Is Calcium the answer for bone loss?
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Is Calcium the answer for bone loss?
For over 50 years, the dairy industry has pitched milk as a wonder food whose calcium is the only protection we need against weak bones. Yet, between foods and supplements, Americans have the world's highest calcium intake, and still suffer one of the world's highest rates of osteoporosis.
While this is blamed on genetic weakness, studies prove otherwise. The best way to learn if disease is genetically or nutritionally induced is to compare different diets among the same genetic groups. Doing this, we find that African women in the United States eat four times more calcium than African women in Africa, and have nine times more osteoporosis. Asian women in the United States eat twice as much calcium as Asian women in Asia, and have three times more osteoporosis. As calcium consumption in Hong Kong and Greece doubled in the last 30 years, the rate of osteoporosis more than tripled in Hong Kong, and doubled in Greece. Finally, white Americans who eat meat and dairy products consume three times more calcium than vegetarians, and have far higher rates of osteoporosis. Thus, it is clear that nutrition is a more powerful influence than genetics in osteoporosis.
While calcium is, of course, vital for strong bones, a study funded by the dairy industry itself shows that the more milk we consume, the more bone we lose. The Harvard Nurses Study, which tracked the diet and health over of over 78,000 nurses, as well as cross cultural comparisons from around the world, confirm this.
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