It seems you can't read a newspaper or magazine these days without seeing a reference to osteoporosis; it's what most people automatically think of when they consider calcium. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, this debilitating disease afflicts some 10 million Americans-80 percent of them women. And unless you get a bone density test, you don't know you have osteoporosis until your bones start breaking. The good news is that years of adequate calcium consumption can help prevent the disease.

But that's not the only reason to consume calcium. Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University, has been researching calcium for more than 15 years and runs a study of adolescents called Camp Calcium. "Calcium does a ton of things," she says. "Your bones and blood have to have a constant supply of calcium. Calcium is required for basically every life process. Adequate calcium can reduce the risk of hypertension, certain cancers, kidney stones, even pms. And it's useful for helping control body fat and body weight. Osteoporosis has been understood and is the most studied in relation to calcium, but the fact is, if you get enough calcium for bone health, you get enough for all the other disorders."

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