The Importance of Calcium

The Importance of Calcium

You probably need a lot more than you’re getting

Most Americans don’t meet the recommended dietary allowances for calcium intake set by the National Research Council. What’s more, the NRC’s calcium standards are themselves too low and are likely to be revised in the next three years, experts believe. In fact, an advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health recently urged that the RDA for calcium be increased to as much as 1,200 milligrams a day for children from 1 to 10 years old to as much as 1,500 milligrams a day for adolescents, young adults, and post-menopausal women, and to 1,000 milligrams a day for women from 25 to 50 years old. That represents increases of 25 to 50 percent over the standards established by the NRC in the past.

Such boosts are necessary, the panel of experts said, to lower the risk of osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease that is crippling 25 million Americans, especially postmenopausal women. The new recommendations are based on research showing that raising calcium levels to build greater bone mass, particularly in adolescents and older women, plays a critical role in fighting osteoporosis.

For both men and women, peak bone density is achieved during late adolescence. Around 35 years of age, bones begin to thin for both sexes. This process accelerates for women when estrogen levels drop at menopause. During their lifetimes, women lose about one-third of their bone mass while men lose about one-third of their bone mass while men lose about one-fifth. The more bone mass one develops as an adolescent, the ore protected one will be from the inevitable loss that occurs with age. In one recent study of adolescent girls, raising calcium intake with supplements from 80 percent of the current recommended dietary allowance to 110 percent increased bone mass by more than 1 percent per year during adolescent growth. In another study, this time of men and women ages 50 to 79, those in the top third in terms of calcium consumption suffered 60 percent fewer hip fractures over the next 14 years than did the others.

These ladies are full of calcium. Photo: Elena

Estrogen replacement therapy can be of great help to older women at a high risk of developing osteoporosis, so can raising an older woman’s intake of calcium significantly, through either diet or supplements.

Moreover, there is much evidence to suggest that calcium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels as well as cut the chances of colon cancer. Colon cancer risk appears eve lower when high calcium consumption is accompanied by high intake of vitamin D. Previous medical concern that too much calcium leads to kidney stones now appears unfounded except in the cases of a few men whose bodies overabsorb the mineral.

Meeting the higher calcium requirements now being advanced by experts will take effort. For adolescents and older women, who are being urged to eat 1,500 milligrams of calcium per day, it will take a cup of nonfat yogurt, two glasses of skin milk, two onces of cheese, and one-third of a cup of fresh, cooked broccoli to reach the threshold.

Relaying on natural food sources is preferable because the body absorbs calcium from foods more easily than from supplements, and the effectiveness of the mineral appears to be enhanced by being ingested along with other nutrients in the food, such as vitamin D, potassium, and magnesium.

Calcium supplements are a viable option, but so are calcium-fortified foods.

The Nutritional Power of Bananas

Potassium shows its promise in fighting osteoporosis

Calcium isn’t the only mineral that helps fight osteoporosis. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that potassium bicarbonate, found in many fruits and vegetables, may greatly enhance the body’s ability to retain bone mass and stave off osteoporosis. You should “stock up” on potassium bicarbonate because it’s robbed from the bones when you eat meat, says Dr. Anthony Sebastian, leader of the University of California San Francisco study.

The findings, however, are preliminary. Potassium bicarbonate supplements are neither suggested nor readily available. It’s also not yet clear which foods are the best sources of the substance. But Dr. Sebastian’s recommendations are in line with those of many other nutrition experts: eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat.

Researchers are finding other potential potassium benefits as well. Potassium has long been known for the role it plays in muscle, nerve, heart, and kidney functions, but several recent studies suggest that it may also help reduce blood pressure by relaxing blood-vessel linings so that blood can flow more easily. No cause-and-effect relationship has been clearly established, but researchers are impressed enough with their findings to urge that you include plenty of bananas and other potassium-rich foods in your diet.

A good source of calcium. Photo: Elena

When to Pass the Salt Shaker

Sodium in moderation is no problem unless you have high blood pressure

Yes, sodium contributes to high blood pressure – but without sodium, you would die. Your blood is a saline solution that requires sodium to regulate the pressure in your veins and help your body to retain water. Sodium also plays an important role in transporting nerve impulses to the brain.

Nonetheless, several studies have linked high sodium intake to hypertension, and 5 to 10 percent of Americans are classified as “sodium sensitive,” meaning that their blood pressure responds directly to changes in sodium intake.

Moderation is the key. The FDA recommends that you consume at least 500 milligrams of sodium a day, but not more than 2,400 milligrams. Most Americans far exceed this limit however, consuming from 3,000 to 6,000 milligrams daily.

That’s not hard to do: Eat three ounces of ham or a cup of chicken noodle soup alone and you ingest about 1,000 milligrams of sodium. And a single cup of Manhattan clam chowder is brimming with about 2,000 milligrams of sodium.

Ironically, common table salt is only 40 percent sodium. The rest is chloride, which also aids in transmitting neural impulses. Still, it only takes seven grams of table salt to max out on your sodium intake for the day, so go easy on the Morton’s.