Not Necessary

Finding Calcium Sources Outside the Dairy Case
By Jane E. Brody

Facts About Foods

The experts might have also cautioned Americans about eating too much salt and protein, especially animal protein, which increases the loss of calcium in urine. Eating just one fast-food hamburger leads to a net loss of 23 milligrams of calcium, according to Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a calcium expert at Creighton University in Omaha. However, despite earlier concerns about caffeine, it only minimally increases calcium loss, by about 2 or 3 milligrams for a cup of coffee, Heaney said.

 

Other Food

Canned sardines with their bones included are especially rich in calcium -- 3 ounces of sardines have more calcium than 8 ounces of milk. Canned salmon, also with bones, is about half as good. Other sources include dry-roasted soybeans, blackstrap molasses, figs, some beans and peas (black-eyed peas, white beans, great northern beans, navy beans and soybeans, although the calcium in beans is only about half as available to the body as that in milk), poppy and sesame seeds, tahini, almonds, etc.

What your doctor may not tell you about menopause
by John R Lee, MD

The obvious source of all calcium is from the earth's soil. Our best edible source of calcium is plants. Plants incorporate calcium into their structure along with other minerals, vitamins, and energy-rich compounds that facilitate calcium's absorption. The common perception, sponsored by the dairy association, is that dairy products are the primary source of calcium. Missing from this perception is the fact that well over 70 percent of the people on earth live in the equatorial zone (between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn), where food plants grow year-round and cows' milk is not used. These people have better bones than we in the more northern industrialized areas have. Also missing from the dairy perception is the fact that cows get the calcium for their bones and milk production from the plants they eat.

Too much protein in the diet creates an excess of acidity in the body. The kidneys need to buffer this acidic protein waste-product before they can be excreted in the urine. This buffering is accomplished with calcium, and if there's not enough in the bloodstream to buffer the acidic protein waste-product, calcium is pulled off the bones. This excessive loss of calcium creates a negative calcium balance.

Magnesium, the third most prevalent mineral in bones, not only increases calcium absorption but also facilitates its role in bone mineralization. Magnesium deficiency is common in the US due to our food-growing techniques, our food processing and our diet choices. This important mineral is normally abundant in nuts, seeds, whole grains, and vegetables of all sorts, the diet of our ancestors. Our grains, originally high in magnesium, are "refined," a process that removes the outer fibrous coat along with its magnesium, zinc, and other important minerals. The ideal calcium/magnesium intake ratio is 2:1 .