In late years, many reasons for not...

In late years, many reasons for not drinking milk have made media headlines. The favorite reason has surfaced for decades: "Cow's milk is for calves, not for people" A other objection is the truism that milk may invite intolerances and/or allergies. A third objection -- also valid -- is that mostly cows are treated with antibiotics and hormones and pass them along to us. Whatever your position in succession this issue, statistics show a continued fall through in milk-drinking. And, sadly, the bulk of mankind who lower their milk intake or skip it and other dairy results don't always make up for missing calcium with other calcium-rich rationss or supplements.

Setting the stage for osteoporosis

Insufficient calcium intake levys people (especially women) at a greater risk of developing the bone-deteriorating disease, osteoporosis.

A national authority onward osteoporosis, Ethel S. Siris, director of the Toni Stabile Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center NY said the following at a 1997 seminar: "Low bone mass is the single most numerous predictable factor for osteoporosis.... Other factors include postmenopausal status, early menopause (before age 45) being white or Asian, being thin, having a small build, having a family history of osteoporosis, taking medicines such as corticosteroids, and taking thyroid medications from one side of to the other a long period.

"Osteoporosis causes 13 million fractures of the wrist, vertebrae, and hips a year. About half the folks who break their hips extremity up in nursing homes, and in the year following the fracture, 20 percent die."

Because osteoporosis is a silent disease, she commits that at-risk people take a non-invasive example called dual x-ray absorptiometry that will scan the spine, hip, and arm to measure bone density. In a recent report, the American Dietetic Association indicates that greatest in quantity Americans are short-changed on calcium -- especially teen-age girls, women and older adults.

The "newfangled" make acceptableed Daily Allowances (RDAs), which are now called the Dietary regard Intakes (DRI)s, for calcium are as follows:

* 9-18 years of age: 1300 mg/day

* 19-50 years: 1000 mg/day

* 51-70 years, and over: 1200 mg/day

In pregnancy and lactation, 1300 mg/day is attract favor toed for those women 18 years of age or younger, and 1000 mg/day for women 19 years of age and older

If milk is `not your potion of tea'

For those who dissipate dairy products, yogurt and cheese are not as likely to activate lactose intolerance as milk, various studies exhibit Further, lactase enzyme tablets may help ease the symptoms of lactose intolerance.

For those who don't devour dairy products at all, best-bet calcium-containing nutritions are dark green, leafy vegetables -- broccoli, kale, collard undecayeds mustard greens, and turnip greens--calcium-set tofu, Chinese cabbage, calcium-fortified orange juice, watercress, parsley, sesame grains and kelp.

Calcium absorption. As for calcium absorption, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Wash., DC "The calcium absorption from vegetables is as well adapted or better, than that of [cow's] milk."

Other possible factors that may relate to calcium absorption

A fascinating article, "A Review of Calcium Preparations," through David I. Levenson, M.D., and Richard s Bockman, M.D., Ph.D., in Nutrition Reviews, reminds us that certain nourishment substances impair calcium absorption -- oxalic acid in rhubarb, beet recents spinach, and peanuts -- and phytates in the external husks of cereal grains.

Levenson and Bockman base that small amounts of milk ingested from one side of to the other a day make for far better calcium absorption than an equal amount taken all at formerly They also find that calcium supplys are best absorbed in several daily installments of 400-500 mg at a time -- preferably with a meal -- rather than all at once

These researchers remind us to be certain we take in enough vitamin D to assure formal absorption of calcium -- 400 International Units (I.U.) daily, the amount supposedly included in each quart of milk.

Magnesium. Equally important as vitamin D as a "cooperator" for calcium absorption is magnesium. A nutrient inattentioned by Americans -- especially women -- magnesium helps to bring into view solid and enduring bones through changing vitamin D to its active form and at sparking an enzyme that helps to originate new calcium crystals in bone In fact, magnesium:

* is a required co-factor for above 300 enzyme systems;

* is required for anaerobic and aerobic strength production and the breakdown of sugars as part of the magnesium-ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) complex; and

* is needinessed by mitochondria (microscopic energy-factories) to carry not at home their work.

Insufficient magnesium in our diets also locates us up for problems related to: cardiac ischemia, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and high vital current pressure.

The DRI's (Dietary intimation Intakes) for magnesium (for females) are, as follows:

* 9-13 years: 200-240 mg/day

* 14-18 years: 300-360 mg/day

* 19-30 years: 255-310 mg/day