Enter the Twilight Zone of Nutrition Reality Today we'll take a little trip from the absurd to the ridiculous. Here's a little reminder for all of us who have vowed to lose weight in the New Year: calcium helps. This isn't news, of course. In other e-Alerts I've told you about research that came to this same conclusion. But fresh confirmation is always welcome. Perdue researchers randomly assigned 19 female subjects to receive either a low-calcium diet (less than 800 mg per day) or a high-calcium diet (1,000-1,400 mg per day) for one year. Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the authors concluded that a diet that's high in calcium increases whole-body fat oxidation. Good dietary sources of calcium include salmon, cabbage, kale, and yellow, green or waxed beans. As for supplements, when you go shopping for calcium you might feel daunted by the variety of different calcium types. Not to worry. Dr. Spreen cuts through the calcium confusion in the e-alert "Absorbing it All" (4/19/04), which can be easily found on our web site at hsibaltimore.com. And here's an additional tip from Dr. Spreen: add a little magnesium. Dr. Spreen writes: "Calcium is not found in nature (in edible form) without magnesium, and they therefore should always be given together." Foods high in magnesium include leafy green vegetables, whole grains, bananas, apricots, meat, beans and nuts. Sources:
"Fat Oxidation and its Relation to Serum Parathyroid Hormone in Young Women Enrolled in a 1-y Dairy Calcium Intervention" American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 86, No. 6, December 2005, ajcn.org
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