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I’m a little annoyed with myself for neglecting The Blushing Beetroot over the past few months. Life seems to have gotten busier recently and I’m afraid the blog has been put on the back burner.
The Blushing Beetroot has been such an amazing outlet for me while the kids were very young, helping keep my mind stimulated with thoughts other than baby talk. ‘The days are long but the years are short’ summed up those early years perfectly. 

However now aged 3 yrs and almost 5 yrs I’ve found that their needs have changed over the past 18 months. Play dates, learning to ride bicycles, learning to swim, homework, birthday parties etc means that I am less confined to the house and therefore less able to write blog posts. This is a natural and positive progression in the children’s lives and I’m delighted to be gradually regaining some of my former independence again. 

 Like any parent I’m so proud of my children and watching them developing various skills and making friends is so rewarding. All the effort and time is truly worth it. An absolute labour of love. 

With that said Ive really missed my blog writing. It’s quite therapeutic to be able to escape for a while into writing about topics I’m passionate about. So on a mid- term break with the family I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take some time to write a post which I’ve wanted to do for quite a while. 

Prior to our holidays in September 2015, I desperately wanted to loose the last of my baby weight which had stubbornly lingered and I simply couldn’t shift. Diet had taken me so far but I knew I needed to start exercising to get in better shape. 

Two obstacles were in my way. Firstly what exercise regimen would work while having a 1 and 3 yr old at home with me and secondly being a novice in the field of working out I needed a routine that would suit my level of fitness and still give me the desired results. 

I came across an American fitness instructor Jillian Michaels. She has a workout DVD called The 30 Day Shred. Having 6 weeks to get myself in shape this work out sounded perfect! Shredded in 30 days, yes please! 
This particular workout had a few advantages that suited my needs.

 • A workout I could do from home. 

• Each workout, including warm-up and cool down lasted less that 30 minutes. ( A couple of Paw Patrols back-to-back and you’ve the freedom in 30 mins to get the DVD done) 

• The only equipment needed is an exercise mat and a pair of hand weights.

• There are 3 different levels. You start at level 1 and work up to level three. Within each level there is an option of doing the easier form of the exercise or the more challenging form. 

• Finally each stage, 1,2 and 3 is a circut. Cardio, resistance and abs. Great to prevent any boredom. 

Fearful that I wouldn’t finish the workout and reach level 3 I bought a chart! Everyday I worked out I gave myself a tick in the box. I really didn’t know if this chart would highlight my failure and therefore heighten my disappointment. Or possibly, the chart could be hugely encouraging seeing each week pass with clear acknowledgment of workouts completed.                      .

As it happens, and I was really pleasantly surprised. The way the routine is choreographed, fitness is built gradually. I felt challenged but not out of my depth. I started to feel the benefits of increased energy levels very quickly and for the first time since having children I began gaining muscle tone!! Subtle changes not easily noticed by others but massive changes for me. 

This of course encouraged me greatly. It wasn’t long until I got the bug and was doing the routine 5-6 times per week. 

Busy periods like Christmas or the month of January when I was quite unwell I didn’t exercise at all. However as the routine is so adaptable to ones fitness level,  I found I could easily build myself back up at my own pace. 

I still do this workout 2-3 times per week which is enough to keep my weight in check and maintain some level of fitness. 

I would really recommend this to any mum who wants some exercise where they can control the pace with some degree of challenging themselves. Anybody who wants to improve their fitness level. Anyone who wants to loose a few pounds. Or anybody who wants to tone up gently. 

Protein aside, calcium is the second biggest nutrient people become enthusiastically worried about on hearing that I eat a mainly plant based diet. It concerns me that it is still believed by most, that milk and milk products are essential foods for bone density. The dairy industry is vocal. Their catchy, mesmerising advertising  have cleverly blinkered the majority into believing that dairy is essential for healthy bones and wellbeing. I’m writing this blog post to highlight the reality of dairy as a calcium food source. I feel we need to balance the scales in relation to calcium food sources and question the reliability of the dairy industry’s claim that their products are elixir foods for the bones.

Cows milk is indeed rich in protein and calcium. It needs to be. It’s function is to build a 100 lb calf into a 1000 lb cow! It’s the perfect food for a calf. The calcium content of cows milk is three times greater than that of human milk. If the human body required the vast quantities of calcium that cows milk contains wouldn’t breast milk provide for this?
If we are to believe the importance of cows milk in meeting our calcium requirements, we would have to agree that when we drink this fluid, the high volume of calcium it contains is magically shoved into our bones without regulation or control. Homeostasis no longer! Luckily our digestive system is not a passive sieve. Our body strives to maintain equilibrium and therefore optimal digestion, assimilation and absorption of nutrients, including minerals is essential. Can you imagine the internal chaos that would ensue if vast volumes of the mineral calcium were passed directly into our blood stream? The body strives to filter out the vast and unnecessary amount of calcium that is ingested through dairy and excretes it preventing an overload of this mineral.

The original source of calcium like all minerals is in the soil. Animals obtain calcium by eating plants. We can equally obtain calcium from its original source by eating a plant based diet. The digestive system works hard to absorb the necessary and eliminate the unnecessary.

 Equally taking a diet rich in plant based foods, which the calcium is slightly more difficult to extract due to oxalates, the body works to extract the nutrients it needs to survive.

If dairy, (with its high volume of calcium which the majority of us eat numerous times a day), is so vital to ensure we have our calcium needs met, then why do conditions like osteoporosis exist? It’s very difficult for most us to think of a week, a day, a meal or even a snack that does not contain some amount of dairy. If we are eating this calcium rich food for the bones why does western society, with the highest rates of dairy intake have the highest rates of osteoporosis? And likewise, the countries with the lowest intake of dairy have the lowest reports of fractures. 

High in Animal Protein 

The issue lies with the high protein content of dairy. Milk which is high in animal protein, is acidic for humans and creates an acidic internal environment. The human body strives to maintain balance and homeostasis and works best in a slightly alkaline internal environment. Too acidic or too alkaline leads to imbalance and disease is favourable. Alkaline calcium is a buffer to acidic conditions and is leeched from our bones to ensure a dangerous acidic state is neutralised and not prolonged. Calcium is lost from our bones and finally passed out of our body via our urine. Net result – calcium deficit. For every 1 gram of protein in your diet you can expect 1 milligram of calcium loss. 

Most of the milk we consume has been pasteurised, changing the chemical composition to calcium carbonate, a much more difficult form to absorb.

The Dairy Industry 

The dairy industry is a lucrative and very powerful one. Influential people from national sports stars, actors and pop stars  are seen smiling through a milk moustache with images of happy cows under blue skies grazing on green fields. Is this type of farming reflective of the majority of modern day farming practices?

You have to ask why does this  industry repeatedly consider it necessary to convince the general public that dairy and bone health go hand-in-hand? Dairy is aggressively promoted. It can be difficult to see past this powerful persuasion. Is the advertising not similar to McDonalds? Relentless, subtlety aggressive, repetitive slogans. If dairy is truly the health food that is essential for wellbeing, why do we need constant convincing and reminding? Their insistence of a daily intake of 5 portions of dairy per day is outdated and exhausted. How many adverts do you see promoting broccoli, carotts, kale, apples, berries, beans, lentils or unprocessed wholegrains?  Is this industry feeling threatened by the possibility of consumers no longer using dairy as the optimum food choice for calcium?

The dairy industry is allowed to advertise its food products and make claims that cows milk is necessary for humans. However it is not permitted to highlight the reality of modern-day, dairy industrialised farms. Most are unaware of factory farming practices or believe that the meat and dairy they purchase are from good, ethical farms. It’s no surprise that the majority support the dairy industry because the full facts are being withheld.

Human Milk
We need to ask ourselves why do we drink the milk from another animal at all?  Humans are the only animals that drink the milk of another animal after they have been weaned. If you were given the milk of another animal how would you feel about drinking it? Horses, pigs, camel? How about human milk? Most are repulsed at the thought of milk from their own species but content with drinking milk from another.

Overconsumption 

People, quite often meat and dairy eaters often console themselves by saying everything in moderation, however I notice this rarely applies to the consumption of dairy. Most would find it difficult to think of one day let alone one meal that does not contain dairy. Milk in cereal, butter on toast, lattes, cheese sandwich, milk chocolate bars, youghurt and grated cheese added to everything  – baked beans, chilli, soup, cottage pie, pizza, pizza crust, even vegetables get the cheese love.  We eat dairy non stop, not in moderation.

Animals 

Although it’s difficult to think about the reality of the lives that factory farmed animals have to endure, I believe it is our responsibility to be a part of the end of their suffering. Can an ice -cream, latte, cheese board or dessert really be delicious if it has come from the milk of an animal who lived in terrible conditions? It’s about starting with small steps. Americano instead of latte, hummus on toast instead of butter, sorbet instead of ice-cream. Small choices contributes to a reduction in the demand for dairy and eventually an end to intensive farming.

Medical advice 

We continue to look to medical doctors for advise on diet and nutrition. Unfortunately however, medical doctors don’t study nutrition. From my experience doctors regurgitate the same outdated advice. The local GP is potentially a valuable source for diet and nutritional advice.

However Dr Colin Campbell and Dr John Mc Dougall are two examples of medical doctors that have decades of nutritional research. They advocate a whole food plant based diet. It has been suggested that humans survive best on a 90% -99% plant based diet with 1%-10% from meat and diary.

Taking a balanced plant based diet and getting sufficient Vitamin D from sunshine, greatly assist in the absorption of calcium. Avoiding caffeine and taking vitamin C rich foods with plant based,calcium rich foods, is beneficial for absorption.

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