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Before this starts sounding like an argument for meat eating, I’ll tell you a secret: You don’t need as much iron as you think. According to the CDC, a man like me (between 19 and 50 years old) needs 8 milligrams (mg) of iron per day. However, since I don’t eat meat, and I will be absorbing less of the non-heme iron entering my body, that number rises slightly to 14 mg.

Seem like a lot? Nope. A cup of soybeans contains 8.8 mg, a cup of lentils 6.6 mg, and a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses 3.5 mg. (Remember, you can also boost the amount you absorb of these numbers by 30 percent if you are consuming some form of vitamin C with your meal.)

In addition, cooking in an iron skillet increases the iron content in many foods. For example, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that the iron in 100 grams of spaghetti sauce rocketed from 0.6 mg to 5.7 mg after being cooked in a cast-iron pot.

Women and children need to be more vigilant about their iron intake than men. On the high end, it’s recommended that pregnant women on plant-based diets eat about 30 milligrams of iron a day to compensate for their babies. Women also lose iron during their monthly menstrual periods, but how much varies according to how light or heavy the periods are. Besides women and children, those who need to consume higher levels of iron include adolescents, athletes (especially endurance athletes), and the elderly. Consulting with a nutritionist is always a helpful way to determine how much iron you should have in your diet.

When you’re computing how to get that iron, one of the biggest advantages of non-heme iron from plants is that it comes without the calorie
count. For instance, a cup of cooked spinach offers 6.4 mg of iron at only 6.6 calories. One serving (3 ounces) of beef tenderloin offers 3 mg of iron and 247 calories. Which would you rather eat?

By the way, excess iron in the body is not a good thing. It is associated with the formation of free radicals, those nasty little atoms that cause degenerative diseases, heart disease, and cancer. High consumption of heme iron also raises the risk of gallstones in men. Some scientists advise that people with diets rich in heme iron offset it by consuming foods that blunt iron absorption, such as dairy products and tannins (found in tea).

If you are wondering what the best sources of non-heme iron are, the following table from the U.S. government’s fact sheet on iron will get you started:

Finally, if you want to complement your iron intake with vitamin C in order to boost absorption, try some of these tasty options along with your iron-clad meal: red bell pepper, green bell pepper, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, sweet potato, kale, kiwi, orange, mango, and/or grapefruit.

Bottom line: Heme iron from meat is an inferior, unregulated locomotive going all over the place and getting you nowhere. However, plant-indigenous iron is a superior, regulated city bus that obeys all the traffic signs and drops everyone off at their proper destination.

W
henever I give a presentation and it’s time to talk about calcium, the first thing I ask the audience is, “Who can tell me where calcium comes from?” A handful of people always jump up and excitedly call out “A cow!”

Come on, people! Calcium does not originate with a cow. It’s not “cow-cium”! It’s calcium. Calcium is a mineral, and minerals come from the soil. Therefore, the best place to get your calcium is from the best conduit of calcium—plants. With plants you are getting a superior form of calcium that is highly absorbable because of the alkaline (non-acidic) and friendly nature of the leafy greens, beans, and seeds that are an efficient transport system for plant-retainable calcium that will
really
help you build strong bones and a strong body. A body built by plants, not cow secretions!

Really? No cow’s milk? But what about all the warnings? “Drink lots of milk or else your bones will get old and frail and crumble before your first social security check arrives in the mail.”

Thanks to those Got Milk? ads, along with armies of dairy industry lobbyists, most people are taught to believe that because dairy products do contain calcium, we should, therefore, guzzle milk by the gallon, in between trays full of cheese plates (or cottage cheese, for the diet-conscious).

And doesn’t Big Milk have a lot of credibility with experts? After all, the Surgeon General, the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Osteoporosis Foundation all have gone on record to say that milk is what keeps our bones from crumbling.

I say, question authority. Question it when the former head of the American Heart Association, Clyde Yancy, states: “This kind [of heart] disease is progressive. There aren’t any cures.” And yet the peer-reviewed scientific literature says something entirely different. Question it when President Clinton’s cardiologist, Allan Schwartz, asserts: “This
is not a result of his [Bill’s] lifestyle or diet. This is a chronic condition. We don’t have a cure for this condition.” And yet the former fast-food president himself has flipped to plants, and regained his health, because the evidence over the last twenty-five years supporting a low-fat, plant-based diet is so overwhelming.

It’s the same with these big organizations backing dairy. As it turns out, the science behind many of Big Milk’s claims is crumbling. According to recent studies, more than one-half of postmenopausal women in America now have either osteopenia (reduced bone mass that may be a prelude to osteoporosis) or osteoporosis (literally, “porous bones”). Osteoporosis is called the “silent disease” because there are often no symptoms until the bones begin to fail and break.

Or look at some relevant data from two very different peoples: black South Africans and Canadian Inuits. If dairy consumption prevents osteoporosis, the South Africans, who consume little dairy, should have epidemic levels of the disease. Actually, the reverse is true: The prevalence of osteoporosis-related diseases in black South Africans is among the lowest in the world. On the other hand, the Inuit have the highest dietary calcium intake of any people in the world, and they also show the highest osteoporosis rates in the world.

The countries that consume the most dairy products—those in Northern Europe along with the United States, New Zealand, and Australia—actually have the highest bone fracture rates. In fact, regions that consume the lowest amounts of dairy—eastern Asia and Africa—boast fracture rates 50 to 70 percent lower than we milk guzzlers.

So what gives? The truth is while calcium certainly helps our bones stay strong, we only need moderate amounts of it. Since 1975, there have been nearly 140 clinical trials studying the link between dairy consumption and bone density, and two-thirds of them found that dairy-intensive diets did not promote stronger bones. In fact, the Harvard Nurses’ Study, an investigation into osteoporosis and bone loss in women, showed that “Fracture rates were higher for those who consumed three or more servings, compared to those who did not drink milk.”

Think of it this way. Peanut butter cups contain small amounts of vitamin K, but I challenge you to find a doctor who’d recommend eating 150 peanut butter cups a day for your daily vitamin K intake. While you might get your vitamin K, all that fat and sugar will destroy your body faster than you can say Willy Wonka.

The same goes for calcium. Remember that dairy and meat products contain a lot of animal protein, which itself is chock-full of amino acids that cascade through our bloodstream. In order to neutralize these acids, the body needs to release something alkaline to restore our natural pH balance. And guess what? One of the most effective alkalizing agents is the calcium stored in our bones. So while that chocolate milk you’re drinking might have a lot of calcium, its high animal-protein content ironically ends up siphoning essential calcium from your bones! Holy osteoporosis, Batman!

Our sources of calcium become increasingly important with age. Younger bodies are actively building and rebuilding bones to make them stronger; that’s why kids heal so fast after breaking something. In fact, until the age of about thirty, our bodies consistently build more bone than is lost. After that, our bones slowly weaken and lose their elasticity.

So if you want to have strong bones and be healthy, here’s the trick! Avoid diets rich in animal-based proteins, which will decrease the pH level of our blood, draining that precious calcium from our bones. And although your milk-guzzling friends may seem healthy now, that may not be the case in a few decades.

Don’t believe it? Consider this: There is more calcium in 4 ounces of the average serving of (calcium fortified) firm tofu—or in ¾ cup of collard greens—than a whole glass of milk! And if you find yourself still craving a milky treat, try chocolate soy milk. Most soy milk is fortified with more calcium than cow’s milk, and because it doesn’t contain any of those nasty animal proteins, your blood’s pH level stays nice and stable.

And despite their humble appearance, good old beans are some of the most robust, bone-buildin’ grub around. Just 2 cups of black beans contains more than 90 mg of calcium, and a cup of delicious white beans has a whopping 130 mg. Other great veggie sources of calcium include soybeans, bok choy, broccoli, collard greens, kale, and sweet potatoes.

Instead of Got Milk?, it should be Got Saturated Fat? Think of milk as liquid meat. Did you know that an 8-ounce glass of whole milk has the same amount of saturated fat as 4.5 slices of bacon and four times the calories? An 8-ounce glass of 2-percent-fat milk has the same amount of saturated fat as 3 slices of bacon and the same amount of calories. And an 8-ounce glass of 1-percent milk has more saturated fat than a strip of bacon, more than twice the calories, and 35 percent more cholesterol. That’s not doing any body any good!

Your milk-guzzling friends still think you’re nuts? Maybe they’re onto something. As it happens, some nuts are a great source of calcium. A handful of almonds is packed with 75 mg of calcium, along with plenty of protein and fiber. And just three Brazil nuts pack in about 22 mg of calcium.

So remember, all calcium sources aren’t created equal. Your bones need the premium fuel, and a plant-based diet packs the purest, highest-octane stuff around.

Keep in mind: If you take this data to heart and avoid milk, be prepared, because when you tell your family and friends that you’re no longer drinking it, they will look at you as if you were an unpatriotic turncoat. This is to be expected, because we’ve been so indoctrinated into believing that milk and milk by-products are the perfect foods to build a strong body and bones that anyone questioning it seems treasonous.

But think about it. How many people in your life do you know who are guzzling milk, choking down cheese, and gobbling up Greek yogurt every day of the week? I bet lots and lots! And yet we have an epidemic of osteoporosis in this country. Something does not compute. Americans are consuming dairy in quantities far greater than even the dairy industry’s marketing plea for three servings daily, and yet dairy is doing nothing to protect our bones.

In addition to eating a plant-strong diet, the best ways to guarantee strong bones are to limit sodium intake, ditch the soft drinks, quit smoking, curb the dairy, and engage in weight-bearing exercise two to three times a week. Here come some strong bones!

H
ow many times have you heard this one: “Our ancestors ate meat, so why should we limit ourselves to only plants?”

Or how about this one: “If we weren’t meant to eat meat, why have people been doing it for so many thousands of years?”

These arguments are not technically lies, but they’re hardly the full story, either. Some of our ancestors did eat meat, but that’s only part of a much more complex story that includes thousands of years of human cultural and biological evolution. The truth is: Just because we
can
eat meat doesn’t mean that we
should
.

For early humans, meat was a concentrated package of calories and nutrients that fueled their incredibly labor-intensive lifestyles at a time when food scarcity was common. As my friend and nutrition expert Dr. John McDougall writes: “A traditional Arctic Eskimo, living in a subfreezing climate, could expend 6,000 calories and more a day just to keep warm and hunt for food. The high-fat animal food sources—fish, walrus, whale, and seal—from his local environment were the most practical means of meeting the demands of those rigorous surroundings.”