Vegan diets lack sufficient calcium.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

An examination of the amount of calcium in strict vegetarian diets that exclude dairy products has found that those diets--known as vegan--lack the calcium needed to prevent osteoporosis later in life. Vegan diets are not likely to provide enough calcium, even if people avoid salt, protein, caffeine, and other substances that increase calcium loss, warns Connie Weaver, head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. She doubts that many people could follow such a strictly limited diet. "A lot of vegetarians include milk in their diets, so getting enough calcium isn't a problem. But if they give up dairy products, and don't eat calcium-fortified foods, I don't know how they're going to do it."

According to Weaver, many non-dairy foods contain calcium, and a number of vegetarian diets try to substitute vegetables for dairy products. However, the amount of calcium in vegetables is very low compared to dairy products, and, making matters worse, many of the vegetables contain substances that block the body's ability to absorb the calcium.

"Broccoli is very well absorbed by the body and contains a good amount of calcium for a vegetable. But how much broccoli would you have to eat?" The study found that four and a half servings of broccoli offer the same amount of calcium as one cup of milk. A person forsaking dairy products would need to eat as many as 20 servings of broccoli each day to get enough of the...