Who would have thought that calcium, which is used in many body functions such as muscle contrations – allowing you to move, can be found in plentiful supply in vegetables and as Sean points out; more often combined with the other vitamins and minerals that mean out bodies can utilise the calcium instead of it passing through our systems and literally down the pan.

I myself drink mostly coconut milk and most of those cows milk sustitutes have an option of added calcium. The bit that Sean alludes to though for me is reason enough to avoid cows milk. Arun, why don’t you check out Seans statement “(like the 59 different hormones, allergens, herbicides, pesticides and around 52 different antibiotics – or even the Growth Hormone)” and let us know what you discover?

Thank you for your comments and I hope this reply answers any questions you have.

Being a vegetarian you should already be getting a lot of calcium in your diet from the vegetables you will be consuming. Things like Spinach (my personal favourite) and other green leafy vegetables. Check out http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/high-calcium-vegetables.php for Health Aliciousness’ top ten calcium filled vegetables.

Substitutes for Milk as a whole are things like Almond Milk and Coconut Milk. Coconut Milk is great when it comes to preparing curries.

I have unfortunately made a rookie mistake and have no saved some of the pages I was referencing to so I am still searching for that study – I will post it up as soon as possible, so watch this space. If you forward me your e-mail perhaps I can let you know via that when I have re-located it.

After doing a quick search this morning on Osteoporosis and Milk I have come across this: http://www.vegsource.com/news/2010/12/new-study-increased-milk-intake-does-not-protect-against-osteoporosis-but-does-promote-ovarian-and-p.html which shows various studies around the two topics – I have not had a chance to look at all of them this morning however you may find some of it interesting.

I completely agree with you and in future I will make sure I include references for those that are interested in reading the scientific studies.

I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing from you!

Sean Ryan

I work with Peter currently and have been a vegetarian all my life (as most indians are). For someone who is dependent on legumes, lentils, pulses and milk (a glass in the morning and evening each), I do not know how would i substitute milk from my diet. What are the other sources of calcium for vegetarians?

You actually throw a very important statistic in your post “Countries with the highest levels of dairy consumption also have the highest level of osteoporosis!”. As a scientist, I would be very much interested in seeing the reference for this. In he future, I feel that including such references would make your blog more informative and cater to all audiences.