Bodycomp News & Views Issue#2 April 2010

In this issue:

  1. Bone density - keeping your bones strong with diet and exercise
  2. Local Hike! Elfin Lakes

Local Hike! Elfin Lakes

Location: Garibaldi Provincial Park

Distance: 11km each way

Difficulty: moderate

Cost: $15 per person includes parking and use of heated cabin with stove!

Link: Parks BC web site

Season: year round

This is an ideal location to introduce friends to the joy of winter camping. The 11 km trail takes about 3-4 hours on snowshoes and only requires minimal winter camping gear. There is a cabin approximately half way where you can warm up over a wood stove and stop for lunch and an outhouse. The Elfin Lakes shelter sleeps about 30 people on bunks, although it is often busy on weekends. Arrive early to ensure a bunk, but there is always floor space.The shelter has propane stoves for cooking and a furnace to heat the cabin and dry off soggy clothing. The location is great for a few ski runs, or for just sliding down the nearby hills. This is a spot that everyone should take the time to visit at least once. Make sure you bring some extra food or drink to share and take a few minutes to read the tales of the bizarre in the communal note book. Cabin fever has been been so much fun.

 

Bone density - keeping your bones strong with diet and exercise

Low bone density had hit the mainstream media as some sort of insidious disease that suddenly leaps up and attacks. Suddenly after getting a bone density scan that shows lower than expected results, women are branded as being Osteoporotic, and are told that they require long-term medications to prevent debilitating or potentially life threatening fractures for the rest of their lives. How did they go wrong? They consumed litres of milk and other dairy products and religiously took calcium supplements every day.

It seems that the Western world has been hoodwinked by a lucrative and pervasive lie told by the dairy marketing associations to health conscious families in newspapers, magazines and television health reports. The mantra of dairy as being an absolute requirement for strong bones that are less likely to break is dead wrong. It's true that a serving of milk contains 350 mg of elemental calcium, however, calcium consumed certainly doesn't seem to equal calcium retained. Prior to the agricultural revolution, when dairy consumption was minimal or completely absent, hip and spine fracture due to low bone mass was virtually unheard of. What is certain is that billions of dollars of milk, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products have been sold because of a promised effect that will not be delivered.

So what is the real story regarding bone growth and then the eventual depletion that happens as our skeletons form, grow and then slowly become more brittle as we enter our later years? Our bones are alive; they are a dynamic framework that gains mass and strength as we become children and transition into young adults. They respond to physical stress on a daily basis with a corresponding increase in bone repair and formation.

Typically, human bones reach their peak density around the age of 30 and then slowly will begin to decrease in strength. Recent research has shown that the most significant factors that contribute to good bone mass are weight bearing activity, vitamin D intake and eating an alkaline forming diet rich in dark leafy green vegetables. Your bone density is the cumulative result of diet, activity and vitamin D exposure over the course of many years.

Although some physical activities such as heavy weight lifting and skipping are better for the bones than activities like swimming or cycling, just getting up and moving every day is a great place to start. Canadians typically do not get enough Vitamin D from sunlight exposure, so most medical practitioners recommend 2000 IU per day - this has been shown to aid in bone formation, improve immune response, help prevent MS, many cancers and also aids in fast twitch muscle formation, all for roughly 2 cents per day.

Also important is to avoid smoking and excessive alcohol intake as these vices have been shown to be particularly active in reducing bone mass.

It is unclear how much vegetable intake is required to aid in keeping bones strong. I suggest aiming to eat 8 servings of vegetables per day and try to include kale, spinach and broccoli in your daily intake. And remember, we all have days where we don't eat as well as we should or we overindulge on a tasty alcoholic beverage. Just remember that your bones can forgive the occasional lapse, as long as you treat them properly most of the time. A mistake yesterday is old news - just let that motivate you to eat healthier and to go lift some weights today.