142 DASA 2019-2 WARREN: ..... because the strontium can only join if there is a gapinthe calcium. in the coconut milk? Do these people have milk? Is there calcium CONARD: I'm not sure what the calcium content of coconut milk is but they certainly had no cow's milk and there were very few children that were nursing at that time. WARREN: Fish bones have some, don't they, Lauren? bones have some calcium. DONALDSON: WARREN: Fish Yes. Don't they eat small fish total? DONALDSON: They eat the entire fish. WARREN: So thie is one of the sources of their calcium. You don't know whether they've got a calcium deficiency, do you, so that they sop up calcium? . CONARD: We don't know that specifically. WARREN: This could vary frorn day to day. CONARD: We've done the strontium-calcium ratios in their urines, and, as l remember, the calcium was within normal limits. DUNHAM: With all that coral dust blowing around the atolls there, they can’t be deficient in calcium. DONALDSON: There are several cyclic phenomena here, One has to realize that the atolls are mzde up almost exclusively of calzium compounds. There is a tremendous availability of caicium although most of it is not in soluble form. There are noticeable deficiencies of some elements in the area, particularly iron, Thus, some of the plants don't grow well because of the lack of this element. On the other hand, the natives' diets are geared to this type of environment through survival patterns, or whatever one wishes to call them. One of the greatest sources of minerals in these diets, beside the coconut crab which is a delicacy, is the giant clam. This clam also is a great filtering mechanism for the sea. It tends to concentrate