Calcium is a well known nutrient and most of us are aware that it helps our bodies create strong and healthy bones, but let’s delve a little deeper.

Why does our body need Calcium?

Calcium is an important mineral that we need to create strong dense bones. About 99% of the total calcium in our bodies can be found in the bones and teeth. The remaining amount is used in the transportation of proteins around the body at a cellular level and for muscular contractions. To help your body absorb calcium it is important that you consume suitable levels of Vitamin D.

Calcium deficiency

If your diet lacks calcium over a long period your bones can become weak leading to osteoporosis, rickets and poor blood clotting. This weakness in the bones can lead to fractures and bones that have a higher chance of breaking.

Too much Calcium

If you have too much calcium in your body it can lead to poor kidney function and decreases the bodies ability to absorb other nutrients. It was thought that too much calcium also contributed to kidney stones but that has since been refuted and scientists have now decided that it lowers the chances of kidney stones (they got that very wrong the first time – Beeble).

How much Calcium?

The advice differs depending on your age so below we have a brief table of the Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium. Each quantity is the recommended amount per day.

Infants

0-6 months – 210 mg

7-12 months – 270 mg

Children

1-3 years - 500 mg

4-8 years - 800 mg

Males & Females

9-18 years - 1300 mg

19-50 years - 1000 mg

51 + years - 1200 mg

What foods are high in Calcium?

Milk and cheese are probably the most obvious choice and not surprisingly have high calcium content. What might be a little more surprising is the high content of calcium in dried spices like basil, marjoram, thyme, dill weed, sage and oregano. So they are not just for flavour they actually have nutritional benefits as well. Calcium is also present in rhubarb and oatmeal

View the top 100 foods for calcium content here.

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This entry was Posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Diet, Nutrients. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.