The Consumer Guide to Calcium
In this guide...
Why Is It Essential?
Benefits and Uses
Recommended Daily Allowances
Deficiency Risk Factors
Optimal Intake
Food Sources
Safety
Types of Products
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Why is it essential? Calcium is needed for a wide variety things, including proper nerve, enzyme, muscle and heart functioning, and for construction and repair of bones and teeth.
Benefits and Uses: Calcium is also known to help prevent colon cancer, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure and may assist in alleviating premenstrual syndrome.
Deficiency Risk Factors: Most women are at risk of osteoporosis, caused by in part by Calcium deficiency. Some heart patients may need more calcium than they get from their diets. But most people don’t get enough to prevent broken bones, high blood pressure and colon cancer as they age. The average American only gets half the 1,000-1,500 mg per day recommended by the National Institutes of Health to help prevent osteoporosis (weak, porous bones). Calcium intake is not a sure defense against porous bones by itself. On average, Asian peoples consume even less calcium but suffer fewer broken bones. Exercise and vitamin D are known to be as important as calcium to strong bones. And, the excess protein intake typical of Americans can cause calcium to leach out of the body. While increased calcium intake isn’t the whole answer to avoiding osteoporosis, hypertension, or colon cancer, its preventive benefits are well established.
Optimal Intake: New guidelines established by the US government set the maximum intake at 2,500 mg per day. These levels may by too high for persons prone to kidney stones.
Food Sources: Non-fat or reduced-fat milk and dairy products are good sources, for two reasons. Consuming calcium with foods aids absorption, and milk products contain vitamin D, which enhances the benefits of calcium. Tofu is a pretty good calcium source, and fortified soy drinks usually provide as much calcium as milk. Cooking greens in the cabbage family (kale, collards,mustard greens, turnip greens) have as much calcium as milk, and unlike the calcium in spinach, it is just as absorbable.
But, as the statistics show, few people get enough calcium from foods. Fortunately, supplements are equally good sources—especially when taken with or just after meals, to enhance absorption. Which supplements are best? Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.
Safety: Calcium is normally considered a very safe mineral, except for persons predisposed to kidney stones.
- Calcium Carbonate and other insoluble forms (dolomite, bone meal, oyster shell) forms are the cheapest sources. Calcium carbonate is also the most concentrated form, so you can fulfill optimal requirements with fewer pills. However, calcium must be dissolved and ionized by stomach acid before it can be absorbed. Studies in postmenopausal women suggest that about 40% are so deficient in stomach acid that they can absorb only about 20% as much calcium from lab-refined calcium carbonate—and probably less from the other insoluble forms—as persons with normal stomach acid. In addition, independent tests indicate that dolomite, bone meal and unrefined calcium carbonate can be unacceptably high in lead.
- Calcium Chelates (Lactate, Aspartate, Gluconate, Orotate, Hydroxyapatite) are already soluble and ionized, and therefore better absorbed than insoluble forms, especially by persons with low stomach acid. Chelates also tend to contain less lead than the insoluble forms. There is a trade off. Soluble calcium chelates cost more, and you’ll usually need two pills to deliver the 500-600 mg typically found in one tablet or capsule of calcium carbonate.
- Calcium-Magnesium formulas are somewhat preferable to calcium alone, because the body needs both, in a 2-1 ratio, to perform key physical functions involving nerves and muscles. And, many Americans are functionally deficient in magnesium, which is known to help alleviate PMS and hay fever.
- Food/Herb-Based calcium products claim to enhance absorption, as taking any vitamin or mineral with foods tends to do. This will certainly be truer if the calcium itself is chelated. One disadvantage to these products is the greater number or size of tablets needed to deliver an optimal daily dose.
Browse Our Wide Selection of Calcium Products