While calcium is vital for strong bones, too much puts you at risk for hypertension and kidney problems. The current recommended daily allowance (RDA) for calcium is 1,000 mg for women between the ages of 19 and 50 and 1,500 mg for women over age 50. The average diet already contains about 250 mg of calcium - not including dairy products. A serving of dairy from milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc adds another 200-300 mg calcium. Most calcium supplements supply a full day's supply of calcium so adding in the calcium from your diet, it is quite easy to have too much calcium. The excess calcium floats around in the blood and can accumulate in the arteries causing them to "harden". Excess calcium increases a women's risk for a heart attack by a whooping 30%!
Eating calcium-rich foods such as kale, spinach, low-fat dairy, sardines and Chinese cabbage may be better for your bones. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found that women who ate a calcium-rich diet had stronger bones than women who received most of their calcium from supplements even though the women who did not supplement took in less calcium overall.
So what to do? Eat your kale (see recipe below), get daily sun-exposure (for vitamin D production) and look for foods that are rich in calcium and vitamin D. Check out http://www.nutritiondata.com/, a website that makes it easy to search for foods based on their nutrient content.
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