Where did Paleolithic man get his calcium from? page

[Lukey]

I'm having a hard time understanding where Paleolithic man got his calcium from. The only regular source of calcium for people today is in dairy, and since for the majority of our evolution we didn't have dairy it doesn't really make sense. I have read that Calcium isn't actually that important for bone health and it's actually vitamin D which is the key component. It seems like a lot of the "Calcium Importance" awareness is funded by the dairy and cereal industry. All you ever see on food advertisements these days are "a good source of calcium" or "fortified with calcium" etc etc. It seems that it would be very hard to get anywhere near the supposed RDA of calcium without dairy or fortified foods. Any thoughts on if calcium is that important, and if so where did Paleolithic man get his from?

[workinprogress]

The calcium in vegetables is more bioavailable than the calcium from most dairy products. Primitive man would have eaten more of the animal than we eat today and more types of animals than we eat today. They would eat the bones of fish and possibly even small mammals, gnawing on the bones of larger ones. Even the meat has some calcium in it.

[Leida]

One source of calcium that the prehistoric men enjoyed but we do not are various insects & mollusks in shells. Overall though the dosage of calcium required for health is vastly exaggerated according to Mark.

[AlanC]

If anything calcium seems to be the culprit of blocked arteries more than fat/cholesterol...



AC

[JoanieL]

In addition, early man moved around a lot and so their bone density was probably in better shape than modern (sedentary) man's is. Maybe they didn't require as much?

[Lukey]

If anything calcium seems to be the culprit of blocked arteries more than fat/cholesterol...



AC

Please reiterate on this?

[Dirlot]

I know deer often nibble on old antlers as a source of calcium. So if early man scraped/ate all the meat off the bone they would get some that way.
I wonder if the bone marrow in animals contains notifiable calcium ant that could be a source

[Zach]

If anything calcium seems to be the culprit of blocked arteries more than fat/cholesterol...



AC

This is not because of excess dietary calcium, it is how you body uses calcium based on other factors.

[Lukey]

This is not because of excess dietary calcium, it is how you body uses calcium based on other factors.

Can you say more about this please?

[Zach]

Can you say more about this please?

Calcium and Disease: Hypertension, organ calcification, & shock, vs. respiratory energy (wfs)