Calcium is essential for healthy bones and teeth. We’ve heard that all our lives from parents, doctors and commercials. What they haven’t told us though is that when we don’t get enough calcium, our bodies literally take it back from our bones. Sure, we’ve heard that our bones need calcium, but to be literally robbed of it? That’s scary!
Calcium is a mineral that also helps our muscles and nerves function properly. It’s mandatory that we have it. We don’t get to choose. When we don’t have enough, and most of us don’t, it will be taken from our bones. That part is actually the normal process. It’s what happens next that gets us in trouble. The calcium we take in is supposed to go replace that calcium that was just taken out of our bones. So if we don’t take enough in, we literally lose bone. That’s why we should take the vitamin supplement calcium if we’re not able to eat enough calcium rich foods every day.
We also lose calcium every day in skin cells that fall off, by sweating and it’s in our urine. This happens every day. So what we have got to do is put it back every day. Those who take supplements probably take the vitamin supplement calcium more than anything else because we all lose it and it’s not as easy to get it back as it is say, vitamin C. No one should be deficient in vitamin C.
There are a lot of foods that have calcium. We know that milk does. Low-fat milk and whole milk have calcium. Cheese and dairy products have calcium. So do green, leafy vegetables. The problem is as adults we need between 1000-1300 mg a day. We’re losing 400-500 mg a day so we can’t afford to skip one day. If we make the effort, we can eat enough calcium rich foods but if we don’t do that, we need to take the vitamin supplement calcium.
We’ve all seen the little old lady bent over with osteoporosis and the commercial telling us to drink milk, eat cheese and take the vitamin supplement calcium. It makes sense why the poor little old lady looks like that when you realize that our bodies will not take no for an answer. Our bodies know where to go to get the calcium it needs and that’s exactly what it does by robbing our bones. It’s up to us to put it back.
It’s almost funny in a pitiful way. If we came home and found we had been robbed and the police called us and said, “Hey, good news, we found your stuff!” How long would it take us to say, “Alright!” “I’ll be right down to get it.” Then we would go get our stuff and take it home and put it back. Right?
You’ve been robbed. Here’s your loot. Put it back.
