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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 9/11/06, Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com> wrote:

> I've heard that too.  There's also speculation that the Dairy Advisory
> Board plays a great role in setting the RDA for calcium.

They probably did, but in fact the high-meat, high-protein American
diet requires more calcium than traditional diets where meat is rare
and reliance is on plant foods. Plus, traditional diets frequently
have a non-plant source of calcium. For example, the Chinese often use
a calcium salt to precipiate curd out of soy milk, and corn for
tortillas in treated with lime (as is hominy for that matter).
>   Can you picture getting a kid to eat 3/4
> pound of kale or spinach a day?

Depends on the kid and what they're used to eating. Since my niece was
a baby, she would eat just about anything set in front of her. Imagine
a toddler who thinks horseradish is a vegetable.
>

> In answer to the question, "why not look into the Chinese diet?" I can
> only say that countless Asian staples will not grow here because of the
> cool climate: peanuts, sesame, soybeans, not to mention rice.

Any traditional diet will probably do. For any civilization to be
successful, it needs a diet that won't cause major deficiencies. What
were the Indians eating in the Northwest before the settlers showed
up?

Marie