Against Dairy, part 1

I’ve always argued that lacto-vegetarianism, vegetarian diet with dairy, is a bad idea for many reasons. One of these reasons is that dairy blocks vitamins and minerals that are of concern for the non-meat eaters out there. In part 1, I will focus on a very important mineral that helps regulate metabolism, keeps your heart beating normally, and is essential for a strong skeletal structure; calcium.

Animal protein has more of a specific amino acid named methionine than vegetable protein does. Methionine has come under intensified scrutiny lately due to some studies that suggest that excess methionine reduces lifespan. Aside from that body of research, it has been shown that excess methionine causes blood to become more acidic. When this happens, the sulfur from the methionine combines with exchangeable calcium from the bones to create calcium sulfate which is then expelled from the blood and excreted from the body, thus reducing the body acidity. If our body acidity is constantly elevated from daily consumption of dairy, our bones will constantly leach calcium in a struggle to lower that acidity.

Now, if this were true, shouldn’t populations that eat large amounts of dairy on a daily basis have weaker bones? In fact, they do as evidenced by a study that considers total animal protein. There was a large scale study of animal protein consumption vs bone strength from different populations around the world. This study showed that the more animal protein a population eats, the more likely that population is to have weaker bones, as measured by hip fractures. It should be noted that this study, though large scale, focused on women; the jury is still out for men.

So, if there is indeed a link between calcium, methionine, and strong bones, then the calcium/methionine ratio, though maybe not direct, could shed some light on the subject. The following lists vegetables that are highest in calcium, vegetables highest in methionine, soymilk, and dairy.

Food	Methionine (mg/Cal)	Calcium (mg/Cal)	Calcium/ Methionine	Comment
Soymilk, fortified	0.37	2.85	7.7
Watercress	1.82	10.2	5.6	Highest in Calcium & High in Methionine
Turnip Greens	1.06	5.83	5.5	High in Calcium
Kale	0.64	2.74	4.28	High in Calcium
Mustard Greens	0.96	3.85	4.01	High in Calcium
Spinach	2.31	4.24	1.84	Highest in Methionine & High in Calcium
Milk, nonfat	2.46	3.69	1.5
Soybean	1.23	1.34	1.09	High in Methionine
Asparagus	1.55	1.19	0.77	High in Methionine
Baby Zucchini	1.86	1.13	0.61	High in Methionine
Crimini Mushrooms	1.78	0.72	0.4	High in Methionine
Kidney Bean	1.16	0.43	0.37	High in Methionine
Cottage Cheese	5.18	0.85	0.16

The type of soymilk that I chose is fortified with calcium since it is the most common way to buy soymilk in the US. Notice that the vegetable highest in methionine, spinach, contains 2.31 mg/Cal whereas cottage cheese, like most cheese, is twice as high with 5.18 mg/Cal. On the other hand, the vegetable highest in calcium, watercress, has 10.2 mg/Cal of calcium and milk has 3.69 mg/Cal. It would appear that simply replacing milk with soymilk in our breakfast cereal would reduce our methionine levels and increase the calcium density, calcium stores in our bones. Moreover, if we stick to the vegetables for the rest of the day instead of that hamburger and milkshake, then we will be much less likely later in life to cry, “I’ve fallen, and can’t get up!”