USANA Nutritionals

The Federal Trade Commission has warned consumers to apply a healthy dose of caution before buying products advertised as having "miracle" ingredients or techniques and guaranteed results. Many of these "quick cures" are unproven, fraudulently marketed, useless, and in some cases even dangerous.
 
Coral Calcium is promoted mostly on late night infomercials or early Sunday morning. The marketing practices of coral calcium exploit and exaggerate the known importance and function of calcium and attempt to tie those benefits to their "miraculous" product and "miraculous" cures. The fact of the matter is that there really isn't any good or thorough scientific research on coral calcium - and certainly not enough to support these "miraculous" claims.
 
Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the planet's surface, yet they are homes to over 25% of all marine life (over 4,000 different species of fish, 700 species of coral, and many other plants and animals). Coral reefs are among the world's most fragile and endangered ecosystems, and strict laws are enforced to preserve them. Since it is illegal to mine "live" coral reefs, coral calcium must come from a different source. Marketers of coral calcium say that it is mined from old seabeds buried in the so-called "pristine" desert; or, mined from "fossilized coral sands that accumulated on the sea floor;" or, harvested from "only coral that washes up on the shore." The calcium content of coral calcium ranges from 24% to 38% and is composed primarily of calcium carbonate. This is often called "aragonite" or "calcite" to confuse and mislead the consumer into thinking it is something different than the other forms of calcium available to consumers.
 
The bottom line: coral calcium is simply a source of calcium carbonate.
 
Coral calcium is also touted as having a superior absorption rate. In reality, as long as it is tableted correctly and taken with a meal, calcium has a pretty standard absorption rate no matter what form it comes in. The RDAs for calcium are based on average absorption rates, so the recommended intakes already take into account the absorption rate in average persons.
 
Robert Heaney, M.D., a leading expert on calcium and a professor at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska has stated, "the advertising claims I've seen for coral calcium are outlandish. In the first place, all forms of calcium are poorly absorbed - and for good reason, to prevent dangerous "calcium intoxication." The idea that any calcium is 100 percent absorbed by the body is ridiculous and if true, would be potentially hazardous."
Here's what you need to know: your body handles coral calcium just as it would any other calcium supplement. More importantly, there is usually more to a calcium supplement than just the source of calcium. Does the product contain adequate amounts of the other necessary nutrients for optimal bone health (i.e. vitamin D, silicon, boron, magnesium, vitamin K, etc.) or is it just a stand-alone calcium product? Does it list elemental weights or the complex weights? What is the delivery system?

USANA's Active Calcium represents USANA's commitment to provide you with the very best supplement for bone health. Each tablet contains 200 mg of elemental calcium, 100 IU of vitamin D, 100 mg of magnesium, 15 mcg of vitamin K (not available in Canada), silicon, and boron (not available in Canada), each of which is an important nutrient in building and maintaining bone health.

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