets, can increase the activity of these glands.

Blood tests have shown that American men have significantly more of the enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT, compared to Chinese men, and correspondingly more body hair and scalp baldness.
⁵⁰
Although these differences are almost certainly influenced by genetics, dietary factors may play a part as to how soon and how aggressively the effects occur.

Researchers have also found that men who have high cholesterol levels or heart problems are more likely to be bald, compared to healthy men.
⁵¹
It could well be that the same diet that contributes to heart problems aggravates a tendency toward baldness.

If there is an effect of diet, a reasonable guess is that it might delay hair loss but not prevent it forever in genetically prone individuals. In other words, if nature calls you to start balding at twenty-five, you will eventually lose your hair no matter what you do, but with the proper diet you might not begin balding until years later.

It will take a long research study to test whether food choices can minimize the effect of testosterone and DHT on the follicle, and spare hair growth as young men pass into their thirties and forties. Such a study has not been done yet. But the diet that should be tested is one that eliminates animal fat, keeps vegetable fats to a minimum, and boosts antioxidant vitamins and fiber. This is the same dietary prescription to keep cholesterol levels and cancer risk at their lowest.

Coincidentally, my mother noted some time ago that, of her four sons, I was the only one who showed no perceptible thinning of hair. At the time, I was the only one who had abandoned the typical Western menu on which we all had grown up in Fargo, North Dakota. In fact, thinning of my hair did eventually begin but not until about a decade later than my brothers. Does diet get the credit? Only research will tell, but I suspect so.

Part of youthfulness is straight posture and resilience in the limbs and spine. If, on the other hand, bone tissue wastes away, hips and wrists become fragile, and the spine bows into a stooped appearance. This bone loss is called
osteoporosis
, and is particularly common in women after menopause.

Some populations have less osteoporosis than others. Changes in diet and life-style may help prevent it, although the foods that are effective may not be the ones you would expect.

The dairy industry has used osteoporosis as a marketing tool, but milk does not seem to be the answer. In countries where dairy products are commonly consumed, there are actually
more
hip fractures than in other countries. When put to the test, most studies show that dairy products have little effect on osteoporosis.
⁵²
As surprising as that may be, when researchers have measured bone loss in postmenopausal women, most have found that calcium intake has little effect on the bone density of the spine. There is also little or no effect on bone at the hip, where very serious breaks can occur. Some studies have found a small effect from calcium intake on bone density in the forearm.
⁵³
The overall message seems to be that, as long as you are not grossly deficient in calcium, supplements and dairy products do not have much effect.
Science
magazine (August 1, 1986) noted “the large body of evidence indicating no relationship between calcium intake and bone density.”
⁵⁴

Why not? For one thing, the amount of calcium in the bones is very carefully regulated by hormones. Increasing your calcium intake does not fool these hormones into building more bone, any more than delivering an extra load of bricks will make a construction crew build a larger building.

If milk, or calcium intake in general, is not a good hedge against bone loss after menopause, how about before menopause? That, too, seems to follow the pattern. Researchers in Madison, Wisconsin, compared the diets of 300 premenopausal women aged twenty to thirty-nine and measured their bone density. Calcium had no measurable effect on bone density. Very low calcium intakes would probably lead to deficient bone formation, but calcium intake spanning the normal dietary range made no difference: high-calcium diets led to no stronger bones than the lower calcium diets.
⁵⁵

Milk does contain calcium. But milk neither assures strong bones in childhood nor does it protect bones in adulthood. For the vast majority of people, the answer is not boosting calcium intake but, rather, limiting calcium loss. As surprising as it sounds, one major culprit in osteoporosis may be protein. Diets that are high in protein, especially animal protein, cause more calcium to be excreted.
^55A
,
55B
When volunteers eat high-protein meals, they lose calcium in their urine. If they consume more modest amounts of protein, they lose much less calcium in their urine. What is apparently happening is this: Amino acids, which are the building blocks of
proteins, Cause the blood to become slightly more acidic. To neutralize this acidic effect, bone material is dissolved, which is believed to lead to the loss of calcium in the urine.

The problem is not just the quantity of protein consumed but also the type of protein. Meats are high in a type of protein building block called
sulfur-containing amino acids
. These are particularly likely to aggravate calcium loss. Meats also contain large quantities of phosphorus, which can impair calcium balance.
⁵⁶
Although the role of phosphorus in osteoporosis is far from clear, scientists believe that diets in which phosphorus and calcium intake are roughly equal help keep calcium in the body, while diets in which the two are unbalanced are thought to harm calcium balance. Beef has a high phosphorus-to-calcium ratio, about 15:1. Chicken breast is similar, about 14:1. For comparison, vegetables have calcium and phosphorus in much better balance. Carrots have a ratio of about 1.7:1, a peach is about 2:1. Boiled broccoli has a phosphorus-to-calcium ratio of about 0.4:1.

Green leafy vegetables provide generous amounts of calcium without the animal protein of meaty diets. In fact, green vegetables such as broccoli, collard greens, and kale are loaded with calcium. A recent report in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
found that calcium absorbability was actually higher for kale than for milk and concluded, “greens such as kale can be considered to be at least as good as milk in terms of their calcium absorbability.”
⁵⁷
One cup (8 fluid ounces) of milk contains 291 mg of calcium. That is a substantial amount. But only about 30 percent of it is absorbed, and that glass of milk also contains 8 grams of animal protein to encourage the loss of calcium. Green vegetables, beans, and enriched flour are rich in calcium, and fortified orange juice supplies substantial amounts of calcium.
⁵⁸
Table 2
shows the calcium content of many common foods.

Fruits and vegetables also provide boron, an element which appears to be important in preventing the loss of calcium, according to Dr. Forrest H. Nielsen, a research nutritionist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The best way to get boron, according to Dr. Nielsen, is through a balanced diet containing an abundance of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes. Wines also contain appreciable amounts of the element. Animal products, including milk, have little or no boron. No one yet knows how much boron the body actually needs, but
Table 3
shows what foods are rich sources of boron.

Hormones play a major role in bone structure. After menopause, bone
loss is often aggressive, and as a result, doctors often prescribe hormone replacements. Such treatments are effective in delaying osteoporosis, although their overall health risk remains controversial. Exercise is also important.
^55
,
59
If bones are not being used, they have little reason to preserve their strength. In addition, alcohol and tobacco aggravate bone loss.
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,
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Although the calcium craze has been founded largely on myth, this does not mean that the body does not need calcium. If you really are consuming very little calcium—say, below 500 mg per day—you may run into trouble.
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,
⁵⁵
However, it is very easy to meet your calcium needs. The sample menu below shows how easy it is to get a day’s supply of calcium.

If you choose to supplement, calcium-fortified orange juice has an advantage over milk in that it contains no animal protein and is a form of calcium that is more easily absorbed than that in calcium carbonate supplements.
⁵⁸
When replacement hormones are used, calcium supplements have been shown to be a helpful adjunct in slowing bone loss.

Table 2     
Calcium in Foods