[Milk, Daily products and Bone health.Characteristics of calcium in milk.]

Milk contains approximately 110mg of calcium per 100mL of milk, a good source of dietary calcium. The calcium in milk comprises of calcium caseinate, micellar calcium phosphate and soluble calcium. It is also reported that the calcium in milk has an excellent bioavailability. Intervention studies of Japanese women have shown that the absorption rate of calcium in milk was greater than that found in small fish and vegetables. Factors taken into account as contributing to higher absorption rates of calcium in milk were:1)the types of calcium present(caseinate, micellar, soluble), 2)the presence of lactose which promotes calcium absorption, and 3)the presence of casein-phosphopeptide which increases soluble calcium fraction. Higher solubility was also observed in the small intestine of rats fed a micellar calcium phosphate casein-phosphopeptide(MCP-CPP)complex prepared from milk compared to that in rats fed insoluble whey calcium.