Good nutrition with a wide variety of foods is critical to overall health and healthy bones. Healthy bones need a variety of nutrients including calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and others. Calcium plays an important role in muscle contraction, blood clotting, and bone health. When your diet provides enough calcium, your body deposits it in your bones, where it rebuilds and strengthens bone tissue. Bone formation starts in childhood, increases during adolescence, and continues until about age 25. After 25, your daily calcium intake helps maintain bone health. If calcium levels in the body drop below normal, calcium will be taken from bones and put into the blood to be used for other body functions. That's why it's important at all ages to consume enough calcium to maintain adequate levels in the body.

Nearly half of U.S. children and adults do not eat enough calcium, and more than 80 percent of women in Maricopa County get less than the daily recommended levels of calcium. The National Academy of Sciences recommends the following amounts of calcium per day for various ages.

The National Institute of Health Consensus conference and the National Osteoporosis Foundation support a higher calcium intake of 1,500 milligrams per day for postmenopausal women not taking estrogen and adults 65 years or older. No one should take more than 2500mg of calcium daily. In addition, the body can only absorb 500mg of calcium from food or supplements at a time. Therefore, calcium intake should be spaced out throughout the day.

Everyone needs calcium in their diet, everyday, to build and maintain healthy bones. Milk and foods made from milk are the most concentrated sources of calcium. One cup of reduced fat milk has 300 mg of calcium and one cup of nonfat yogurt has 490 mg. Some people avoid milk products because they don't like these foods, do not eat any animal products, or have lactose intolerance. Calcium fortified juices, cereals and pasta have 300 to 400 mg calcium per serving

Milk Matters - for "Tweens," Kids 9 -13
Do you think that calcium isn't important for you?Think again!
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/milk/kids/kidsteens.cfm

Publications
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• Calcium Supplement Guidelines (4 pp.) PDF Version 180 kb
• Milk Upsets My Stomach (2 pp.) PDF Version 64 kb
• Eating for Bone Health (8 pp.) PDF Version 295 kb
• Weak Bones (2 pp.) PDF Version 699 kb
• Calcium and Calorie Content of Selected Foods (4 pp.) PDF Version 83 kb
• Osteoporosis - PDF Version 84 kb
• Contenido de Calcio y Calorias de Comidas Elegidas (Spanish) (5 pp.) PDF Version

Calcium Supplement Guidelines
Calcium Combination Products - PDR Website

Dietary Supplements Labels Database
The Dietary Supplements Labels Database from the National Library of Medicine http://dietarysupplements.nlm.nih.gov, includes information from the
labels of over 2,000 brands of dietary supplements in the marketplace, including vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and other specialty supplements.

FAQ about Nutrition

• Which foods have more calcium?
• I can't/don't drink milk, what can I do to protect my bones?
• How do I find the calcium content of a labeled food?
• Do you have recipes that are high in calcium?
• Do I need a calcium supplement?
• How does vitamin D affect bones?
• Should teenagers be concerned about nutrition?
• Do children need high calcium diets?

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