Patterns of dietary calcium intake in south Indian rural, urban and metropolitan city subjects

Background: Adequate dietary calcium intake favours bone mineral accrual. Sparse published data are available on dietary calcium intake of metropolitan city population from south India. Methods: We recorded the dietary intake of calcium and phytates of 524 healthy subjects from Bengaluru, a metropolitan city, by recalling the diet consumed in the previous 5 to 7 days and compared it with dietary intake of calcium of 325 healthy subjects from rural areas around Tirupati, and 508 healthy subjects from urban Tirupati. Results: The dietary calcium intake of the Tirupati rural subjects was the least compared to that of the urban and metropolitan city subjects. In the metropolitan and urban groups the diet was high in calories, milk, milk products and vegetables compared to rural subjects. Dietary calcium intake was significantly lower (p<0.0001) in the rural subjects compared to the urban and metropolitan city subjects. The dietary phytate were significantly different in both the rural, urban as well as the metropolitan city groups (p<0.0001). The dietary phytate/calcium ratio was significantly higher in rural subjects compared to urban and metropolitan city group (p<0.0001). Conclusions: Improving the quality of diet by reducing the phytate and enriching/supplementing with calcium will be of benefit for maintaining bone health.