If the marketing onslaught of pink everything hadn’t clued you in to the fact that October is breast cancer awareness month, consider yourself officially informed.  Sigh.  If only using my pink blender while wearing my pink lip gloss and eating a pink York peppermint patty could help lower my risk of breast cancer…I’d have the most benign bosoms on the Eastern seaboard.

Luckily, nutrition science has several pink-ribbon-worthy morsels to offer us as far as things we can actually DO (or eat, or not eat) to lower our individual risks of developing breast cancer.

Best evidence: These things should definitely help lower your risk:

1. Lose that gut.   Being overweight both increases your risk of developing breast cancer, as well as decreases your risk of survival if you have breast cancer.  The risk of developing breast cancer is particularly pronounced if you become obese after menopause, with some studies showing as much as a 50% increase in risk.  After menopause, the more weight you gain, the greater the risk increases.  It also appears that women whose excess fat is concentrated around the belly have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women whose excess weight is more evenly distributed among their hips and thighs.  There are a million reasons to maintain a healthy body weight, and now you can add breast cancer prevention to that list.
2. Lay off the sauce. Even moderate alcohol consumption (average of 1 drink/day for women) is associated with an increased risk in breast cancer compared to not drinking at all.  And the more you drink, the greater the risk.  It appears that alcohol increases the risk of a type of tumor classified as ”estrogen or progesterone receptor positive,” suggesting that alcohol works by influencing circulating hormone levels.   If you choose to drink (and I personally do), consider targeting a range closer to a drink or two per week instead of a drink or two per day.
3. Exercise most days.  30-60 minutes.  Moderate is good, but vigorous is better.

Good evidence: These things will probably help lower your risk:

1. If you do drink regularly, make sure to meet your daily folate needs. Folate is a B-vitamin that is required for normal cell replication.  Drinking alcohol impairs absorption of dietary folate.  Studies seem to show that folic acid supplementation can help mitigate the risk of developing cancer among women who use alcohol regularly, but it does not reduce the risk of breast cancer among non-drinkers.  The amount of folic acid in a typical multivitamin (400-600mcg) should suffice for moderate drinkers when taken in addition to a diet that includes some fruits, green vegetables and fortified breads/cereals.
2. Eat more (organic), traditionally-prepared soy foods.  Several large, well-designed studies out of Asia show significant decreases in breast cancer risk among women who consume higher amounts of whole or traditionally-prepared soy foods, such as tofu, misso, tempeh, natto and/or boiled soybeans (edamame) as compared to women who consume the lowest amounts of these foods.  Note that there is no good data to support that you can get this same effect from eating processed Western foods loaded up with soy protein isolate (SPI), and some reasons to be wary of doing so.  However, if you have a digestive intolerance to soy or have thyroid abnormailities, steer clear of soy; there are plenty of other things you can do to help reduce your breast cancer risk without aggravating the rest of your body.  I understand that the message on soy and breast cancer is a confusing one, with some women concerned that dietary soy may actually *increase* breast cancer risk, but the scientific literature (human studies) does not support this association.
3. If you can’t/don’t eat soy, eat flax.  There is some evidence that suggests eating foods high in phytoestrogen compounds called lignans may have a similar protective benefit as do the phytoestrogenic compounds called isoflavones found in soy; the best dietary source of lignans, hands down, is flaxseed.  Besides, flaxseed is a great source of fiber and omega-3’s, so you can kill 3 birds with one vegetarian stone.  You multi-tasker, you.
4. Go easy on the fat.  Most (but not all) studies show that lower-fat diets are associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, particularly diets that are low in saturated and trans fats.  In the typical U.S. diet, saturated fat is mostly found in red meat, milk and cheese , whereas trans fats are found in fast foods, margarine, and commercially-baked goods.  The best way to minimize saturated fat in your diet is to eat low-fat dairy instead of full-fat, go for quality over quantity with your cheese intake, and use meat as an accent rather than as the main event.  I’d advise avoiding trans fat alltogether if possible.  Be aware of deceptive marketing tactics pertaining to trans fats: many restaurants or food packages claim “0g trans fats per serving.”  It’s that “per serving” you need to watch out for, as they can legally claim 0g if each serving has <0.5g.  Are you really going to just be eating just one serving of that food?  If not, then you could be eating several grams of trans fat without realizing it.  If the label reads “partially hydrogenated oil” of any kind, the food will have trans fats, regardless of what the marketing claims.

Emerging but as-yet inconclusive  evidence: These things may help lower your risk:

1. Improve your Vitamin D status.  Recent government data shows that a frightening 77% of Americans have a Vitamin D insufficiency, and that an astounding 97% of non-hispanic black Americans are Vitamin D insufficient.  And the trends show our collective vitamin D status is worsening– NOT improving– due in large measure to more sedentary, indoor-based lifestyles, sunscreen use, and low intake of fortified dairy products.  What’s more, even people who take in the current recommended levels of Vitamin D are still coming up deficient, leading most researchers to conclude that the currently recommendations are too low.  While there are not yet any human studies which show an association between Vitamin D supplementation and reduced breast cancer, there is mounting circumstantial evidence that points in that direction.  Breast cells actually have vitamin D receptors to supply them with this much-needed vitamin, which is shown to have a role in proper cell division and differentiation.  Breast cancer tumor cells have Vitamin D receptors too, and in vitro, Vitamin D has been shown to stop them from replicating.  Epidemiological evidence shows lower rates of breast cancer among people with greater exposure to the sun, since our bodies are able to manufacture Vitamin D from UV rays.  Since Vitamin D is so important for numerous health outcomes– of which breast cancer prevention is just one possible such outcome–and since Vitamin D is virtually absent from our food supply, it’s not a bad idea for most people to take a supplement–at least during the winter months.  Personally, I supplement 1,000 IU of Vitamin D3 per day from October through May, and make sure to get 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure on my arms from June-September.  This level of supplementation is safe for everyone, and it should be sufficient to increase your vitamin D status to sufficient levels when taken in addition to a diet that includes some fortified dairy/dairy substitutes, fatty fish (like sardines, salmon, herring and mackerel) and/or other sneaky Vitamin D-rich foods, like dried shiitake mushrooms.

Tweet This Post

© Sgame | Dreamstime.com

There have been a lot of gluten-free experiments in my kitchen this past year, some of which have produced winning meals that became part of the regular playlist. So in anticipation of the upcoming awards, I decided to take a break from National Heart Awareness month to host my own Gluten-free Grammy award ceremony and pay tribute to the greatest hits of the year. And the winners are…

Best GF breakfast cereal (c0ld): tie between Barbara’s Bakery Puffins (original flavor) and Nature’s Path Organic Mesa Sunrise

The pickings are still slim in the gluten-free cereal world, where our choices are pretty much limited to puffed rice cereals with no nutritional value and puffed corn cereals with no nutritional value. Gluten-free cereals tend to have a measly 1g of fiber per serving, and to add insult to injury they’re not even fortified with many of the vitamins and minerals that conventional cereals are enriched and fortified with, rendering them little more than bowls of puffed starch.

Thankfully, there are at least 2 exceptions to the rule. I chose two winners for this category because Puffins, while they are wheat-free, are not technically gluten-free. (They contain oat flour, which may not be tolerated by some people with celiac disease–especially if the oats used have been heavily cross-contaminated with wheat during processing.) Still, most gluten-avoiders I know tolerate Puffins just fine, and that’s lucky for them: it’s one of the few wheat-free cereals that has any sort of fiber whatsoever (a solid 5g per 3/4 cup serving) and it’s quite low in added sugar (5g–or 1.25 teaspoons–per serving.) Their yummy taste and fun, puffy texture take me back to my childhood breakfast table where Post’s Corn Bran cereal was a perennial favorite. Note that the honey rice and peanut butter flavors have much less fiber than the original. And the cinnamon flavor is overly crunchy in my opinion–it never softens in milk.

Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise is fully gluten-free, and unlike the standard corn flake it resembles, it actually has a respectable amount of fiber (3g per 3/4 cup serving). It’s low in added sugar (only 4g–or 1tsp–per serving), it’s really tasty, and as a bonus, it contains beneficial omega-3 fatty acids from the flax seeds. The cherry on top? It’s organic, meaning no GMO-corn is used, and it is sold in eco-friendlier bags that contain much less packaging material than standard boxed cereals.

Best GF store-bought bread: Kinnikinnick Many Wonder Multigrain Rice Bread

I will preface this by saying that GF breads as a category are awful. Sold in the freezer section, they are dense, low-fiber, high-calorie, high-fat bread-shaped logs that tend only to be passable when fresh out of the toaster. This makes them very bad delivery systems for that PB&J you wanted to pack for lunch, since by the time they make it to lunchtime, they’re dense and oddly-textured again. We won’t even mention the fact that these awful GF breads cost 2x-5x more than a standard loaf of whole wheat. Hrrrmph. Needless to say, bread does not feature prominently in the diets of most people I know who have celiac disease.

Still, every once in awhile, the need for a breadlike carrier calls. Lunches need to be packed; burgers need a makeshift bun; eggs need toast. And therefore, we need something passable to meet the need. Kinnikinnick’s Many Wonder Multigrain Rice bread is the one store-bought (frozen) bread I’ve found that actually tastes quite good when toasted and has a texture that more closely resembles normal bread. It also has a reasonable amount of calories per slice (90), a very good amount of fiber per slice (3g), and it is fortified with the same vitamins and minerals as enriched wheat flour is–which is VERY rare in GF baked goods. (This last point is important for two reasons: one, because most GF breads are made primarily of starch, which has no vitamin and mineral content; and two, because enriched/fortified breads and cereals make up an important source of B-vitamins and iron in the diets of most Americans–and especially children. GF-kids who eat GF-versions of typical ‘kid’ foods may be at risk for deficiencies in these important nutrients if they’re not supplied elsewhere in the diet.)

Best GF pancake mix: Pamela’s Products Baking & Pancake Mix

This is another GF product that isn’t just passable for being GF, but it’s as good as–if not better than– many of the wheat-containing products out there. It produces a delicious pancake (I spike mine with frozen blueberries) and excellent waffles that have nice, fluffy textures and no off-flavors. The mix also works well as a stand-in for all-purpose wheat flour in many recipes, including the one for pumpkin corn muffins below. As with most GF products, it’s certainly pricier than its non-GF peers, but what’s better than eating real pancakes with the rest of your family on a weekend morning? To compensate for the relative lack of fiber in the mix, go ahead and top your pancakes with heaps of fresh berries or other sliced fruit to serve.

Best GF frozen waffles: Van’s Wheat-Free Flax

They taste totally normal as far as frozen waffles go, and calorie-wise, 2 waffles only have 30 more calories (210 vs 180) than 2 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Whole Wheat waffles. Unfortunately, they have less fiber (a measly 1g per 2-waffle serving, vs. 3g in the Kellogg’s product), which is pretty typical among the GF waffle set due to the heavy use of starches rather than whole grains. However, they’re a good source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids owing to the flax meal and their sweetness comes from natural juices rather than refined sugar or corn syrup. BYOF (bring your own fiber) by topping them with fresh berries or other sliced fruit and you’ve made them into a better breakfast choice already. Try the buckwheat variety, too. They’re good.

Best GF pizza crust: Bob’s Red Mill GF Pizza Crust Mix

Once upon a time, when my intestines cooperated with all manner of proteins, I would make a weekly homemade pizza from a ball of fresh, whole-wheat pizza dough that I bought for $1.50 at the local Whole Foods. It was one of my easy, crowd-pleasing dinners; the dough was all ready to go, and all I’d have to do was chop up a ton of vegetables, shred some cheese and bake.

Since then, I’ve tried all manner of GF pizza crusts, with only one, basic criterion: it has to produce a pizza that will be acceptable to serve to my husband, who is a pizza aficionado who vowed to love me through sickness and health, but not to suffer through god-awful pizza-like experiments that taste like cardboard and glue.

I’ve tried cardboard (Glutino Frozen Pizza Crusts–they baked up so crunchy that I almost broke a tooth) and I’ve tried glue (Gillian’s Wheat, Gluten and Dairy free Pizza Dough–sold in a ball in the freezer section and defrosted before use. It somehow combined with the liquid in my tomato sauce in such a way that to form an adhesive bond with my baking pan which took 24 hours of soaking to remove. Disaster.) And so despite my reluctance to buy a mix that I’d have to add yeast to and wait to rise, I decided it might be my only chance to reclaim weekly pizza night. (OK, given the effort involved, it’s more like monthly now.)

There were two such mixes I tried that produced delicious pizza crusts that were fluffy and bready– like focaccia or a Sicilian-style pizza pie: The Gluten-Free Pantry’s French Bread and Pizza Mix, and Bob’s Red Mill GF Pizza Crust Mix. So how did Bob’s edge out its competitor? The GF Pantry product is made of pure starch (white rice flour, potato starch and corn starch, essentially) and therefore contains no fiber and almost no protein. To make matters worse, the recipe required me to add 1/3 cup of oil (which adds 65g of fat to what should be a very low fat product), which seemed excessive to me.

The Bob’s product, on the other hand, contained (whole grain) brown rice flour, whole grain millet flour and whole grain sorghum flour in addition to some potato and tapioca starches. This adds a very respectable amount of fiber (4g) and protein (3g) per slice, assuming the whole mix makes 8 slices, which I can attest that it most certainly did. The mix requires you to add the same amount of eggs as the GF pantry product, but only 2 TBSP of oil (27g of fat, divided by 8 slices…much more reasonable). I will warn you that this dough can be tricky to work with when it comes to spreading it out in your pan. It’s sticky, but coating your hands in some GF flour may help you coerce it evenly into all corners of your baking sheet. Be patient and have faith… it will bake up to be a bready, airy and chewy crust that is sturdy enough to hold an ambitious volume of toppings.

Best GF muffins: Karina’s Kitchen Pumpkin Corn Muffins

I spent a lot of time experimenting with GF muffin recipes this past Fall, and came up with a surprising number of good results. But this recipe from the Karina’s Kitchen blog was a hands-down winner. Its texture is a cross between cornbread and a conventional cakey muffin, making it an excellent crossover muffin for a breakfast/brunch treat or a dinnertime chili/soup accoutrement. Wheat-eaters to whom I served it had no idea it was gluten-free; it was not just ‘good for gluten-free,’ but it was plain old good, period. It’s fast to make–less than 10 minutes to mix the ingredients and get them into the oven–and it freezes, defrosts, re-freezes and defrosts again like a breeze. (Trust me; I tested this out and the muffins were no worse for the wear.)

If you attempt to make this recipe at home, I’d recommend using half of the oil she calls for (1/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup), substituting 1/4 cup of applesauce instead. The end product will still be exceptionally moist, very freezable, and will have a significantly lower amount of fat. If you have some pepitas (pumpkin seeds) at home, they make a nice garnish to sprinkle atop the muffins before they bake.

Best GF pasta: Eden Foods 100% Buckwheat Soba Noodles

Gluten-free pasta is tough. While I do use Asian rice noodles, they’re made from white rice flour and water, and hence deliver starch-turned-sugar quickly and directly into the veins without any other nutritional value. I’ll use those in small quantities once in awhile, but they can’t be my go-to noodle.

I quite like some of the Ancient Harvest Quinoa pastas, made from a blend of corn and quinoa flours. The smaller pastas hold together well and serve as perfectly acceptable pasta-stand-ins when doused in my homemade pesto. But longer pastas are always a problem. Case in point: The De Boles brand of natural pasta makes a whole grain spaghetti that completely breaks apart while cooking… so don’t waste your money.

I chose Eden Foods’ 100% Buckwheat Soba Noodles because they are a naturally-gluten free noodle that is thick and chewy and holds together perfectly when cooked properly to the recommended al dente texture. Soba noodles are traditional Japanese noodles that are delicious in their own right; not GF imposters trying to knock off the Italian standard. They have 3g of fiber and 6g of protein per serving (that’s really good). While the buckwheat flavor may or may not fit in with your expectations of what a steaming plate of pasta with red sauce and parmesan cheese should taste like, perhaps it’s a good opportunity to learn some new ways to prepare and eat pasta…no? Try searching the eden foods website with the keyword “soba” for ideas.

Got any nominees of your own to share? Oscar night is right around the corner…

Tweet This Post

© Daniela Schraml | Dreamstime.com

Ever find it curious that the majority of African/African-American, Asian, Hispanic and Jewish adults are at least somewhat lactose-intolerant, and yet the USDA Food Pyramid recommends that we all consume 3 servings of dairy per day? Ever wonder why everyone in Asia isn’t keeling over with broken bones despite the fact that cow’s milk is not a part of the traditional Asian diet? Ever hear your vegan friends protest that humans are the only species who drink the milk of another species? In other words, ever wonder why our body needs so much darn calcium if dairy products are so problematic for so many of us?

Well apparently it wasn’t always this way. According to the veritable clinical nutrition bible, Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, once upon a time, we humans used to get plenty of calcium from our nomadic diets rich in “roots, tubers, nuts and beans.” (Generally, plant roots contain the highest levels of calcium, and grains/fruits accumulate the least calcium.) As the nomadic lifestyle gave way to settlement patterns based around domesticated grains and animals, the human diet shifted toward dietary patterns and food processing methods that resulted in significantly less dietary calcium. The result? Dairy foods–made possible by the domestication of various animals– became the most important source of calcium in our Western diet. (But still, in a certain parts of the world, people get their calcium primarily from some combination of green vegetables, soybean products, beans, corn milled on limestone and/or root vegetables.)

But no matter how we ended up here, the fact remains that most adults need 1,000mg of calcium/day, and most adults do not get 1,000mg of calcium/day. Teenagers need even more: 1,300mg/day, and adults over the age of 50 need 1,200mg/day*. That’s a lot of calcium, even for people who like dairy,who eat dairy regularly, who digest dairy perfectly well and who have no philosophical objections to eating dairy products. If it were easy to get it all in, then the majority of Americans wouldn’t be falling short of the goal.

DAIRY SOURCES

The reference amount for a serving of calcium tends to be 1 cup of milk, which has about 300mg of relatively bioavailable calcium. You may have heard that the average adult is supposed to consume the equivalent of about 3 cups of milk per day to reach the recommended 1,000mg. In dairy currency, the equivalent of 1 cup of milk would be 6-8oz of yogurt (depending on the type); or 1.5 oz of most hard cheeses (one standard 1oz piece of string cheese has about 200mg of calcium, so it’s still a very good–and very convenient–source). Some softer cheeses–like brie or cottage cheese, for example–have significantly less calcium.

But what about non-dairy sources? What’s would be equivalent sources of comparably bioavailable calcium? (This is good information here, people. Good luck trying to squeeze it out of the USDA’s Food Pyramid…)

FORTIFIED BEVERAGES

Studies have shown that soymilk fortified with calcium carbonate provides as much bioavailable calcium as does an equivalent amount of cow’s milk. Ditto for most calcium-fortified orange juices. So 1 cup of either such product would be a good substitute for 1 serving of dairy. If your soymilk is fortified with calcium triphosphate, you’ll need about 1.3 cups to absorb the same amount of calcium that’s in a cup on cow’s milk.

VEGETABLES

You may have heard that several vegetables are good sources of calcium, too. While this is true, multiple factors can impact the bioavailability of calcium from plant sources. These include the presence of natural compounds called oxalates and phytates– both of which can bind to calcium in the digestive tract and prevent it from being absorbed. So when you consider vegetable sources of calcium, it’s not enough to know how much calcium they contain as it’s written on the label, but how much calcium you’ll actually be able to absorb.

Members of the Brassica genus of vegetables–which are any plants related to cabbage–are the most commonly cited as good sources of calcium. For good reason: the calcium in these vegetables is very bioavailable owing to the low levels of oxalates they contain, but you’ll still have to eat a lot of many of them in order to absorb the equivalent amount of calcium that you’d absorb from 1 cup of cow’s milk. For example: ~3 cups of chopped broccoli; ~3 cups of chopped kale; 2-2.5 cups of bok choy. The best I’ve come across are chinese mustard greens, where ~1 cup chopped has the same amount of bioavailable calcium as milk. Don’t let some of these large portions discourage you from relying on these vegetables as a key source of calcium in your diet! A more standard portion of 1 cup of most raw Brassica vegetables (which for leafy vegetables will cook down to about 1/2 cup) will typically have at least a very solid 10% of your daily calcium needs (on average; exact amounts will depend on the specific vegetable), so eating average portions of these types of vegetables daily will add up and make a significant contribution toward meeting your calcium goal. Not to mention a significant contribution to your goal of eating a diet rich in vegetables! Other vegetables in the Brassica family include: cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, mustard greens, collard greens, turnip greens and kohlrabi.

You may also have heard that spinach is a good source of calcium. And it is! But alas, spinach is plagued by relatively high levels of both oxalates and phytates, and its calcium is very poorly absorbed (only about 5% of its calcium content is absorbed, compared to about 60% for kale and broccoli). It’s not a good source of bioavailable calcium, but it’s very healthy for all sorts of other reasons, so don’t break up with it. Just don’t count on it to help you inch your way to the holy grail of 1,000mg.

BEANS

While beans are a decent source of calcium, they tend to have too many phytates and oxalates to allow you to absorb very much calcium. Of the beans, white beans are reportedly one of your best bets for calcium: approximately 2 cups of cooked white beans should provide the same amount of bioavailable calcium as a cup of milk, which means a more-likely portion of 1 cup still offers a very respectable 15% of your daily needs. Speaking of beans, tofu that is set in calcium will be a good source of bioavailable calcium, too. (Look for calcium sulfate on the ingredient list.) You’ll need about a 5oz serving (a bit over 1/2 cup… a bit less than 3/4 cup) to absorb the same amount of calcium as you would from 1 cup milk. So even a slightly smaller standard portion of tofu will contribute significantly to your reaching your calcium intake goals.

OTHER LESSER-KNOWN CALCIUM-RICH FOODS

There are several other foods that are pretty good sources of calcium (~10% of the daily value per serving) for which I could not find bioavailability data. I will mention a few here only because they tend to be less well-known. They include dried figs, sesame seeds/sesame tahini, canned salmon with the bones, sardines, blackstrap molasses, toasted unblanched almonds, and boiled soybeans (edamame). If you like any of these foods, it’s a good idea to include reasonably-sized portions of them in your regular diet. As you will see from the information above, every little bit helps! Your best bet to meet your daily calcium goals is to eat a varied diet that includes cruciferous vegetables (especially the dark leafy ones), beans, tofu, fish, dairy (if you like it), fortified foods/drinks, nuts and seeds.

PREVENTING CALCIUM LOSSES

Now once you’ve gone through all of the trouble of taking in sufficient calcium, don’t go throwing it away! Sodium and calcium share the same transport systems in your kidneys, so when you excrete sodium, it takes calcium along with it. In other words, eating a high-sodium diet means your body has to get rid of a lot of sodium to keep its fluid balance intact, and this will have a significant impact on how much calcium you’re able to retain. The vast majority (almost 80%) of sodium in a typical American diet comes from processed foods and restaurant meals…so the more you cook at home with fresh, minimally processed foods, the better you’ll be able to control your sodium intake. Certain foods are notoriously high in sodium, so start paying attention to those nutrition facts labels: frozen entrees, frozen veggie burgers/meat substitutes, processed/cured meats, canned anything and especially canned soups, broths, condiments of all kinds, soy sauce, miso, pickles/olives, and chips/pretzels/salty snacks. The recommended maximum sodium intake is 2,400mg/day, so try to pay attention to your intake so you can protect your calcium.

SUPPLEMENTS

So what if after all of this effort, you still fall short of your calcium goals? This, in my opinion, is why god created the calcium supplement. (I take 500mg a day to bridge the gap between what I estimate my regular diet provides and what I know I need to take in. There’s no shame in that.) If you choose to take a supplement, there’s no point in taking one with more than 500mg per dose, as the body cannot absorb more than that at once. So if you do choose to take a full 1,000mg/day, it would be best to split that up into two separate doses of 500mg each, once in the morning and once in the evening. Most calcium supplements also contain Vitamin D, which is a good thing; this helps your intestines absorb the calcium. You’ll see several forms of calcium used in supplements. Calcium carbonate is best absorbed with food. Calcium citrate can be taken on an empty stomach. The only calcium supplement that benefits you is the calcium supplement you actually take. Don’t buy a huge horse pill if you hate swallowing it, because then you won’t take it. Also, pay attention to the number of pills in a “serving.” If the label says that 1 serving provides 500mg of calcium but the serving size is 2 pills, then you need to take both pills in order to get the 500mg. (I know this sounds obvious, but when is the last time you read a serving size on a vitamin pill label?) I know that those Viactiv calcium chews are very popular, and I think that they’re fine if the caramel/chocolate flavor helps motivate you to take them regularly. Just be aware that they are not calorie-free and they’re made mostly of sugar. (Not to sound like a grinch; it’s only 20 calories per chew, so I think most people can find room in their daily calorie budget for that.) They also contain calcium carbonate, so you should take them with a meal to ensure you can absorb the calcium efficiently. The last point I’ll mention about supplements in general is that they’re not at all regulated by the FDA, so you have no way to know for sure that they contain what the label says they contain. Scary? You betcha. If this concerns you, you can visit consumerlab.com and subscribe to their service. They’re an independent lab that tests dozens of brands of vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements and reports on whether they contain what they claim to contain. If you take a lot of supplements, this may be a subscription worth investing in.

Hopefully, this information will be of use to you in cobbling together a calcium strategy to help you meet your needs. If you have any other strategies that work for you, feel free to share!

*Why do we need so much calcium? In children and adolescents, it’s to build bone mass. In the rest of us, it’s to prevent our mature bones–which you can think of as a calcium bank– from being robbed by bone cells who would break down the bones in order to supply calcium to maintain steady blood levels. When your bone cells make more withdrawals than deposits over the course of your adult life, you get osteoporosis.

Sources:

ME Shils, JA Olsen, M Shike, AC Ross (eds). Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 10th edition. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2006.

Heaney RP, Weaver CM. Calcium Absorption from Kale. Am J Clin Nutr. 199o;51(4):656-7.

Weaver CM, Proulx WR, Heaney R. Choices for achieving adequate dietary calcium with a vegetarian diet. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70(3 Suppl):543S-548S.

Weaver, CM. Calcium in Present Knowledge in Nutrition. Washington, DC: ILSI Press; 2001

Tweet This Post