For many reasons, scientists and the general public are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of dietary calcium. Many research studies demonstrate a link between dietary calcium intake and improved body composition as well as diseases such as osteoporosis, arterial hypertension and colon cancer.
These diseases have many causes, but the scientific community now recognizes that dietary calcium helps prevent them.
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Strong Bones, Fat Loss And Better Health; Get Your Calcium From Dairy Foods
State of the art assessment methods now reveal that the bioavailability of calcium in a food is most important to obtaining this mineral’s health benefits. Bioavailability depends on the likelihood of the calcium to be absorbed and incorporated into bone. In a detailed report that compared research on the bioavailability of difference sources of calcium, dairy foods won hands down.
A Diet Rich in Dairy Foods
To obtain calcium’s beneficial effects, this element must be retained by the body and used in bone formation and mineralization. Some compounds in food can form insoluble complexes with calcium, thereby reducing its absorbability of the diet, these include; phytates found in bran and most cereals and seeds, oxalates in spinach, rhubarb, walnuts and sorrel, and tannins (found in tea).
As a nutritional staple, a diet rich in dairy foods seems to be the only way to ensure a large portion of your calcium intake is retained and utilized by the body. People that follow strict vegetarian diets are most at risk of developing calcium deficiencies. Another important finding is that most fibers (cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignins and non-cellulose polysaccharides) seem to have no direct effect on calcium absorbability.