Red and White to Prevent Osteoporosis

​Distortion of the cervical spine causes symptoms like stiff neck and shoulders, headache, ringing in ears, insomnia, etc. and distortion of the lumber spine causes symptoms like low back pain, constipation, tingling sensation in the leg, etc.
 
3 major factors causing distortion of the spine
 
(1) Bad posture
(2) Decline of the muscle
(3) Osteoporosis
 
Especially distortion of the spine caused by osteoporosis is very dangerous. Osteoporosis causes a fracture without any impact and subjective symptoms. According to a research, 63 % of women with the age of 60 and over whose spines are distorted have had a fracture.
 
The bone with osteoporosis can’t resist the weight of the body and is crushed. When one bone (vertebrae) is crushed, the bone directly under it is crushed and then the next bone is crushed as shown in the above, because distortion of the spine becomes greater and more weight is applied on the bone. This is called chain fracture. If chain fracture is progressed, a bent back can’t be restored.
 
The peak of bone density is at the age of 20s to 30s and after that, it gradually goes down. Women’s osteoporosis patients are 3 times as many as men’s patients because around age of 50, women’s bone density suddenly goes down due to the decrease of estrogen caused by menopause.
 
Eating a red food and a white food together helps absorption of calcium
 
The main cause of osteoporosis is lack of calcium.
 
The calcium absorption ratio at the age of 10s is about 45 %, but it becomes 30 % at the age of 30s and becomes the half at the age of 70s. So even if the same amount of calcium is taken, absorbed calcium deceases with age.
 
The red food is Umeboshi plum (Fig. 1) containing citric acid that raises the absorption ratio of calcium. Calcium is difficult to be absorbed in the body. The calcium absorption ratio of milk which is considered absorbing calcium very well is only about 40 %. 60 % of calcium is discharged from the body. Fish’s ratio is about 30 % and vegetable’s ratio is about 20 %. But citric acid raises the absorption ratio of calcium.
 
The white food is Shirasu, which is the young of sardine, herring or eel, containing 5 times as much as milk (520 mg/100 g).
 
Eating Umeboshi Plum and Shirasu together raises calcium absorption ratio by about 1.5 times.
 
Shirasu also contains vitamin D a lot which raises the absorption of calcium.
 
The amount of calcium required for a day is the same as 600 ml of milk, which is equal to a cup of rice in soup with Umeboshi plum and Shirasu (Fig. 2).
 
Japanese stock without salt is good enough because Umeboshi plum contains salt, or you can spread bonito flakes before pouring hot water into rice with Umeboshi plum and Shirasu.
 
Another red and white food is Umeboshi plum and mayonnaise which is made of eggs rich in vitamin D. The recipe is mix Umeboshi and mayonnaise 1 to 2 ratio. You can dip some food in it. (Fig. 4)

​Other effects of Umeboshi plum
 
Mumefural contained in plum flesh extract makes the blood flow smooth and vanillin contained in plum flesh extract has an effect on burning fat.