Dear Susun,
I am reading your book, The New Menopausal Years, which I am finding very helpful! My question has to do with chard. On page 29 "chard (silver beet)" is listed as a calcium antagonist. Are there other types of chard that are not calcium antagonists? I see on page 32 kale and collards are good synergistic foods to utilize calcium. We grow mostly chard in our garden, so I am interested in knowing if some chard is good for calcium utilization?
Thank you,
Hello,
All chard and spinach have this problem as they contain a lot of oxalic acid, a substance that interferes with calcium absorption. You may want to next year add other dark greens to your plot. In the meantime, you could start drinking nourishing herbal infusions of Nettles and Oatstraw, both of which provide significant amounts of available calcium. A cup of nettle infusion contains 500 milligrams of calcium.
Here is a helpful article, http://www.menopause-metamorphosis.com/An_Article-healthy.htm
And a link to a youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pKpe_YGUUw&) on how to make nourishing herbal infusions. To your health!
Love,
Justine
My understanding, through reading Nourishing Traditions and other resources on Traditional diets, is that oxalic acid can be broken downwith heat. So, by heating. (I sautee in lard, raw butter or coconut oil) your chard, kale, spinach etc you can still benefit from the plant.
Posted by: nicole | November 24, 2010 at 05:20 PM