Calcium

It's an idea whose time has come: calcium-enriched milk.Introduced only a few months ago, Skim Delux is one of an army of new calcium-fortified foods designed to help fight the battle against brittle bones, high blood pressure, heart disease and perhaps certain kinds of cancer.Manufacturers have started fortifying foods like cereal and breakfast bars and Uncle Ben's Rice to make sure Americans are consuming their calcium in as convenient a form as possible. One of the most popular of the fortified foods, calcium-enriched orange juice, furnishes 300 milligrams per 8-ounce serving -- as much as a glass of milk -- and provides ample amounts of vitamin C as well.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Orioles have almost resigned themselves to the possibility that outfielder Jerome Walton has played his last game for the club.Walton, disabled since April 25 with a strained left hamstring, underwent an examination by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., yesterday. The injury-prone outfielder was diagnosed as having calcium deposits within scar tissue attached to his adductor muscle. An injury to the same area limited him to 37 games last season with Atlanta.The adductor is located near the groin.

So much for a set rotation.The Orioles' pitching staff, once among the least of manager Davey Johnson's concerns, has undergone a couple of significant changes, with two of the top four starters on the shelf.Mike Mussina was scratched from today's Opening Day start because of a calcium deposit in his right elbow, and Rocky Coppinger was placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation of the right shoulder.Left-hander Jimmy Key will start today against the Kansas City Royals, and Scott Kamieniecki will pitch Thursday in place of Key.Scott Erickson, who has a slight groin strain, is scheduled to open the three-game series in Texas on Friday, followed by Shawn Boskie and Key. Mussina is scheduled to make his debut Monday afternoon in Kansas City.

Q: I am 65 years old and was advised never to take estrogen following surgery for breast cancer. I am concerned about osteoporosis and wonder whether it can be prevented by taking calcium supplements.A: A recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Robert Heaney has clarified the confusing results of the many studies done to determine the effects of dietary calcium on the development of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Most, but not all, of these studies showed that calcium supplements slowed the loss of bone or reduced the number of fractures.

"Common sense" is not always your best guide to sound nutrition. Often good research is the only way to get to the truth. The news about calcium and kidney stones is a case in point.Harvard researchers tracked almost 92,000 nurses for 12 years to see if there was a relationship between calcium intake and kidney stones. The results were similar to what they learned about men in 1993. Those who got the most calcium from their diets were at lower risk for kidney stones. This is exactly the opposite of common sense practiced through the ages.

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but mislabeling "lowfat" milk didn't make it any better for your heart or your waistline.So, things are about to change.When Nutrition Facts labels came into existence, they were backed by reams of regulations controlling the size of a portion as well as the terms that could be used to describe their nutritional quality. "Lowfat," for instance, could mean only that a portion contained 3 grams of fat or less. "Reduced fat," on the other hand, means that a portion contains one-third fewer fat grams than the original.

American women can build stronger bones by eating small meat, chicken and fish portions.This sounds like heresy after years of weight-loss diets promoting 6- to 8-ounce "meat" portions at both lunch and dinner. But according to Creighton University's Robert Heaney, seven decades of research consistently show that high protein diets reduce calcium absorption.In November's Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Dr. Heaney says that whether your protein intake is high or low, every time you double your protein, you increase calcium loss by 50 percent.

Does creamed spinach count as a vegetable?1 g saturated fat; 212 mg calcium.Although this skinny version has more calories than plain spinach, it also has almost as much calcium as a glass of milk, but without all the fat and saturated fat of whole milk, butter or cream.fTCColleen Pierre, a registered dietitian, is the nutrition consultant at the Union Memorial Sports Medicine Center and Vanderhorst & Associates in Baltimore.Pub Date: 2/11/97

* The form of milk with the most calories is whole-fat chocolate, with 230 calories per cup.* Whole milk has 150 to 160, depending on the brand.* Low-fat has 140, extra-light and most buttermilks have 120.* The low-cal winner is skim milk, with 90 calories.* Whole milk is about 3.5 percent fat. This equals nine grams per cup, five grams saturated, which translates into two teaspoons of fat.* The cholesterol count is 33 milligrams per cup for whole milk, 22 for low-fat and only four for nonfat.