Calcium is absolutely essential to everyday health. Not only is it important in bone strength, but it plays an important role in blood pressure control, nerve function, and blood clotting. The problem is however, most of us do not get enough of it. An average adult women needs twelve to fifteen hundred milligrams of calcium a day. The average man only needs twelve hundred.
The best sources of calcium are and always have been dairy products - everything from milk and yogurt to cheese. Smaller amounts of calcium can be found in foods like broccoli, oranges, and salmon. There is a such thing as too much calcium though. If you take in too much calcium in a day it can interfere with the absorption of iron and zinc. These are two things that are of short supply in the American diet already.
By monitoring your diet, you can determine how much calcium you may need to supplement. Two basic calcium supplements are calcium citrate and calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is the most popular supplemental form, it is the cheapest, and you don't have to take as much of it to get the same amount as you would calcium citrate. If you choose to use a supplement however, it is important that it contains vitamin D as calcium needs vitamin D to be absorbed into the body.
Calcium is now being said to be the key ingredient to losing weight according to recent research. It not only helps with hypertension, it also supports healthy physiology in a way that helps lose excess body fat. There is a major misconception because some feel that if calcium helps lose weight then drinking more cows' milk and eating cheese pizza is the way to go. That approach to getting your calcium is just horrible thinking. Cows' milk is associated with all sorts of medical disorders such as asthma and constipation. And just like cheese, it is filled with all kinds of fat. There are far better sources of calcium to help with weight loss. This comes in the form of nutritional supplements. Coral calcium supplements are very good for getting your daily calcium intake without all the fat. Plants like broccoli are filled with the exact form of calcium the body desires. Quinoa is a grain and also contains the calcium needed as well as protein.
Even if you're not trying to lose weight however, you need calcium. Please don't fall into that misleading custom and think calcium means milk because that is the last place you want to look. It is actually a marketing myth promoted by the dairy industry. Calcium supplements are far better for you, and plant based calcium such as broccoli is even better. You should work to get calcium from whole foods, vegetables and grains. To keep this calcium you have worked so hard to take in, you should never ever drink soft drinks as they have been proven to strip the calcium right off of the bones in the body.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Calcium