Greetings, all!

So I'm on the phone with a pal 'o mine, singing the praises of the paleo
concept, and he asks the following: "So, what about calcium?  Don't you need
more calcium?"

Allow me to post part of a story I did recently on Cordain and his research.
  I gave my friend a Reader's Digest version of the following:

Calcium does more than build bones.  It also helps the body maintain a good
pH balance.  If too much acid is coursing through your veins, it's up to
your kidneys to get things in order.  But they can only excrete so much acid
at a time.  Let’s say you drink a liter of Diet Coke, which has a high
potential renal acid load, on a hot summer day.  “In order to excrete the
excessive acidity, you’d have to excrete 33 liters of urine,” Cordain says.
Needless to say, this can’t be done.

“What does the kidney do, then, when it encounters a high acid load in the
diet?  It buffers it,” Cordain says.  “It buffers it with alkaline agents in
the body.  What is the largest alkaline source in the body?  One is nitrogen
from muscle and two is, ultimately, calcium from the skeleton.  And recent
studies done within the last two to three years have clearly indicated that
the average American diet produces a slight net metabolic acidosis.  What
foods, then, are producing this slight metabolic acidosis?  Guess what!
Cereal grains are one of the highest acid loading foods, and paradoxically,
dry cheeses are the absolute highest acidic foods.  So here you are,
thinking you’re doing yourself good by eating some hard cheese to get your
calcium intake up, which is correct.  But you are increasing the calcium
going out because of the high acid load.”

That explains a lot, but still....

I know that Cordain and others are looking long and hard at where early
humans got thier calcium.  Anyone on the list have a study or two on this
topic handy?  Any information on this criticism would be greatly
appreciated.

Still, even IF the paleo diet is low in calcium, let's look at who says we
need to consume 'x' amount.  Aren't these the same fine folk who gave us the
food pyramid?  We all know that's a load of hooey.  Makes you wonder,
doesn't it?

Dori Zook
Denver, CO