Getting enough calcium

Learn about: Getting enough calcium from Jay Gordon, MD,...
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Getting enough calcium

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Virtually everybody in America gets enough calcium. Something interesting to think about is we are, outside of some Scandinavian countries, we drink more milk and eat more cheese than in any other country and we have more osteoporosis than in any developed country which makes you want to say, huh. We're getting calcium like crazy from milk, from cheese and other dairy products and yet women starting at age 30, or 40 or 50 are plagued with one of the worst medical conditions; their bones are getting thin because of lack of calcium and the reason is simple. When you eat a standard american diet, which is salty and high in protein you end up, when you take in sodium chloride you end up needing to excrete chloride which gets excreted as calcium chloride. When you eat a lot of meat, you end up with what are known as phosphate and sulfate waste which have to be excreted in urine and stool as calcium phosphate and calcium sulfate. If you eat a standard american diet, you can't keep up on the amount of calcium that you need. But if instead you shift to a diet with lots of broccoli, which has a couple hundred milligrams of calcium and other dark greens which have some calcium and other non dairy calciums, you'll get as much as you need. By the way, there is no general agreement on how much calcium children need. We used to say a thousand milligrams a day but the latest food pyramids and equivalents don't say that. We think that it's somewhere between 400 and 800 milligrams but nobody is sure.
ALL PARENTS, Nutrition

Learn about: Getting enough calcium from Jay Gordon, MD,...

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Jay Gordon, MD

Pediatrician

Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.

In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.

Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”

After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live. 

Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets.
 Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”

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