(I recommend that any food be eliminated for at least 3-6 weeks. The longer the food is eliminated, the clearer the indication will be as to whether or not you react to it, as your body will be clearing the food)

Of the food GROUPS you have eliminated, decide which group you want to challenge first.

i.e.: Dairy challenge may include yogurt at breakfast, cheese at lunch, and ice cream at dinner, and a wheat challenge might include toast at breakfast, sandwich at lunch, and pasta at dinner…Do challenge with the foods that you eat (if you despise tofu and never eat it, do not include tofu as part of the soy challenge).

***eggs are not part of a dairy challenge, they are part of the egg challenge.

Day One (and Two, which is optional, and usually done if you did not think you reacted on day one): Have the food you are challenging as part of all three meals.

*You MUST start the challenge in the A.M.: this is important (NOT with an evening meal, as you could have a reaction and sleep right through it).

***Please note: if you felt aweful on day ONE from the food, there is no need to continue having that food for day two. Day two is more for those people who are not sure if they felt anything on day one.

Day Three, Four and Five: Revert back to the original elimination.

*Observe how you are feeling and if any symptoms are arising.

*You name it, it can be your symptom: itchy skin, nausea, headache, depression, bloating, gas, fatigue, foggy brain, etc.

* If you get sick with a cold/flu on day four, do suspect that the food you challenged on day one is the culprit (viruses take about three days to incubate). An intolerant food will weaken the immune system…hence why a virus would then be able to seed itself in your system at that time.

Repeat the above process for each food group that was eliminated

If you had no reaction, and are sure of that, then you can start incorporating that food back into your diet after the four day challenge is over. Just be sure not to overdue it on that food.

If you think you had a reaction, but are unsure, continue to eliminate that food and challenge again after about a week.

Any reaction is an indication to you that the food is not healthy for you and consumption of that food will stress your immune system, make chronic diseases worse, and generally not be good for a preventive health lifestyle.

Reactions include, and are not limited to : fatigue, mental fog, a cold or flu three days after having a particular food, skin rashes or an unexplained itch occurring up to 3 days later, the exacerbation of any chronic illness, insomnia, headaches or migraines, congestion, and anything at all!

***If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction or asthma attack that needed an epi pen or hospital treatment, do not do the challenge above without medical supervision.***

As a naturopathic physician I am constantly identifying food allergies. As you may guess, dairy and all of its forms, is one of the most, shall I say, controversial. You have the vegans who do not eat any of it, and a fair amount of people considering themselves vegetarians who eat some form of it, usually cheese or yogurt. Then there are some who have lactose intolerance (they lack the enzyme that breaks down lactose, the sugar found in milk). And of course there are those who are out-right allergic to all forms of dairy due to the casein molecule, which incidentally is a little different in goats’ milk, hence why some who cannot handle cows’ milk can tolerate goats milk. I previously wrote about the blood type diet, where O blood types have a particularly weak tolerance of cow’s milk but some goats milk cheese is fine. And then there are those who can consume dairy products till the cows come home with no problems at all. (These people are more likely to have B type blood by the way). And lastly there is my cat who will nibble on only the stinkiest cheese, obviously intending to inoculate his gut with some good bacteria.

And overlying our wonderful passion for all things gourmet and delicious, of which cheese is at the top right up there with a fine wine, is John Robbins, the vegan king. He is big proponent of eliminating dairy as a means to avoid arterial plaque and some do actually feel guilty about consuming dairy, for that very reason thanks to him. But the formation of arterial blockages is way too complex of a development to simply blame it on consuming milk. It is also highly dependent on genetics, lifestyle, and diet, but probably not the dietary things you would think (and there is the French Paradox which I discuss below).

Whether you consume dairy or not, like it or hate it, it is here to stay and a force to be reckoned with. For one, if you do eat dairy and intend to be on this planet for another twenty or more years, you owe it to yourself to figure out if you have a dairy intolerance. <Click here for instructions on how to do that>

And there is support for dairy being needed to actually feed the world, as it is one of the top five ecologically friendly protein sources that exist, having one of the lowest carbon footprints per gram of protein supplied. ¹

But what if we found dairy to actually not cause arteriosclerosis? Would that have you thinking differently about it? It could literally re-write the Ornish and Pritikin protocols, and have many consuming dairy once more with less guilt, knowing that they are not creating one of those horrible blockages. Hence my excitement when I discovered just this.

I was listening to a conference recently where it was mentioned in passing that there was a dairy source that was not implicated in arterial blocking. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t this be huge news? Wouldn’t the whole world be jumping on this?” So I sent my friends Brook and Rose Levan at Sustainable Settings (my heroes for raw milk and all things farming) an email asking if they heard of this cow thing that I couldn’t even explain because I knew so little about it. They, of course knew all about it for years now, and had created their entire dairy heard to be of these arterial-friendly cows.

The Find

The particular gem that I am talking about here is an “A2 beta casein” molecule found in some milk, verses an “A1 beta casein” molecule found in other milk.

When I was doing my pre-med, we did some chemistry lab hocus pocus that isolated the casein molecule. What we were left with was this very hard piece of white rubber, not unlike hardened chewing gum. That was casein. That experiment alone should have had me clutching my heart, but the gourmand in me won out.

Casein is the very molecule that causes some immune systems to go into attack mode on their lunch.

So, this research is finding that there is a strong correlation to consumption of A1 beta casein and the incidence of ischemic heart disease (arterial blockage).² But not only that, there is a finger pointing to the development of type 1 diabetes³, as well as autism and schizophrenia. It is very difficult to prove a true cause and effect relationship in any study, as we humans have so many different factors playing roles in our health. The studies merely point to higher incidences of these diseases among populations consuming more of the A1 beta casein milk (“correlations”), and almost no increase of these diseases in populations consuming the A2 beta casein molecule.

So how could a food, like milk, potentially cause diabetes? Well, in children who react to the casein molecule, their immune systems create an antibody against casein. This antibody can cross react with the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin, destroying them, and create a life-long need for insulin. I want to point out that this has not been proven to be a true cause and effect relationship, and never will be proven as such, as that would be impossible. Also, type 1 diabetic children are predisposed to more allergies and autoimmunity in general, so please read carefully: not all children consuming cows milk are at risk of developing type1 diabetes.

So why has the American Dairy Association been so hush hush over the discovery and potential benefit of A2 casein over A1 casein? I am sure it is due to the hundreds of dairies out there who do not have these particular cows and would be at risk of losing business if the consumer got too curious. But since you are reading this, you can take it upon yourself to contact the ADA or your local dairy on the endangered species list.

The French Paradox and the Mediterranean Diet

Guernsey cows, from the same named island in Great Britain, are A2 beta casein producers. And there must be many more, as they were imported from French lineages in the 1700′s. Perhaps this is the sole reason for the “French Paradox” which is that France has a lower incidence of heart disease than the US, despite a higher saturated fat diet. There are over 800 breeds of cow by the way and France is postulated to have mostly A2 producing cows whereas the U.S. may have more like only 50% A2 producing cows. (how could we know- surely the ADA is not going to take on this testing). I wonder how much of the Mediterranean diets are consuming A2 over A1 dairy? Have you noticed all this talk of the Mediterranean diet being so healthy never mentions the Caprese salad?! I would be willing to bet those water buffalo are A2 secreters, as are goats apparently.

So what are we to do?

Consume “the other white milk”(!)

For now that may be only goats’ milk products, unless you have a local dairy in the know with certified A2 cows.

And before you ask, yes, I am a proponent of raw milk and cheese made with raw milk…all those wonderful enzymes.

As I write this, it seems that “everyone” is saying the same thing, “everyone is sick”! At least this year things seem a lot milder and a lot less virulent than in other years, probably from the drier winter going on across the country. So with all this activity, I was thinking about that one thing that can help the most.

Zinc!

My favorite one thing, if I were to have to chose just one thing, for enhancing the immune system. Zinc is an excellent anti-bacterial for the throat. In addition to that, it is one of the stronger immune supports one can utilize when sick. Women can get deficient during their periods, and sexually active men are in need of more zinc, as it is used for prostate fluid, which is what sperm swim in. Additionally, zinc is found in high amounts in the macula (part of the retina) and in even higher amounts in our auditory system. It is used by over 200 enzymes in our body and is also a component of collagen synthesis, which is essential for wound healing. And this is just touching the surface really.

Women – look at your nails. Do you have tiny white spots on them? That can be a zinc deficiency. When women get their periods they have a greater need for zinc. When women come in complaining of ‘always’ getting sick the first thing I do is look at their fingernails. This is only a novel way of assessing zinc status. Another way is the zinc tally test.

Our taste buds use zinc, and when the body gets deficient in zinc, guess what is lowest on the totem pole? You guessed it. So there is this zinc sulphate solution that you can hold in your mouth for 30 seconds to see if you taste the sulpher. When you can’t taste the sulpher, then we are to assume your body is not keeping up with its need for zinc. I don’t do this in-office test anymore. I used to, as it costs almost nothing to do. Instead I just go right to the zinc.

One of my favorite studies on zinc looked at zinc levels of 668 hospitalized subjects, aged 70 or over, with 104 healthy controls of the same age and from the same geographical area. Those sick and needing hospitalization had significantly lower zinc compared to the healthy control group. Low zinc was found in 35.7% of those with respiratory disease, 20%- 27% for cancer, infectious disease, trauma, blood diseases, and genitourinary diseases, and less than 20% with other diseases.¹

Our thymus gland uses zinc for the hormone called thymulin which is crucial for the creation of those most important white blood cells, the T cells.

And there are a plethora of studies, far too numerous to mention here, siting positive outcomes with HIV and immune enhancement with zinc.²

I started this post with the title “How to Avoid a Sore Throat This Winter” as I do use zinc as my first line of attack against a sore throat. And for many colds and flus the sore throat is the first sign of something coming on, so not a bad idea to hit this the hard immediately when it happens.

That said, the throat can be a petri dish for microorganisms as it is an extension of the nasal passages . The overload of bacteria on the throat can cause irritation that manifests in a horse voice or outright pain from an infection. As soon as I was a little run down or pulled an all-nighter in school, wha-la, a sore throat would quickly ensue.

That was then. Now I have these zinc lozenges that work wonders.

Supplementing with Zinc

Taking some extra zinc is very safe. I don’t know any doctor who has ever seen excess zinc in a person. No doctor would even know what that looks like without looking it up.

The USRDA of zinc in an adult is a mere 15mg. Double this is not a problem and in fact is probably closer to optimal for our busy high-productive lives. When we are sick and needing that extra push, 60mg to even 90mg a day (divided as much as possible) for a few days is not a problem (see “Caveat” below!).

When taking zinc in a pill, always stick to a capsule over a tablet when possible. The picolinate, citrate and gluconate forms of zinc are much better absorbed than zinc oxide. Poor quality zinc, like zinc oxide, will tend to not absorb and cause stomach upset. Higher amounts of zinc regardless of the quality can also cause stomach upset. This is no problem and immediately remedied by eating.

What I use in my practice is a 10mg lozenge of zinc gluconate, as I think it is a good idea to do some direct throat maintenance since you are taking it anyway. But what is most crucial about the use of zinc for the throat is the amount of time the zinc is in contact with the throat tissue. The longer the time, the more it can put it’s anti-bacterial and anti-microbial activity to work against the staph and other organisms you may be growing. So what I recommend is to do the zinc lozenge while you are laying on your back. Barely sucking the lozenge means that it will dissolve very slowly, and the zinc will pool in the throat more.

The 10 mg lozenges are also a nice complement to some multi-vitamin/mineral formulas that may already supply 10 or 15 mg, allowing you to more accurately dose.

The Major Caveat

Taking too much zinc can deplete the essential trace mineral copper. It is assumed by many that we get most of our copper from the copper pipes our water runs through. But with the increasing use of plastics and PVC, we are switching this mineral out for an increased risk of cancer from these plastic toxins. So if you take a lot of zinc, like 30-50mg or so a day, consider taking a couple milligrams of copper also. It also helps the immune system and will help keep your arteries more elastic, and that means a lot for your aorta!

***

If you still find yourself in a dreadful state in spite of taking enough zinc to look like a dime, then do call me-  I can help with phone, Skype or an in-office appointment to get you back on your feet faster than anything else available to you!

1Serum Zinc and Copper Status in Hospitalized vs. Healthy Elderly Subjects J. Am. Coll. Nutr. December 1, 2007 26: 650-654

So why are these little bugs so important?

They detox and help remove toxic heavy metals from your body, they produce vitamin K along with some B vitamins, as well as help the absorption of minerals like calcium, magnesium and zinc.

They also fight many other microorganisms like E coli, clostridium and H.pylori, the causitive agent for stomach ulcers, helping to keep the numbers of those undesirable bacteria at lower numbers.

(if you want to see a much larger list of what probiotics do, click here to see a very comprehensive PDF I created about my probiotics).

The difference between someone who experiences a lot of gas verses someone who does not is usually from the bacterial balance of the GI system. Probiotics for treating gas- indeed! But know that this can require a few months or more to turn someone around, depending on their situation.

How to Choose Probiotics

I have my own brand of probiotics as I take them very seriously, having so many patients depending on what I prescribe to improve their health. So I know the species in the bottle and know they are viable, I know the manufacturer, and I know that I get fantastic results, or I would be out of business! I can’t trust to have a patient just go to any health food store to get just any probiotic. That said, get your probiotics solely from a naturopathic doctor or nutritionist you trust and work with. (and you can click here to order my brand of course).

But if you are shopping for probiotics at your health food store, know they are not all created equal, and this is where you have to be more diligent.

Each bottle you pick up will contain its own blend, at varying levels of potency. You will see probiotics containing 2 billion per capsule which sounds like a lot doesn’t it? But there are probiotics that contain 25 to 50 billion per capsule and that is what you want to be looking for.

In addition, the species must pass through the stomach without being killed by the acidic environment down there. Certain species will pass through stomach acid nicely, and others may be more vulnerable to it. To further complicate matters not all products have as many live bacteria in them that are promised on the label, or they have species that are contaminants from the growing process that are not listed on the label…Confusing to say the least.

Dosage

Probiotics are staying inside the gastro-intestinal tract and not crossing over to get into your bloodstream. For that reason they are still part of the outside world. Know that there is absolutely no toxicity involved in using probiotics. You can take any number of capsules for however long you want and never have to worry about negative affects. They are also safe during all stages of pregnancy.

Cultured Dairy and the Like

And lastly, what about yogurt, kefir, and various cultured vegetables? These are excellent and will offer you good results while you are consuming them. However, these are usually more transient bacteria, meaning that the species that culture dairy do not necessarily want to take up residence in your intestines. So three days after eating the cultured products, those bugs are usually gone, whereas three months after taking an excellent quality probiotic capsule, those bacteria are hopefully still there growing, happily taking over the neighborhood and pushing out the undesirables.

And Lastly, When to Take Probiotics:

There has always been an area of controversy about when to take probiotics. Empty stomach or with meals?

Some labels still say to take on an empty stomach, but when the stomach is empty it can be at its most acidic level, somewhere down around pH of 2, which can kill bacteria. When you add food to the mix, the pH goes up, closer to neutral (but still acidic) to anywhere from 3.0 to 6.0.

I suggest about an hour to two hours after eating, as that is when the stomach is emptying, so that should mean the least amount of time in the stomach and the least exposure to acids for the probiotics.

The ones I carry do have a technology to ensure they survive the stomach acid, so you really could take those at any time that is convenient for you, not just an hour or two after a meal.

I’ve been there in that self judging space around food, and specifically organic food. How perfect I thought, a topic to write about. And we’re in the Thanksgiving season. Perfect timing.

So here is where the work was for this patient, and perhaps for you too, being the health conscious person you are: transcendence, for your food, for your thoughts, for your life- for any situation you find yourself in. Please read on, I have a real solution to do this easily.

Many years ago I was on a road trip and I had an experience like the woman above that had such an impact on me that I was forever changed. Living in Seattle made it super easy for me to eat just about everything as organic. So there I was, peeling an orange in the car one day and thinking, “Hmm, this is not organic.” As I started eating the orange, I could feel this reluctance from deep within me that I was eating something that was not good for me, like I was eating poison. That was my wake-up call and I only had to learn that lesson once: give thanks for my food, any food, and accept it as the wonderful gift of abundance that it is. I have been doing that ever since, regardless of the source. There are people living off of land fills in Calcutta. Organic is not in their vocabulary.

Say you are pregnant and craving red meat. In this case that meat is pure medicine for your body. You are rushed and do not have access to some organic grass fed beef and give in to eating a burger from a drive through window (but not the bun of course!). So what are you going to do?

Is it healthier to have the non-organic asparagus rather than no asparagus at all? I believe so, as long as you can accept that beef or asparagus as the gift that it is for your body.

I heard one of those many Buddha stories once, something about the Buddha eating whatever was put in front of him. (How do we know, right? He lived so long ago…) The point being that we should appreciate the gift of any food- including that non-organic turkey that your friends are serving up!

Transcending our negative thoughts is crucial to relieving stress and to stopping the disease process.
Let’s consider food for a moment on this Thanksgiving holiday, as so many are concerned about organic this or that. What are your thoughts are about what you put in your mouth? This is a good inventory to take, especially as this can be a pivot for what causes disease and what does not.

Another patient this week had been in turmoil for months now about her decision to not take tamoxifen for the next five years as a preventive for cancer reoccurring. She is getting pressure from her oncologist and from her friends and family, and each time gets more and more stressed about her decision to not take the drug.

“I don’t want to put that poison in my body everyday! It has so many side effects and how do I know it will even work, or make things worse?”, she has said in countless emails with me. The truth is that she is treating her cancer from recurring as she is doing every natural remedy available that I would have my own mother on.

I asked her, “How would you feel each time you swallowed the tamoxifen?”

She got it and very quickly and was confident in her decision. Stress relieved.

I’ve heard once or twice that stress causes cancer by the way, have you?

The Magic Tool

Don’t you want to tell the pregnant woman stressing over the beef patty to just enjoy it and not worry about it? But we have all been there, and trying not to think of something can be a challenge depending on what we have going on, regardless of it being about food or stressing over your bills.

You see, we hear all the time that stress is the cause of a multitude of diseases. And along with that comes the advice to relieve our stress. Dah! If only it was that easy.

Well maybe it is! The tool here is to give gratitude. It changes everything, and I do mean everything!

This is one of the biggest tools you can use in every aspects of your life. It has the power to change a bad day into good, and a blah day into something worth remembering, and a great day into pure magic.

It will no longer matter who or what has done this or that to your Wheaties. By taking a few minutes to think of things you are grateful for will bring you right around, all the time.

How to do it

It is as simple as giving thanks for three things when need to put it into overdrive in order to get to another state of mind. Then three more, and three more. However many times it takes to get you to that warm feeling of love in your heart. Doing this daily is preventive health for the soul.

Sometimes when you are in the midst of insanity you know you couldn’t imagine being thankful for anything. Understandably. To prepare for this, I often have patients write a list of things that they are grateful for, adding to it everyday, trying to get to one hundred. This makes it easy, almost passively so, to change any negative thought patterns. All you have to do is simply read your list for a few minutes and your thoughts will be on auto pilot, on their way to nirvana.

This changing of gears is one of the most useful and crucial tools for your health. The faster you change feeling anger or dissatisfaction into contentment and true happiness, the less time the cells in your body will have a chance at developing any disease. Feeling love and appreciation is the true key to a happy life, or at least to a happy few minutes or hours if that may be your case. Eventually it will become second nature and you yourself will become one of those über-happy people who annoy your pessimistic current self.

From here on out, I’m changing the old saying, “You are what you eat” to “You are what you think (about what you eat)”!

Eating low glycemic index foods is only part of it, the other is how much you are eating, which would be your glycemic load.

Even a low glycemic index food, eaten in large enough quantity, can contribute to raising your blood sugar and insulin levels.

Don’t despair though- there is a ‘free foods’ list! These foods have less than 5 grams of carbs, or less than 20 calories, in 100 grams. So unless you are dealing with Type 1 diabetes, eat away, especially from the veggie list, as this is where your nutritient density comes into play, and where you will find anti-cancer properties abounding!

Click here to see the Low Carb Food List

Note that the factors that slow the sugar release into your bloodstream are fiber, amount of protein or fat in the food, the type of sugar or starch (there are many, and some are slow to be processed by your body, while others are fast), and how processed the food is.

The more ‘refined’ a starch is, from grinding it into fine particles like in flour, or heating it which makes digestion and absorption easier and faster, will mean these starch chains are in smaller pieces, and ultimately raise your blood glucose levels more quickly.

Now for the glycemic index:

Important to know: lists vary greatly and you cannot hang your hat on any one list. There is also some controversy surrounding how these list are created, as they usually only look at the glucose levels 2 hrs after eating and not 3 and 4 hrs.

That said, as there are thousands of foods that have been evaluated, the best thing I can suggest you to do is to check out the lists presented by David Mendosa. He is the dude when it comes to anything related to diabetes, and GI is a huge part of that.

http://mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Alternatively you can do a more extensive search of thousands of foods on the site listed below. Once on the site, click on <GI DATABASE> on the left hand side. There you can enter a food group like beans, or rice, and see the different GI indexes, as well as the carbs and the GI load, for many different varieties. You can also enter in values to see which foods are below or above a GI of 50, or 40.

http://www.glycemicindex.com

Glycemic index below 50 is considered low (I like below 45), and glycemic load below 10 is considered low.

If you are overwhelmed now, let me simplify it for you:

+ Eat tons of veggies

+ Check out the “Free Foods” list on my website and eat as much from those as you want, especially the veggies.

+ Stick to whole grains only and in moderation, and nothing made with flour

===================================

Glycemic load- if you care, is determined by:

<GI value  x  carbohydrate per serving / 100>

Ex: 1 orange: 48 x 11g = 528/100 = 5.28 = 5 (Glycemic Load value)

Ex: 250 ml (approx. 1 cup) Gatorade: 78 x 15g = 1170/100 = 11.7 = 12 (Glycemic Load value)

====================================

These foods have either less than 5 g of carbs in a 100 g serving, or less than 20 calories in a serving.

(The numbers are the grams of carbohydrates in a 100g serving)

Eat as much as you want from the vegetable list.

Be much more discriminatory about your meat, fish, eggs and dairy consumption.

VEGETABLES:
Alfalfa seeds, sprouted 1.28
Arugula 2.05
Asparagus, cooked 2.63
Bamboo shoots, cooked 0.92
Beans, green, cooked 4.69
Beans, snap, green, cooked 4.68
Beet greens, cooked 2.56
Broccoli, cooked 2.16
Brussels sprouts, cooked 4.5
Cabbage, cooked 2.16
Cauliflower, cooked 1.41
Celeriac (celery root), cooked 4.7
Celery 1.95
Chard, swiss, cooked 2.04
Collards, cooked 2.1
Cucumber 1.8
Dandelion greens, cooked 3.5
Eggplant, cooked 4.14
Endive 0.25
Fennel, bulb 4.19
Hearts of palm, canned 2.22
Jicama 3.92
Kale, cooked 3.63
Lettuce, butterhead 1.32
Lettuce, cos or romaine 0.67
Lettuce, iceberg 0.69
Mustard greens, cooked 0.1
Mushrooms 2.94-3.57 (except shitake)
Nopales, cooked 1.27
Olives, canned ripe 3.06
Okra, cooked 4.71
Olives, canned ripe 3.06
Parsley 3.03
Peppers, serano 3.00
Peppers, jalapeno 3.11
Peppers, sweet green 4.63
Peppers, sweet red 4.43
Pumpkin, cooked 3.80
Purslane 3.43
Radicchio 3.58
Radishes 1.99
Rhubarb 2.74
Sauerkraut 1.78
Scallions (green onions) 4.74
Spinach, cooked 1.35
Squash, summer, cooked 2.91
Squash, zucchini, cooked 2.53
Tomatillos 3.93
Tomatoes 3.54
Tomato juice 3.83
Turnips, cooked 2.9
Turnip greens, cooked 0.86
Watercress 0.79
FRUIT:
Avocados 2.39
Chayote (christophene) 2.20
Raspberries 4.77
Strawberries 4.72
NUTS: (two listed here, but the others are good also)
Macademia Nuts 4.83
Pecans 4.26
MEAT AND FISH:
All meat and fin fish 0
Caviar 4.0
Crab 0.95
Lobster 1.28
Shrimp 0
EGGS AND DAIRY:
Butter 0.06
Buttermilk, lowfat 4.79
Cheese, cheddar 1.28
Cheese, Edam 1.43
Cheese, Gouda 2.22
Cheese, Swiss 3.38
Cream cheese, 2.66
Cottage cheese, 2% milkfat 3.63
Eggs 1.22
Half and Half 4.30
Heavy Cream 2.79
Goat milk 4.45
Mayonnaise 2.70
Milk, 1% milkfat, added solids 4.97
Milk, 3.25% milkfat 4.66
Ricotta cheese, whole milk 3.04
Soy milk, 0.51
Yogurt, plain, whole milk 4.66
DIETARY FIBER:
Soluble and insoluble fiber (a part of other foods) 0
BEVERAGES

All herbal teas are 0
Tea (without milk or sugar) 0- but when drinking green or black tea, it is best to have some form of calcium in the stomach at the same time (to bind with the oxalates in the tea, so you don’t form kidney stones).