Vitamins, Minerals
& Weight Loss

Below is an excerpt from Part Two of

The 2004 Multi-Diet

by Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.

Calcium

Recommended Dietary Intake

1000-mg is the Daily Value (DV) for calcium set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Food and Nutrition Board set the official scientific U.S. RDA for calcium at between 800-mg and 1200-mg for adults depending on age and sex. Virtually all specialists consider a total intake of up to 2000-mg per day to be safe. The healthy adult human body normally contains a total of about 1,200,000-mg (1,200-g) of calcium. The chemical symbol for Calcium is “Ca”.

Usual Calcium Intake Amounts

A lack of sufficient dietary calcium is a serious problem for most people. Numerous dietary surveys have shown that almost no group of people in the U.S. routinely gets enough calcium. For example, the USDA’s Nationwide Food Consumption Survey showed that the average for all people was about 750-mg per day. This is below the minimum recommended 800-mg. By Multi-Diet logic, this means The Beast is almost certainly awake making these people eat too much (or too often) in its attempt to get them enough calcium to keep them healthy. We need to learn to help The Beast do a better job than it can do on its own.

Absorption, Metabolism, and Excretion of Calcium

Humans can usually absorb only about 20% to 40% of the calcium in food. This is not as high a percentage as with most of the other macrominerals and makes it somewhat more difficult to get enough useable calcium. There are also several substances, including other macrominerals, which may further reduce the “absorbability” of calcium, thereby aggravating the problem (see below).

The calcium RDIs take this known low absorbability into account (they are much higher than they would be if they assumed 100% absorbability).

If you are getting enough calcium in your food, your body can prevent an excess of calcium by changing absorption and excretion through the intestines and kidneys, respectively.

Calcium Deficiency/Toxicity Symptoms

Symptoms of possible calcium deficiency can be any of the following: muscle weakness or twitching; muscle pains and cramps; brittle nails; numbness; stiffness and tingling in hands and feet; lower back pains; insomnia; irritability; depression.

Note that your body has a very large reserve of calcium in your bones. When the body lacks enough dietary calcium for metabolic requirements, it withdraws the calcium it needs from bone. This weakens the bone. It seems likely that if all other dietary conditions are correct, the body can put calcium back into the bone later. But meeting all such conditions may not happen very often. There is no scientific consensus on this and we should not count on it.

Symptoms of possible calcium excess can be abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, and muscle weakness.

Food Sources of Calcium

Meat, fish, poultry, and most of the other high-protein foods are negligible sources of calcium. Fresh fruit is also a generally poor source. Much of the calcium in vegetables is unavailable because it is locked up in phytates, oxalates, and other unabsorbable forms. Dairy foods are the way most people usually get most of their calcium, but except possibly for skim milk, you probably won’t be eating much dairy food while dieting. Therefore, it is very important to supplement calcium when you are dieting.

Supplemental Sources of Calcium

There are many types of calcium supplement available and they are all adequate for dieters. The calcium in most of them is absorbed about as well as the calcium from milk. Calcium tablets are the most convenient and are available in supermarkets, drugstores, and health-food stores. Dolomite powder (calcium and magnesium carbonate) generally has a good cost/effectiveness ratio and more calcium by weight than more expensive formulations. A level teaspoon of dolomite has approximately the RDI amounts of both calcium and magnesium in approximately the proper (2:1) ratio to each other. It is much better absorbed when taken with food. Mixing it into skim milk works well. (For a review of standard calcium supplements, see Levenson and Bockman 1994) Dolomite is usually only stocked in health-food stores.

Deductive advice about Calcium

Vigorous supplementation of calcium is probably justified on almost all weight-loss diets. If you are like most people, your normal diet is probably at least marginally deficient in calcium. The usual Heroic Diets only make this worse. Even typical Multi-Diet foods tend to be poor sources of calcium. Therefore supplementing calcium is important when you are dieting.