This week a friend of mine was told by her doctors that she
may have osteoporosis. She wondered what were the best sources of calcium because her body couldn't take dairy products.
She was leary of dairy anyway because she had been hearing a lot of negative stories about milk and dairy (she was
mortified when one of her favorite radio shows talked about the amount of blood, urine and pus allowed in milk! See www.NOTmilk.com for more info.)
This week's tip is all about calcium - why we need it and where to get. Believe it or not,
milk and other dairy products are NOT the best sources of calcium!
What Is Calcium Good For?
About 1.5 percent
of your body weight is made up of calcium, 99 percent of which is in your bones and teeth. Calcium not only helps the strength
and density of your bones, it also impacts the metabolism of estrogen in your body, which also plays a role in your bone strength.
Men
- don't just think this is for women! Calcium plays a part in MANY body functions, including:
- Blood
clotting
- Nerve conduction
- Muscle contraction
- Regulation of enzyme activity
- Cell membrane function
Your
miraculous body makes sure that there is enough calcium circulating in your blood to do its part in all these activities.
If you don't get enough of this mineral through your diet or supplements, however, it means that your blood levels of
calcium will be low. Your body will compensate for this by taking calcium from your bones to keep your blood calcium
levels where they need to be.
This stealing/leaching of calcium from you bones can weaken your bones, cause
bone spurs or heal spurs. If you have these, it's not from too much calcium but actually from a raging calcium deficiency! Over
time, a calcium deficiency will lead to osteoporosis.
This is why it's so important to make sure you and
your family are getting enough of this important mineral!
How Much Calcium Do I Need?
| Age (Male and Female)
Amount |
| 0-6 months | 210 mg/day |
| 7-12
months | 270 mg/day |
| 1-3 years | 500
mg/day |
| 4-8 years | 800 mg/day |
| 9-18 years | 1300 mg/day |
| 19-50 years | 1000 mg/day |
| Over 50 years | 1200 mg/day |
It is a widespread nutritional myth that milk products are good sources of calcium. Dairy
does contain a fair amount of calcium, particularly hard cheese, but the form of calcium is not used well by the human body
(bioavailable). Also, the calcium to magnesium ratio in these products is not sufficient for us to get proper absorption.
As well as inhibiting the body's ability to absorb magnesium, eating dairy foods in excess can cause the body to produce
too much mucous. As you will see in the table of calcium rich foods below, seaweeds and other land plants offer the best sources
of bioavailable calcium.
Generally
it is not that a person is not eating enough calcium - it is one of the most widely occurring nutrients in our diet. It is
more the case that lifestyle choices and dietary habits might interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium. Things
that inhibit the absorption of calcium are:
- Coffee, soft drinks and diuretics
- Excesses of protein, especially
meat
- Refined sugar or too much of any concentrated sweetener or sweet flavored food
- Alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes
and other intoxicants
- Too little or too much exercise
- Excess salt
Your Best Sources of Calcium Are From Food (ideally, go ahead and supplement too)
Visit
any health food store or supermarket and you'll see close to an entire aisle devoted to calcium supplements. Then there
are the claims on food packages like cheese, ice cream, and even fortified orange juice that THEY are the best sources.
So
which is it?
Eating calcium-rich foods is a better method to strengthen your bones than taking calcium supplements
alone, according to researchers from Washington University in St. Louis.
In the study, women who consumed an average
of 830 milligrams (mg) of calcium per day in the foods they ate had higher bone-mineral densities (BMDs) than women who took
1,033 mg of calcium in supplement form. So if you're going to choose one or the other, food appears to be the winner.
However, a combination of both supplements and food sources of calcium may also be beneficial. Women who got at
least 70 percent of their calcium from food, and took calcium supplements, had the highest BMDs of all and took in 1,620 mg
of calcium per day.
