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The best parts of this recommendation for bone health are the side effects of consuming healthy calcium sources. Fruits, beans, greens, and other vegetables have multitudes of other nutrients working together to promote health in numerous ways. You will be eating for your bones but also for your heart, brain, kidneys, and just about every organ in your body. Leave the baby cow food aside and eat the foods designed and packaged by nature for humans while getting plenty of exercise and a reasonable amount of sunshine.
Because of some of the evidence suggesting milk is unhealthy, I suggest
you skip the cow’s milk. However this does not mean that calcium is
unimportant. Calcium is vital for bone health.
Bone health is incredibly complex, involving many other nutrients like
protein, phosphorus, vitamin D, and sodium and lifestyle factors like
exercise. Government-recommended calcium intakes are controversial and could
themselves be the topic of a huge, long discussion, but the bottom line, in
my opinion, is that individuals should consume at least 500mg of calcium
daily from a whole-foods, plant-based diet.
In one European study[1], vegans had a 30% higher risk of fracture compared
to meat eaters, but they also had a significantly lower calcium intake than
all the other groups. When researchers only considered vegans who ate at
least 525mg of calcium a day, they found that vegans had no increased risk
of fracture. In other words, the increased risk of fracture disappeared when
consuming at least 525mg a day.
If you are eating a whole-food, plant-based diet, you can get over 500mg of
calcium a day without thinking twice about it. Below is a chart showing the
calcium content of a sample of many types of plants, with whole milk listed
for comparison.
Source: USDA nutrient database
Certain greens are particularly rich in calcium, but all whole plants
have some calcium. You can take this to another level by considering
absorption of the calcium. Roughly a third of calcium in milk or calcium
supplements is absorbed[2]. Certain low-oxalate greens have a significantly
higher proportion of calcium that is absorbed (kale, mustard and turnip
greens, bok choy, broccoli, to name a few). Some beans (and occasional
high-oxalate greens, like spinach) have a lower percentage of absorbable
calcium even though they have relatively high total calcium3. As mentioned
before, if all of your calories are coming from whole plant foods, including
plenty of fruits, greens, beans and other vegetables, you don’t need to
think twice about calcium requirements or do any fancy math or milligram
counting. You’ll be fine.
However, many people avoid greens, beans and other vegetables. In the
standard American diet, it has been estimated that we get about 75% of our
calcium in the diet from dairy foods[3]. So if one cuts out all dairy foods
we’ve got to replace it with the “good” foods. Some people don’t do this, so
I do worry about calcium intake for the following scenario: vegans (or
meat-eating dairy avoiders) who eat mostly processed foods, including
unfortified snacks and grain-based foods with lots of added sugar, fat, and
salt. Often these may be the folks who are trying to transition to a
healthier diet who aren’t yet quite “digging” the cup of beans or cup of
cooked greens I recommend every day (these are minimum suggested amounts). I
am guessing that these are the types of diets likely found among vegans in
the European study mentioned above linked to higher fracture rates.
For these scenarios, I do encourage certain fortified processed food intake.
For example, many non-dairy milks are highly fortified with calcium. I
believe these to be the easiest calcium source. Additionally, many cereals
and juices are fortified. In addition, if tofu is made using calcium, it too
has high calcium content. For those people who are avoiding dairy who don’t
eat many fruits, vegetables, beans or greens (there are lots of these folks
around), I do recommend being mindful to consume a serving of nondairy milk
or some other highly fortified food that suits their tastes on a daily
basis.
And lastly, lest we get too carried away with calcium obsession, realize
that bone health is strongly influenced by whether you exercise your bones.
Adult bone density and bone mineral content can be strongly influenced by
exercise, particularly in adolescence[4]. In fact, exercise in adolescence
may be much more important to adult bone mineral content than calcium
intake. Get outside, get some sun and use those bones!
The best parts of this recommendation for bone health are the side effects
of consuming healthy calcium sources. Fruits, beans, greens, and other
vegetables have multitudes of other nutrients working together to promote
health in numerous ways. You will be eating for your bones but also for your
heart, brain, kidneys, and just about every organ in your body. Leave the
baby cow food aside and eat the foods designed and packaged by nature for
humans while getting plenty of exercise and a reasonable amount of sunshine.
PS – There is more information about calcium supplementation in the upcoming
book The Campbell Plan. Additionally, there are conditions
where calcium intake recommendations may be different than what I describe
here. Discuss with your physician if you have specific clinical concerns.
References
Thomas M. Campbell, MD is medical director of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, co-author of The China Study and author of The China Study Solution. He is co-founder and clinical director of the groundbreaking UR Program for Nutrition in Medicine.
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We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.