Calcium sources for non-milk drinkers.

• Position: Special Newsletter Edition: Your Health

Milk drinkers seldom need to worry about getting enough calcium. Milk and other dairy products are loaded with it, generally providing 70% of adults' dietary intake of the element that increases bone density and lowers risk of osteoporosis.

Nutritionists, however, are concerned for vegans--those vegetarians who don't consume any animal products, including milk and dairy foods--as well as people who can not drink milk because of allergies or lactose intolerance.

"We generally tell adults that two eight-ounce glasses of milk a day, along with the other calcium they get, is enough to satisfy their calcium requirements," explains Connie M. Weaver, head of Purdue University's Department of Foods and Nutrition. "Milk has 300 milligrams of calcium per glass. When you look at the calcium content of vegetables and other nonmeat, nondairy products, you can see how much you would have to eat to make up that much calcium." It is especially important for those aged 11-24 to get enough calcium, she cautions. "Getting 1,200 milligrams without eating dairy products is terribly difficult."

While the recommended daily allowances are based on calcium content, she prefers to use absorption rates. A cup of milk, for example, has an absorption rate of 32%, or an estimated 96.3 milligrams of absorbable calcium.

Nondairy foods that contain substantial amounts of calcium include some green vegetables and some root crops and...