Milk Maize

Getting the dairy-free calcium you need.

For over ten years, we have seen the infamous milk mustache on celebrities, supermodels, and star athletes. The Got Milk? campaign ads are probably the most successful advertising campaign in history. You’ve got to hand it to the dairy industry. The ads must be working because Americans still consume more dairy products than any other nation.

And we suffer from far more calcium-related degenerative diseases—like obesity, osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis, and cataracts—than the Asians or Africans where dairy intake is minimal or non-existent.

While milk may be rich in calcium (1200 mg per quart, to be exact—more than enough to satisfy a whole day’s requirement), it’s also equally high in phosphorus, which has a habit of interfering with calcium absorption. Infants drinking their mother’s milk—which contains only 300 mg of calcium per quart, but has a beneficial calcium-phosphorus ratio of 2:1—actually absorb more calcium than infants drinking cow’s milk with its ratio of 1.2 parts calcium to 1 part phosphorus.

Milk and milk products also tend to neutralize germ-killing hydrochloric acid in the stomach and generate excessive mucus in the intestines.

Then there’s the magnesium issue. Magnesium helps calcium absorption, but too much calcium interferes with the absorption of magnesium. Magnesium reduces the body’s need for calcium, but calcium increases the body’s need for magnesium. Although this may sound confusing, humans evolved in a magnesium-rich, calcium-poor environment back in the Stone Age. Our caveman style bodies learned to conserve calcium but not magnesium some 40,000 years ago.

Then there’s the allergic issue. For the majority of the world’s adult population, most individuals between the ages of 18 months and 4 years stop producing the intestinal enzyme lactase needed to break down milk sugar or lactose. The result is severe bloating, gas, or even diarrhea. Coupled with the growing number of food intolerances to casein (the protein fraction of milk and dairy products) that seems to accompany gluten intolerance, dairy is highly reactive for the majority of the world’s population.

Sure, there are lots of foods high in calcium—like collards, turnip greens, almonds, and the seaweed hijiki—but we either don’t consume enough of these calcium-rich sources on a daily basis, or don’t eat enough to satisfy even a minimal 500 mg.

Calcium in its correct form is crucial to health for some surprising reasons, not generally well-know. It profoundly affects our resistance to viruses, bacteria, molds, fungi, and even cancer. It can help regulate insulin—thereby assisting in all weight loss efforts—, balance blood pressure, and even lower susceptibility (with essential fatty acids) to sunburn. It also protects your cellular membranes from coming unglued when you are on your cell or cordless phones.

Osteo-Key is the only calcium supplement I recommend. It contains hydroxyapatite, the most bioavailable source of calcium which innately matches the highly absorptive calcium/phosphorus ratio of mother’s milk. A bone building team of nutrients is contained in Osteo-Key including magnesium, manganese, boron, silica, Vitamin D-3, selenium, potassium, zinc, and microcrystalline hydroxyapatite, and the complete Vitamin K complex (vitamin K1 and two forms of K2) to target calcium absorption direction into the bone—not the joints or arteries where calcium can buildup resulting in arthritis and arterial plaque.

I always smile when I see those Got Milk? ads. Now you know why!

-Edge On Health, Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman, July 26, 2011