Shaolin and Nutrition

[Matthew D. Shouse]

Hey Sifu, I finally have my internet up and running.

I've been in Taiwan for a month now, and a question has cropped up in my mind lately that I first asked back in the US.  I eat local food (great stuff I might add) but I am concerned about what the change in diet is doing to me.  High carb, but relatively low protein (this is solved easily with fish and soy beans, I know).  But milk is really expensive, and considering how much of the stuff I drank before, I wonder where I can get calcium here.

In short, I want to know how did the monks do it? Considering the outrageous training and the pitfall of a restricted vegetarian diet, its amazing that they could develop physically as they did.  Do you know what kinds of things they ate to maintain their intense training?  Where did they get calcium from, if not from milk?  What about other important vitamins and minerals I've missed?  I'd be grateful for any insight.

Xie Xie, Sifu
Matt Shouse

[Jesse Phillips]

turnip greens, kale, and bok choy are good sources of calcium .... one orange is nearly all the calcium you need in a day.

Sorry for speaking out of turn.  I wish there was a PM option because I don't feel right posting here.  But if I didn't post now I might never have.

Tofu has protein.

[Matthew D. Shouse]

Thanks Hessa,

I was the most concerned about calcium as anything, but apparently there is quite a bit of it floating around outside of dairy (what is kale and bok choy by the way?) I had no idea that oranges were loaded too--Is orange juice sufficient, because Ive been drinking that by the gallons.  I suppose if worse comes to worse, I can just start eating all of those fish bones (for all their virtues, the Taiwanese have not mastered the concept of gutting and de-boning the fish BEFORE you cook it and eat it lol).

Any other comments Sifu?  I'm still curious about Shaolin diet, in case there is something that Im overlooking.  Thankfully, I actually find togan (dried tofu) pretty good--but then there are few things, dead or alive, that escape my plate .

[Jesse Phillips]

I feel so lied to.  The site that I read that info from was full of it.  Here are some numbers:

1 cup of milk    300mg of calcium

orange (med.)   52mg (so lied to)

kale 1 cup         94mg of calcium

turnip greens 1 cup     105mg

bok choy (also known as chinese cabbage) 1 cup 74mg

http://home.bluegrass.net/~jclark/calcium_foods.htm is where that info came from and there is a big list to look through including an asian food list.

http://www.foodsubs.com/Cabbage.html has a some pictures, kale is usually skimpier then that at the store.

[SiGung Vincent A. Cabais]

Lots of eggs.