Whole grain, bran, wholemeal bread, spinach and rhubarb,  they are not bad for you, but the phytates they contain will bind with calcium ingested at the same time and stop you absorbing it correctly.   Don't  bother eating Spinach as a souce of calcium, it is so tightly bound, that you will not absorb any of it!   Its not a great problem avoiding taking calcium with the bread and spinach, but cereal is more difficult. 

I have gone from being an Albran fan to eating porridge.  I was told that the oats can be made safe if they are soaked overnight in water containing  about 1 tablespoon  of bio-yogurt. This is then rinsed off and drained the next morning, prior to adding your milk/water for cooking in the microwave.   I've found that the pre-soak, cuts down on the cooking time and you need to add less milk/water.     I was told that an alternative to bio-yogurt is lemon juice.  I have tried this, but I tend to stick with the yogurt. Although lemon juice is good for you.

Reference cheese:  I am also a vegetarian who has recently started eating a little fish, usually tinned Wild Red Salmon.  I use pH indicator strips to check the pH of my urine.   The guide lines say that we need about 56g of protein each day.  I have found that cheese, eggs and fish can alter my urine pH from say 7.5 in the morning to as low as 5.5 by evening.  Regardless of this you MUST have some complete proteins for bone health. I limit myself to about 30g cheese a couple of times per week.  Eggs are good for you, but I would only eat 1 egg (free range) per day.  I  drink semi skimmed milk, approx. 300ml per day.  I never eat tofu, it may be good for you, but I cannot stand the texture of it.

I take chelated magnesium to get a ratio of 2 Ca to  1 Mg.   Chelated Magnesium is very alkaline and will help to correct the acidic urine back to alkaline.

Lynne H

Going off at a slight tangent to the main subject,  do you have any concern over taking strontium ranelate and vit K2, in relation to the very slight DVT risk?

As you know I finally got prescription SR and have been taking K2(MK7): 90mcg per day, for a few months. I recently bought 6 months supply of K2(MK4) and have been taking 5mg per day.  I was given a link (which I haven't managed to copy) on the NOF forum which said that a combined therapy of K2 (didn't say which type) and D3 markedly increased bone mineral density  and also showed an increase in coagulation and fibrinolytic activity that was within normal range and showed that the coagulation/fibrinolytic balance was maintained.

I was originally slightly worried because they use to give vit K (don't know which one) to patients who had taken too much warfarin and started bleeding.

Lynne H