Green leafy vegetables and legumes - The Most Healthful Calcium Sources

The Most Healthful Calcium Sources - How Foods Fight Cancer

Green leafy vegetables and legumes (beans, peas, and lentils) contain calcium
and, unlike milk, are rich in fiber and other nutrients that protect
against cancer. You’ll also find plenty of calcium in supplements and, as we’ve
mentioned, in fortified soymilk and similar products. Calcium-fortified
juices are now widely available. However, it is important to remember that
increased calcium intake may be one of the reasons why milk is linked to
prostate cancer (because high calcium intakes interfere with vitamin D activation).

If that is true, you should be equally cautious about any product
that is extremely high in calcium, including fortified foods and supplements.

In that light, green leafy vegetables and beans are your best calcium
sources. They have adequate calcium, but not excessive amounts.

However, don’t depend on calcium alone—from any source—to protect
you from osteoporosis. While the dairy industry has pushed drinking
milk as a means of preventing the bone-thinning condition, studies show
that the strategy is largely useless.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that for girls in
their peak bone-building years—ages twelve to eighteen—getting extra calcium
made no difference at all in bone growth.11 Exercise worked very well
to foster bone growth, but extra calcium did not. Similarly, in a Harvard
study, a group of 72,337 postmenopausal women followed for eighteen
years showed that dairy calcium did not help bone strength at all. Women
who got the most calcium from dairy sources actually had no protection
against hip fracture compared to those who got little or no dairy calcium.12

So how do you protect your bones? Here are the most important factors
to remember:
■ Exercise is the first key. Your bones need a reason to live, so to
speak—and exercise strengthens them noticeably.
■ Vitamin D—from sunlight or vitamin supplements—helps keep bones
strong.
■ While you do need calcium, studies have not shown substantial
benefits of intakes higher than about 600 milligrams per day for
healthy adults.
■ Fruits and vegetables provide vitamin C to build collagen, which forms
the basic network of tissue within your bones.

Perhaps most important of all, you should understand that osteoporosis
is usually not a condition of inadequate calcium intake. Rather, it is a
condition of overly rapid calcium loss. Three factors, in particular, accelerate
calcium losses, and controlling them gives you important power against
osteoporosis:
■ Sodium (salt) accelerates the passage of calcium through the kidneys
into the urine. To reduce sodium intake, be careful about
consuming processed or canned foods and snack products made
with added sodium.
■ Animal protein is high in sulfur-containing amino acids, which tend
to leach calcium from the bones and send it through the kidneys into
the urine.
■ Smokers have rapid calcium losses.

The Most Healthful Calcium Sources