A new study of over 61,000 women in Sweden shows that high calcium intake did not lower the risk of developing osteoporosis or of having hip or other fractures. Only women who consumed less than 700mg of calcium experienced higher rate of these problems. In fact, the highest consumers of calcium actually had a higher rate of hip fracture:
“Dietary calcium intakes below approximately 700 mg per day in women were associated with an increased risk of hip fracture, any fracture, and of osteoporosis,” the study authors conclude. “The highest reported calcium intake did not further reduce the risk of fractures of any type, or of osteoporosis, but was associated with a higher rate of hip fracture.”
While it’s not a good idea to have low daily intake of calcium, the US recommendation is to have as much as 1,200mg daily (while quite beneficial to the dairy industry) appears to be rather high.
For the healthiest sources of calcium, make yourself a serving of one of the following vegetables (info was taken from this cool website).