On Lactose Intolerance and Absorbing Calcium

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-01-13 14:00:00 UTC
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Check out the following informative post extracts from the blogs Before Wisdom and Vegans of Color, and see the original posts for more details.

"Lactose Intolerance Is Not a Disease"

Typically when someone tells you they are lactose intolerant they do it with a mournful look on their face. . . . The problem is that we have been conditioned to think of lactose intolerance as if it were a disease when in fact it is a normal process of life.

Mammals only need to produce the enzyme lactase (the digestive enzyme that breaks down lactose) until they are weaned. For humans this is somewhere between 2-4 years old. After that we are officially weaned from our mother’s milk and ready to get our complete nutrients from solid foods. . . . 70% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. With a greater incidence among people of African descent, Mediterranean decent, Native Americans and Asians. . . .

I believe it’s time to turn the tide and change the way we think and talk about lactose intolerance. When someone mentions the fact they or someone they know is lactose intolerant our response should be “Great! So is over 70% of the world’s population” and then explain why. For me, after all the extremely compelling reasons to go vegan were presented to me the one thing that stood out to me the most (and what is ultimately the reason I went vegan) was what an unnatural process it is for an adult mammal to drink the milk of another species. . . .

And now that you've read that post, you're ready to read about vegetable calcium sources:

Absorbing Calcium

Many vegetables are actually better for preventing bone loss than cow’s milk. Preventing osteoporosis is about more than calcium intake. It is also about calcium absorption and the calcium in many vegetables is more absorbable than calcium from cow’s milk. A number of vegetables also have more calcium per calorie than dairy milk and vegetables have other nutrients for bone health that dairy milk does not.

Highlights from page 103 [of Brenda Davis's "Becoming Vegetarian"]:

Cow’s Milk
1 cup - 300 mg - 32% absorbed, 96 mg net

Turnip Greens, cooked
1 cup - 198 mg - 52% absorbed, 102 mg net

Bok Choy, cooked
1 cup - 158 mg - 53% absorbed, 84 mg net

Mustard Greens, cooked
1 cup - 128 mg - 58% absorbed, 74 mg net

Kake, cooked
1 cup - 122 mg - 49% absorbed, 60 mg net

Broccoli, cooked
1 cup - 70 mg - 61% absorbed, 42 mg net

Tofu, made with a calcium based coagulant
1 cup - 516 mg - 31% absorbed, 160 mg net

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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