If I stop consuming dairy products, won’t that put me at greater risk for osteoporosis?

High-protein foods, such as meat, eggs, and dairy products, produce poisonous byproducts when they are broken down so the body buffers the toxins with calcium before they are eliminated. This leaches calcium from the body, including from the bones, resulting in a loss that cancels out the dietary intake of calcium from animal products. In countries where dairy products are not generally consumed, there is less osteoporosis than in the United States, where dairy consumption is among the highest in the world. The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study followed 78,000 women for 12 years and found that milk did not protect them against bone fractures. In fact, those who drank three glasses of milk per day had more fractures than those who rarely drank milk. To learn more, please visit PCRM.org.

Also, an excellent discussion of dietary links to osteoporosis can be found in Dr. John McDougall’s The McDougall Plan and in Dr. Neal Barnard’s The Power of Your Plate.