Teenage boys now more likely to have calcium deficiency

Teenage boys who are increasingly abandoning milk and dairy foods for soft drinks are beginning to show signs of severe calcium deficiency. The trend will make them more vulnerable to osteoporosis (brittle bone disease) in later life, the conference heard.

Osteoporosis was considered a predominantly female disease, with low milk/dairy food consumption among adolescent girls of most concern because it coincided with a critical bone-building stage of their life. However, evidence indicating that 20 per cent of osteoporosis-related fractures were among men suggested otherwise.

Boys from an average age of nine and girls from 11 were switching to soft drinks in the US because of their high availability, according to Dr Connie Weaver, of Purdue University, Indiana. The absence of calcium-rich dairy products in their diet - which can provide 75 per cent of calcium needs - was more detrimental to women because of their smaller skeletons.

With signs that, from adolescence on, people are only getting half of what they need in calcium, it was clear that the shortfall could not be made up with milk/dairy products alone, said Dr Weaver.

"It will require new calcium-fortified foods." She did not favour calcium supplements in pills as teenagers showed low compliance when due regular doses. Breads, cereals and drinks fortified with calcium and targeted at young people could be more successful.