Amadeus Schmidt wrote:

>And where do *you* get your 1200mg calcium per day from,
>if you don't eat dairy?

1200mg calcium per day is the recommendation for someone eating a modern
diet. If you are paleo and avoid all of the below points you don't need
1200mg, as you are not losing 1200mg out of your system daily.

(1) A diet high in phytic acid, which can be found in whole grains (it's in
the bran). Phytic acid strongly binds to minerals like calcium, iron, zinc
and magnesium to form insoluble salts, phytates, which precipitate from the
body. I have 60 references on this. This article by Staffan Lindeberg uses
29 of them as footnotes:

  http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9706&L=paleodiet&O=T&P=850

(2) A high sodium diet. Dietary sodium levels were extremely low in the
past compared to modern diets and hence renal calcium excretion, despite
high phosphorous intake, was still less than that for moderns. Some
references can be found here:

  http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9706&L=paleodiet&O=T&P=2282

(3) Low sunshine and low Vitamin D. Circulating levels of vitamin D
throughout the year would have been higher in stone age men and women than
in moderns, because there really was no such thing as "indoors" - therefore
sunshine exposure and hence vitamin D synthesis would have been greater.
Substantial evidence suggests that many elderly in Western countries are
deficient in vitamin D. See:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=7616799&form=6&db=m&
Dopt=b

Treating every elderly lady on northern latitudes with vitamin D tablets is
actually not a bad idea.

(4) Low exercise. Daily exercise levels and hence stress on the skeletal
system would have been greater in our stone age ancestors - increased
physical stress on bone tends to increase cross sectional area and perhaps
(equivocal data) bone mineral density.

(5) Inadequate magnesium. Studies of our ancestor's diet show that it was
in a 1:1 ratio with calcium. That would be what our bodies evolved to
expect. As Ca:Mg is 12:1 in dairy, those consuming dairy have an inbalance
in their diet. I have one friend that increased his bone density
significantly by taking magnesium supplements.

(6) High protein consumption. While there is no evidence that high meat
consumption is detrimental, as long as there is some calcium in the diet,
studies using isolated, fractionated animo acids from milk or eggs have
correlated calcium loss with these high protein diets. One should be
especially leery of whey protein.

(7) Sugar leeches calcium from the body and upsets the calcium/phosphorus
balance. See _Lick The Sugar Habit_ by Nancy Appleton. A recent rat study
of some relevance is Li K-C et al. Effects of a high fat-sucrose diet on
cortical bone morphology and biomechanics. Calcif Tissue Int 1990; 47:308-13.

(8) Phosphoric acid in soft drinks. In order to utilize calcium well, we
need, for each gram of calcium, 1.5 grams phosphorus and 0.5 grams
magnesium (ignore Vitamin D etc. needs for now). We normally get enough
phosphorus, in fact very frequently more than enough. So that, in turn,
drives up the required calcium and magnesium. Drink a soft drink with
phosphoric acid, and you have essentially caused a calcium deficit, or
increased need.

(9) Coffee consumption. Coffee reduces the inositol level in the blood.
Inositol is central as it makes the calcium penetrate the cell walls.

(10) Caffeine consumption. There is a steady calcium absorption/desorption
process to maintain the calcium in the bone matrix where it's needed.
Caffeine stalls the reabsorption portion of that process. Calcium goes out,
doesn't return.

(11) Undiagnosed celiac disease. 95% of the celiacs in the USA are
undiagnosed. For those that have the condition and are undiagnosed there is
malabsorption of the fat soluble minerals and vitamins, especially calcium
and D. For more see: http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/