Dear Lisa:

You are correct.  Our diet is high in meat which is high in phosphorus.  Our
diet is also high in phosphoric acid from soda pop  which is a man-made
chemical soup (sound appetizing?)  Judging from the diets I see, there is a
large discrepancy between calcium and phosphorus intake (remember also that
the calcium in dairy foods is also balanced by the phosphorus that is present
there, so it really does little to "balance" the calcium/phosphorus ratio).
 If I remember correctly, legumes are also high in phosphorus, but few people
eat enormous amounts of them.

Inactivity also increases the calcium that is lost from the body (weight
bearing exercise increases bone density).

So...all in all, we have brought a lot of our calcium problems on ourselves
through our lifestyle and "modern" eating habits.  I just loved it a couple
of years ago when the corn chip company XXXXXX compared a 1 ounce serving of
their product with 1 cup of whole milk and tried to make it sound like their
product was better.

I loved your comment about eating only what tastes good!  I have been on a
kick recently that "If you ask the wrong questions, you will get the wrong
answers".  In nutrition, the wrong question is "What can I eat that is quick,
cheap and tastes good?"  The "right" question should be "What can I eat that
will nourish my body?"
What's neat about breastfeeding is that the right answer to both questions is
the same thing--Mother's milk.

Martha Grodrian Brower RD LD IBCLC
Dayton, OH