melk 8 jaar

Getting Enough Calcium

Despite the debates surrounding milk and calcium, one thing is clear: adequate calcium—both for bone development and for non-bone functions—is key to reducing the risk of osteoporosis. However, the healthiest or safest amount of dietary calcium hasn’t yet been established. Different scientific approaches have yielded different estimates, so it’s important to consider all the evidence.

Maximum-calcium-retention studies, which examine the maximum amount of calcium that can be forced into bones, suggest a fairly high requirement.To ensure that 95 percent of the population gets this much calcium, the National Academy of Sciences established the following recommended intake levels:

• 1,000 milligrams/day for those age 19 to 50


• 1,200 milligrams/day for those age 50 or over


• 1,000 milligrams/day for pregnant or lactating adult women

But the maximum-calcium-retention studies are short term and therefore have important limitations. To detect how the body adapts to different calcium intakes over a long period of time—and to get the big picture of overall bone strength—requires studies of longer duration.

The results from such long-term studies may be surprising to some. While they do not question the importance of calcium in maximizing bone strength, they cast doubt on the value of consuming the large amounts currently recommended for adults.

In particular, these studies suggest that high calcium intake doesn’t actually appear to lower a person’s risk for osteoporosis. For example, in the large Harvard studies of male health professionals and female nurses, individuals who drank one glass of milk (or less) per week were at no greater risk of breaking a hip or forearm than were those who drank two or more glasses per week. (2, 3) When researchers combined the data from the Harvard studies with other large prospective studies, they still found no association between calcium intake and fracture risk. (4) Also, the combined results of randomized trials that compared calcium supplements with a placebo showed that calcium supplements did not protect against fractures of the hip or other bones. Moreover, there was some suggestion that calcium supplements taken without vitamin D might even increase the risk of hip fractures.

Additional evidence further supports the idea that American adults may not need as much calcium as is currently recommended. For example, in countries such as India, Japan, and Peru where average daily calcium intake is as low as 300 milligrams per day (less than a third of the U.S. recommendation for adults, ages 19 to 50), the incidence of bone fractures is quite low. Of course, these countries differ in other important bone-health factors as well—such as level of physical activity and amount of sunlight—which could account for their low fracture rates.

Toegegeven, er staat dat er geen enkele relatie is tot het drinken van melk in relatie tot de hoeveelheid botbreuken . Wel wordt genoemd dat in verschillende landen het aantal botbreuken lager is, terwijl de inname van calcium veel lager is dan de hoeveelheden die tot nu toe worden geadviseerd. Ook opvallend, calcium bijslikken zonder Vit D lijkt de kans op heupfracturen te vergroten.

Hopelijk staat het er nu wel