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| Calcium Intake Guideline | Lifelong nutritional calcium intake is essential to decrease the risk of osteoporosis. Consuming adequate calcium and vitamin D and performing habitual, weight-bearing exercise are also important to build greatest bone density and strength. After age 30, these factors help sluggish bone loss, though they cannot totally prevent bone loss because of aging.
Milk and dairy products are a suitable resource of calcium for lots of people. They are also a good resource of protein and are enriched with vitamins D and A. At this time, nevertheless, the best intake of calcium as well as the best resources of calcium are not clear. The National Academy of Sciences presently recommends that people ages 19-50 consume 1,000 mg of calcium per day, and that those age 50 or over get 1,200 mg per day. Reaching 1200 mg per day would usually require drinking two to three glasses of milk per day over and above an overall healthy diet.
Nevertheless, these recommendations are based on very short-term studies, and are possible to be higher than what people actually need. At present, there's no good proof that consuming more than one serving of milk per day in addition to a reasonable diet will decrease fracture risk. Owing to uncertain concerns about the risk of ovarian and prostate cancer, it may be sensible to keep away from higher intakes of dairy products.
At reasonable levels, while, consumption of calcium and dairy products has advantages beyond bone health, as well as possibly lowering the risk of high blood pressure and colon cancer. At the same time as the blood pressure advantages come out quite small, the protection against colon cancer seems somewhat larger, and most of the latter benefit comes from having just one glass of milk per day.
For people who are unable to digest dairy products and for those who just prefer not to consume large amounts of such foods, other options are obtainable. Calcium can also be found in dark green leafy vegetables, like kale and collard greens, and in dried beans and legumes.
Calcium is also found in spinach and chard, but these vegetables contain oxalic acid, which combines with the calcium to form calcium oxalate, a chemical salt that makes the calcium less available to the body. A diversity of calcium-fortified foods, such as orange juice, are now on the market.
Calcium (and vitamin D) can also be ingested as a supplement. Antacids contain calcium as well.
Nevertheless, men may want to keep away from calcium supplements for men because of questions about possible risks of prostate cancer.
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