Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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It seems well established that when one is taking in proper amounts of the nutrients involved with improving calcium metabolism (e.g. Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium, etc.) calcium need is reduced.

Assuming an adult is receiving appropriate intakes of such nutrients, what would be a recommended range of calcium intake to shoot for?

Edit: This question has stagnated for a while so I'm throwing on a bounty. Questions about calcium intake in the past like this one and this one have answers suggesting things like "forget about the RDA (of calcium)" and "the Paleo recommendation for calcium is too low", which seem to contradict each other (maybe) and don't give numbers regarding how much calcium we should get on a good paleo diet. I'm hoping for a range (e.g. 1000-1200mg), but feel free to speculate.

edited Apr 3 2012 at 19:35

asked Jan 4 2012 at 23:39

Mscott
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	Sources/explanations for your first statement would also be appreciated -- not that I find it implausible. – Ambimorph Jan 5 2012 at 1:26
	Here are a few studies I have immediately available. Vitamin D: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/… and ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12637589 Vitamin K2: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9076586 Magnesium: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7669510 – Mscott Jan 5 2012 at 2:02
	I've been reading about Vitamin C lately and am stunned at how critical it is as a bone building nutrient. So, I am now considering it as an essential bone nutrient cofactor. sunlightd.org/news72011.html – none Apr 3 2012 at 20:50
	Meredith-That's an interesting article, thank you for sending it my way. Perhaps Linus Pauling was right all along! – Mscott Apr 5 2012 at 4:03
	Mscott: I don't think that dx.doi.org/10.1016/0169-6009(91)90025-U says what you think it says. Did you read the whole paper? (The full text is not available to the public without paying.) This was a very narrow in-vitro study of one human cell line. The abstract addresses osteocalcin (hormone) secretion and says only that it increases in the presence of extracellular calcium. You can't really extrapolate from that and say that "vitamin D reduces need for calcium." That may be true, but the paper you cited doesn't say that at all. – Stephen Apr 9 2012 at 12:50

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AmandaLP · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-03 21:04:55Z UTC

The issue is not just how much is recommended, but what food it is in, how your body absorbs it, and the balance of other vitamins and hormones.

The RDA is about 1000mg per day for adults, slightly more for pregnant and lactating women. The World Health Organization suggests that calcium intake lower than 500mg is associated with osteoporosis in countries with high osteoporosis rates. Ramiel Nagel suggests 750 to 1500 mg in his protocol for tooth and gum health (http://www.curetoothdecay.com/Gum_Disease/gum-disease-calcium.htm ). Paul Jaminet suggests eating a healthy diet and a multivitamin, and it should be fine. (http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=415 ). Mark Sisson suggests the issue is more about Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Vitamin K2

So, shoot for around 750-1000mg, probably don't go too far over that mark, but don't worry about being under it. Try to get good sources of Magnesium, get some Sun, and eat pastured animals.

wildwabbit · Answer 2 · 2012-04-03 22:14:12Z UTC

Your answer follows directly from your first paragraph, which presumably came from the same sources I follow (WAPF, Masterjohn, etc...).

As such, no calcium supplement should be needed, so long as you are getting calcium in your diet. When I say "getting", I mean not even having to bother to track it because, well, you eat, right? A basic Paleo or WAPF diet with the right meats, veggies, dairy and nuts in whatever moderation moderates you, etc... right?

If you eat even basically from the categories above, you don't need to supplement calcium. Its not a scarce mineral.

Daily Calcium Recommendation

2 Answers