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free tools for patients, expert nutrition advice and information on updated
dairy nutrition resources.
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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
3-A-Day of Dairy Campaign
Americans' Calcium Crisis
Americans' calcium crisis underscores the importance of encouraging consumption of three servings a day of milk, cheese, and/or yogurt to enhance calcium intake. Almost all age groups, but particularly adolescent females, older females, and older adults, fall short of meeting current dietary recommendations or Adequate Intakes (AIs) for calcium (10,11).
According to data from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals 1994-96, only about 38% of males and 29% of females aged 6 to11 and 32% of males ages12 to19 and12% of similar aged females consume100% of the AI for calcium (10). This same survey reveals that only16% of women ages 20 to 29 years,14% of women ages 30 to 39 years, and11.5% of women 40 to 49 years are meeting100% of their calcium recommendation (10). Less than15% of older adults consume recommended calcium intakes, with more men than women meeting100% of the calcium DRI (10).
Adolescents' low calcium intake is of concern considering that the teenage years are a period of rapid skeletal growth during which there is a unique opportunity to maximize peak bone mass and protect the skeleton against future risk for osteoporosis (1,25,26). About 95% of females' total body mineral content is reached by 20 years of age (26). After adolescence, the period for optimizing peak bone mass by calcium rapidly declines.
Americans' calcium crisis is explained largely by their low intake of dairy products, which are the major dietary source of calcium. Most people consume only half the recommended three servings of dairy each day.
Low intake of dairy foods, the major dietary source of calcium, is largely responsible for Americans' low calcium intake (1,2,16,27). Americans are consuming an average of only1.5 servings of dairy foods a day, or half the number of servings recommended in the Food Guide Pyramid (13,28). Fewer than half of children aged 6 to11 years (40% of males and 29% of females) consume the recommended number of servings of dairy foods each day for theirage group (13). Among adolescents, only 30% of males and12% of females meet recommended dairy servings (13). For males and females aged 20 years and over, only 22% and12%, respectively, consume the number of servings from the dairy group recommended for their age (13).
Studies reveal that milk intake decreases during adolescence and that this decrease continues with increasing age, whereas soda consumption rises (16,29). Moreover, this pattern of beverage consumption has become increasingly more prevalent in recent decades (16,29). The fact that most Americans do not consume the recommended number of servings of dairy a day means that they may fall short of meeting calcium needs for bone and overall health.
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