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A few years ago, Queen Consort Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, gave a press conference for the Royal Osteoporosis Society in which she warned younger generations about “ridiculous” fad diets that eliminate dairy. This advice, quickly heard around the world thanks to the lightning speed of online media, was meant as a precaution to stave off the onset of osteoporosis; it is based on several misconceptions, including that dairy is a preferred source (or perhaps the only source) of calcium and that people who consume more dairy have lower rates of osteoporosis. Mirroring what the dairy industry has been marketing for many decades, the Duchess’s words presumed an unproven calcium crisis, not dissimilar to unfounded anxieties about protein consumption.
Unfortunately, her remarks may have had the opposite effect to what she hoped for, increasing the risk of osteoporosis and other preventable diseases. In an article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Amy Lanou, PhD, surveys the evidence for and against recommending dairy to healthy vegetarians.[1] Her conclusions may be of some interest to the queen consort.
Although calcium is an essential nutrient (one of over a dozen nutrients that support bone health), dairy is nonessential. Lanou, chair and professor of health and wellness at the North Carolina Center of Health and Wellness at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, discusses this in her article: calcium is not only found in a variety of plant-based sources but also is more bioavailable to the body in those sources. Whereas the human body can only absorb 32 percent of the calcium in milk, it can absorb a higher percentage of the calcium in many plant-based sources, including in most greens, which confer numerous other health benefits without any of the risks associated with cow’s milk.[2] Kale, tofu, unsweetened soy milk, mustard greens, bok choy, and broccoli are just a few examples of calcium-rich plants with high nutrient bioavailability.
“Evidence collected during the past 20 years shows that we need to rethink our strategies for building and maintaining strong bones throughout our lives,” writes Lanou. No research conclusively suggests that drinking milk is necessary or even desirable for bone health. Neither the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, which followed over 75,000 women for 12 years, nor a Swedish study that followed over 60,000 women over 11 years found a decreased fracture risk with increased milk consumption.[3][4] Dairy also does not have a beneficial effect on the developing bones of children or teenagers.[5] In a meta-analysis of calcium supplementation, the authors concluded, “[calcium] is unlikely to result in a decrease in fracture risk of major public health significance either in childhood or later life.”[6]
Hip fracture rates are actually highest in the countries where people consume the most calcium, a phenomenon dubbed the calcium paradox.[7] One possible explanation for this finding “is that elevated metabolic acid production associated with a high animal protein diet might lead to chronic bone buffering and bone dissolution.” The effects of foods, both healthy and unhealthy, are the result of more than any one nutrient they contain. It would be simplistic to attribute all the benefits of kale to a single nutrient; it’s equally simplistic to ignore the broad effects of cow’s milk, which cannot be attributed solely to calcium. As a whole, dairy consumption has been linked to numerous frightening outcomes.
Along with 32 percent bioavailable calcium, milk and other dairy products come with numerous serious health problems. Lanou cites prostate cancer, heart disease, and both types of diabetes as potential outcomes for those who consume dairy. Furthermore, the calories from dairy often replace those of plant-based foods, and consuming fewer plant-based foods may cause a person to be deficient in many essential micronutrients, fiber, and antioxidants.
In 2014, the British Medical Journal published the results of a 20-year study involving 100,000 participants; they found that women who drank three or more glasses of milk each day (per the USDA recommendation, which comes from the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendation of 700–1,300 milligrams of calcium per day, depending on age) had a 60 percent higher rate of hip fracture and twice the mortality risk.[8][9][10]
The surprising relationship between high calcium intake and bone fracture risk suggests that the “calcium crisis” presumed by Camilla and many others—a contrived crisis fueled by the dairy industry’s marketing—is overhyped.
The bottom line is that a balanced plant-based diet containing enough calories provides for your daily calcium needs and that the same diet is the optimal way to care for your bones.
Beyond enjoying a whole food, plant-based diet, which contains a sufficient amount of not only calcium but also numerous other nutrients critical to bone health, how else can you maintain strong bones?
Likely the most important nondietary lifestyle choice you can make is adopting a moderate, regular exercise routine. Exercise is critical, even more important in some ways than calcium intake, for promoting bone health and preventing osteoporosis.[11] Just half an hour of weight-bearing exercise five times a week can have a positive effect. Weight-bearing exercise includes walking, jogging, resistance and weight training, or any exercise that gets you on your feet (swimming and cycling, while also great for your health, are not considered weight-bearing forms of exercise).
*This article is reprinted with permission from Switch4Good.
Copyright 2024 Center for Nutrition Studies. All rights reserved.
