Calcium and Osteoporosis – Is Dairy Really Good For Your Bones?

Dairy products are the best sources of calcium in the diet and calcium is the main mineral in bones.

For this reason, the health authorities recommend that we consume three glasses of milk per day.

However, the situation appears to be a bit more complicated… the countries that consume the most dairy also have the most osteoporosis.

Dairy Doesn’t Make Sense From an Evolutionary Perspective

The idea that humans “need” dairy doesn’t make much sense to me, because we didn’t consume dairy throughout evolution.

Human beings are the only animal that consumes dairy after weaning. We are also the only animal that consumes dairy from another species than our own.

For these reasons, consuming dairy may be considered “unnatural” and something that is relatively new to our species. We’ve been evolving for millions of years, only consuming dairy for about 10.000 years (sources don’t agree on the exact number).

Then we have data showing that bone health was excellent in hunter-gatherers. They did not eat any dairy after weaning, but they did get significant amounts of calcium from other sources (1).

So… it doesn’t really make sense from an evolutionary perspective that humans would need dairy to optimize bone health.

However, even though it isn’t needed, that does NOT mean that it can’t be beneficial

Bottom Line: Humans have been eating dairy for a relatively short time on an evolutionary scale. They are also the only species that consumes dairy after weaning, or dairy from another species than their own.