Osteoporosis is a degenerative disease occurring in modern industrialized countries whose populations eat a diet rich in meat and dairy products and who live a sedentary lifestyle.

In our own country we have an osteoporosis epidemic. Each day TV ads advise us to eat calcium supplements and antacid tablets. We are treated to an incessant parade of milk mustaches on every celebrity imaginable to convince us to drink our milk to make sure we're getting enough calcium. (Ironically, those "milk" mustaches we see in the ads aren't actually cow's milk, but milk of magnesia!) By the way, where do you think the cows get their calcium from? From the green leafy foods they eat!

What the ads don't tell us is that scientists now know the probable explanation of why the U.S. has the world's highest rate of osteoporosis despite the fact that we drink more milk than any other nation in the world.

Scientists have long known that a lack of exercise is a major factor leading to weak, demineralized bones. Regular physical exercise is known to strengthen bones and protect them from fracture.

Scientists have also observed in clinical studies that calcium reserves are lost in people's urine when they eat a diet high in animal proteins. Indications are that the question is not how much calcium we get from foods. Instead, what matters is that calcium gets absorbed into the system in the digestive process. It appears that a diet high in animal proteins results in a net loss of calcium.

Animal proteins are found in meats, milk products and eggs. Animal-based proteins are now being called "low-grade" proteins because their digestion requires an expenditure of calcium ions. Since calcium reserves are stored in our bones, a diet rich in animal protein means daily calcium loss from bones.