Calcium: too much or too little?

"Unless you take in enough calcium, by mouth, every day, you have to keep borrowing it from your skeleton, so over your lifetime, you need to get enough," says Dr. Siris. "If you have low bone mass, or are at risk for fractures, you want to minimize any need to take calcium from the skeleton."--cited from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304708604577502660615577758.html

Phew! That sounds so scary and couple with confusion whether we are taking in enough calcium or not. Then there is this news about some research that suggest that some of us are maybe eating too much calcium which in turn can cause more harms than good --heart attack and kidney stone.

Now you ask... what else besides milk and cheese that we need to consume to get our calcium and how do we know the exact amount of calcium that we are taking in unless we are consuming some supplement?

Okay, in general just fyi,  8 ounces of milk or 6 ounces of yogurt has 300 mg of calcium, and one cup of spinach has 270 mg.  

For more complete list, try looking up on the following links that I have found:

• http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile68e.stm
• And for comparison:  http://www.niams.nih.gov/health_info/bone/bone_health/nutrition/

As many of you have already known that our bodies need the help of vitamin D to absorb calcium intake. In a nut shell, for most of us, consuming about 600 international units a day is sufficient It is also noted that it is quite cumbersome to get vitamin D from food source and --sun exposure is not the best choice since it is also the leading cause of skin cancer. That leaves vitamin D supplement as our ultimate choice.

Now back to the question, how much is enough? 

According to the experts, in general we should gobble up about 1000 - 1200 mg/day (maximum of 2000 mg/day) calcium from food sources which is easily accomplish (please refer to the list of food on the above links or any other source of information that you may encounter) instead of taking in calcium supplement. But, if you can't get enough from food, by all means, please consult with your doctor/nutritionist on how much supplement you should take in. 

I hope you find this stop visiting our health --whether we are taking enough calcium or not, useful. 

Until next stop,

Journey of Life