Yet last month I suddenly became weepy. I had to drive to San Antonio for a business meeting. En route I passed the University of Texas football stadium in Austin where my son and I watched a game last fall during parent's weekend. As I whizzed past the stadium, I started crying inconsolably. Why? My son's star is shining at UT. I have nothing to be unhappy about.

A week later I attended the Power Lunch at the Prestonwood Baptist Church. The luncheon always starts with a song. It was a beautiful duet. I started crying at a business luncheon with 500 people. Why? I wasn't moved by the message. I'm Jewish!

That day I picked up my newest Tissue Mineral Analysis report. This is a test which charts your biochemistry and then tells you what to eat and what supplements to take to get back into biochemical balance. The answer was right there in the report: I was going through a calcium dump.

Heretofore, my body had been toxic with calcium. (I ate too much sugar, which caused my body to rob my bones of calcium and to instead deposit it in my soft tissues.) To halt this process, I had altered my diet to mobilize the calcium out of the tissues to be excreted. According to the report, I was currently undergoing this mobilization, which for 90 days was flooding my body with excess calcium.

A calcium dump is a marvelous development. Since calcium typically prevents you from losing weight, I always shed pounds after a calcium dump. Right before bathing suit season. I'm living right.

So that's why I was weepy. Calcium toxicity is one of the primary biochemical causes of depression.

Dr. Richard Malter, a clinical psychologist in Schaumburg, Illinois, has studied the relationship between calcium toxicity and depression. One of his patients, who had just turned 40, read in her local newspaper about the dangers of osteoporosis at her age. She began to take calcium supplements to protect her bones. (Sound familiar?)

Months later, according to Dr. Malter, she was engulfed in a deep depression, coupled with fits of anger and crying spells for no apparent reason. (I've been there, done that!) Dr. Malter discovered her symptoms started after she began ingesting her calcium pills every morning. He told her to stop taking the supplements.

Within two weeks the depression started lifting. Within 90 days she returned to her normal, uplifting mental state. She also had a Tissue Mineral test which quantified her calcium toxicity.

Both this woman and I are slow metabolizers, people I label as the "colds." Our hands and feet are always cold and we put on excess pounds in our hips and thighs. Almost 80 percent of the human population is a slow metabolizer. We colds are extremely sensitive to excess calcium. Given too much, we spiral down into a haze of unhappiness.

Milk and cookies have been a popular bed time snack for centuries. That's because calcium is a natural sedative. It slows you down physically AND mentally.

So, how can you eat yourself out of a deep depression?

First, stop putting calcium into your body.

1. Do not take calcium supplements.
   
2. Avoid all dairy foods.
   
3. Eschew high calcium fish like sardines (no more Caesar salads) and salmon (my favorite). ):
   
4. Do not ingest high calcium vegetables. These include mushrooms and all cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. Chard, kale and cabbage also are high calcium greens. (Boo all.)

Second, work hard to precipitate the calcium out of your system.