CALCIUM
Calcium? Where do the COWS get calcium for their big bones? Yes… from plants! The calcium they consume from plants has a large amount of magnesium… necessary for the body to absorb and USE the calcium.
The calcium in cow’s milk is basically useless because it has insufficient magnesium content (those nations with the highest amount of milk/dairy consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Proof? How about a controlled study of 78,000 nurses over a period of 12 years?
Read more about it at: http://www.notmilk.com/deb/030799.html
Cows milk has three times the calcium as does human breast milk. No matter, neither are very usable because in order to be absorbed and used their MUST be an equal quantity of MAGNESIUM (as exists in the greens that cows eat to get all the calcium they need for their big bones). Milk has only enough magnesium to absorb around 11% (33mg per cup) of calcium.
Per the USDA 8 ounces (one cup) of cows milk contains:
Calcium, Ca mg 291.336
Magnesium, Mg mg 32.794
The USDA recommends 1200mg of calcium per day. The USDA recommended three cups of milk a day only have 900mg of calcium. Some argue that only 1/3 of the magnesium is necessary. Mother nature seems to suggest it should be one to one. If the ratio for proper absorption were 1/3 magnesium to one calcium then no more than 300mg of that 900mg of calcium is usable. If, in fact, it is a one to one ratio… only 98.38mg of calcium is usable.
It is not a matter of how much calcium one ingests… but how much one does not lose.
photo credit: moody sky (by Dan65)
