Category:
Nutrition

On Calcium

Calcium is vital. Not only in skeletal terms, but on a cellular level. Synaptic impulses, and therefore, almost all the body’s communication processes depend on it. The brain, which is a big mess of synapses, requires an extremely constant supply of this metallic element. There are fail-safes in place to make sure that it gets it, even at the expense of other functions. Or your bones...
Ever since the dawn of agriculture, when the cookery of grains made it possible for the toothless to live so much longer lives, our intake of calcium has been somewhat challenged. The proverbial hunter-gatherer from whom we derive ate many things that grew in wild soil, with mineral content undepleted by annual mono-culture. Many different foods were consumed which also contributed to an even mix of minerals and vitamins. Agriculture changed all that. (You could feed many babies, but they might not grow too tall.)
In another cruel twist for mature specimens of Homo sapiens sapiens, the body’s ability to adsorb calcium ions decreases drastically with age. Nutritional science, often divisive, seems to find accord at least in saying that we must absorb a gram a day from our diets. Unfortunately, this is far below what many folk consume.
For the strict vegetarian, a bit of special attention to this nutrient is prudent.

Oxalates
These compounds, often in the form of oxalic acid, abound in a number of common foods. They can combine with your dietary calcium and render it unavailable. Some of the more common culprits are peanuts, tea (Thea chinensis,) spinach, beets and chocolate.
This reaction only occurs in the digestion of the moment, in other words, if the stuff is all in there together. If you are trying to maximize your calcium intake, then don’t eat or drink these things in the same digestive time frame.
Phytic acid
This is associated with many kinds of dietary fibre, and will also combine with Calcium.
Phosphorus
Many things aspire, by the swing of their electrons, to combine with the amiable metal calcium. Phosphorus is one of them, and the ratio in which these two appear will determine whether or not any calcium that you eat will remain available for absorption in your duodenum and jejunum, which come immediately after the stomach in the inner scheme of things.
Proteins
Many nutritionists seem to believe that we consume much more protein, generally, than we require. On the outside, sixty grams of perfectly complete protein per day should do anyone for cellular building blocks and hormones and the like. On the other hand, excess amino acids are used for fuel. A great deal of calcium is used up by the kidneys in processing of the nitrogenous wastes produced. So it is probably a net drain of the body’s calcium resource to eat too much protein.
These comments are never meant to be any endorsement of one particular regimen over another, in fact we don't care what you eat.
Sodium
Eating too much salt affects kidney plumbing very profoundly; the body uses up Calcium excreting it.

Notes:

The boffins say that daily ingestion should be around a gram, gram and a half.
Eating more, up to the point where one would expect to begin resembling a caryatid, probably would not meaningfully interact with the body, but pass on through. Specific Calcium-binding proteins and transport enzymes must be secreted to allow these ions to be absorbed in the first place. The emission of these substances is in response to hormonal activity, with dihydroxycalciferol or Vitamin D3 being pivotal.
So, even if you have a deadline, go outside for an hour in daylight. It doesn't have to be sunny, but it is the light of the Sun that breaks down a cholesterol compound in the skin and sends it on its way through your blood, liver and finally kidneys to become this important vitamin/hormone.

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More Nutrition:

On Fats |  On Vitamin B¹²  |  On Greens | On Protein | On Legumes |