Children who get adequate amounts of calcium through diet do not require supplementation. Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland conducted the study to learn how to maximise the children's peak bone mass during the rapid-growth period of puberty. During puberty 60 percent of the adult bone mass accumulates, which helps in preventing osteoporosis in adulthood. For two years, researchers followed a group of 195 healthy girls, between the ages of 10 to 12 years, whose calcium intake was under the National Nutrition Council recommended levels (less than 900 mg a day.) They randomly assigned the children to receive 1000 mg calcium tablets, 1000 mg calcium plus 200 IU vitamin D tablets, low-fat cheese (1000 mg of calcium), or placebo tablets. The researchers measured the effects of calcium supplementation on bone mass and body composition, and analysed the data using traditional statistics as well as a new model that takes into account the rate of body growth. It was found that the cheese group showed more beneficial effects in their bones than any of the other groups, but when individual growth speed was taken into account, it was found that there was no beneficial effect with any of the interventions - calcium alone, calcium plus vitamin D, or even cheese supplementation. This means that if one exceeds certain levels of dietary calcium intake, it doesn't matter how much the intake is, but it won't bring any benefits. In the study, most subjects were already receiving adequate levels of calcium in their diets. Only one percent of the girls in the total screened population (more than 1000 girls) had a dietary calcium intake below 400 mg/day. The findings suggest that one should avoid the unnecessary calcium supplementation in normally growing children.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
November 2005