Got Milk, and So Many Other Foods Too

Can you overdose on calcium without taking calcium pills? The August edition of Consumer Reports on Health suggests you can.

Dozens of food products--such as dairy foods--are either naturally high in calcium or are fortified with extra calcium. There are now so many heavily fortified calcium foods that consumers might unwittingly get too much of a good thing, editor Ronni Sandroff says in the newsletter.

In her editorial, she notes that General Mills’ Total cereal contains a whopping 1,000 milligrams of calcium per serving while calcium-fortified orange juice contains about 350 milligrams per serving. Add a cup of skim milk (405 milligrams) and a multivitamin pill (200 milligrams) and you’ve consumed 1,955 milligrams. And that’s just breakfast. Most people require 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of calcium daily to ensure good bone health. While it’s important to get the full recommended daily allowance, regular consumption of more than 2,500 milligrams of calcium per day can cause kidney stones and block the absorption of other nutrients.