High fat diets boost calcium absorption

This study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000 Aug;72(2):466-71

 

Study title and authors:

Factors associated with calcium absorption efficiency in pre- and perimenopausal women.

Wolf RL, Cauley JA, Baker CE, Ferrell RE, Charron M, Caggiula AW, Salamone LM, Heaney RP, Kuller LH.

Departments of Epidemiology, Education, and Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, USA. wolf@exchange.tc.columbia.edu

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10919942

 
Wolf notes that low calcium is linked to high blood pressure, colorectal cancer, bone loss and the risk of osteoporosis.

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that affect the efficiency of calcium absorption in women. The study included 142 healthy pre- and perimenopausal women, aged 46-54 years, (93.7% were premenopausal).

The study found:
(a) Women who consumed the most fat, absorbed calcium more efficiently than women who consumed the least fat.
(b) Women who consumed the least fibre, absorbed calcium more efficiently than women who consumed the most fibre.
(c) Women who consumed diets with the lowest ratio of fat to fibre had 19% lower calcium absorption values than did women who consumed diets with the highest ratio of fat relative to fibre.
(d) Women who had the highest vitamin D levels, absorbed calcium more efficiently than women with the lowest vitamin D levels. (Vitamin D is only found in food of animal origin such as lard, fish, butter and egg yolks).

The results of the study show that a high-fat diet helps women to efficiently absorb calcium.