Calcium and paleo

David Aguasca · 03-12-2008, 09:23 AM

Just went to a new endocrinologist the other day and had an introductory check-up (my A1c is 5.5!) and when i told her my diet (meat, nuts, greens, fruit, occasionally some wheat) she expressed concern about the lack of dairy, and therefore calcium.

what are the concerns of calcium deficiency in a paleo diet?

Ari Kestler · 03-12-2008, 09:29 AM

Non-existent?

Combination of plenty of vegetables (most have higher Ca content than dairy) and Improved blood pH should keep you from being hypocalcemic. Worst case scenario you could grind up egg shell and drink it/sprinkle it on food...

Scott Kustes · 03-12-2008, 10:30 AM

Marketing myth perpetuated by the dairy industry. There are plenty of dietary calcium sources, namely kale, almonds, spinach, and other such foods. Further, the calcium from milk is poorly absorbed. While it has lots of calcium, if the body doesn't absorb it, it doesn't matter. Finally, a Paleo Diet will tend to be net-base yielding, meaning the calcium balance (far more important than total intake) is kept inline.

Also, calcium is only part of the equation to bone building...magnesium and vitamin D are AT LEAST as important, possibly more so. Ask her why the US consumes the most dairy yet has one of the highest osteoporosis rates? It's the highly acidic diet (from meat and grains with few fruits and vegetables) coupled with a fear of the sun and little dietary magnesium.

Garrett Smith · 03-12-2008, 10:31 AM

Here's a great article by Dr. Ben Kim on how to prevent osteoporosis, which is what your doc is indirectly concerned about:

http://drbenkim.com/prevent-osteoporosis.html

I'd bet you are covering nearly all of those bases quite well already.

My gosh, what did Paleo man do for calcium before we domesticated cows? And where do cows get their calcium from anyway?

David Aguasca · 03-12-2008, 01:10 PM

haha, great stuff, guys. thanks a lot!!!

Mike ODonnell · 03-12-2008, 02:13 PM

America has the highest consumption of dairy of any country....and the highest rate of osteoporosis....so yeah, I'll pass on the dairy myth (as I will bet that it was the Dairy Industry that came up with that strong bones marketing campaign in the first place).

oh yeah....dairy is highly acidic...and overly acidic ph drains alkaline minerals like....Ummmm....Calcium (and the biggest source of calcium is your bones!). So dairy....really isn't helping.

Garrett Smith · 03-12-2008, 03:26 PM

BTW,
Dairy has 4x as much calcium by volume than human milk. Will someone please go tell G*d about that major screwup that was made there???

Mike ODonnell · 03-12-2008, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

BWill someone please go tell G*d about that major screwup that was made there???

I would but Robb has his own blog now....here's not here that much.....

sarena kopciel · 03-12-2008, 06:05 PM

And I thought Greg was G*d! Are you saying Robb is the foodie G*d and Greg the technical Oly G*d? So we thank Robb for all the chard, broccoli, meat and the like, then we thank Greg for the bars, bumpers and platforms that we were endowed with??

Robb Wolf · 03-13-2008, 10:47 AM

Greg and I pass around the All-Knowing hat pretty freely. It's a kick at parties.

Cordain tackles this in his FAQ section AND in the "contemporary diet based on paleo foods" paper.

What most of our physicians forget is it's not calcium but calcium balance! They forget all that nasty equilibrium chemistry, acid base balance and the role of other di-valent metal ions like magnesium in our bodies. Wankers.