Simple Nutrition Insights

Strengthen Your Bones: The Power of Calcium and Simple Tracking Tips

• Leonila • Episode 48

Share episode

Send us a text

Can you imagine a world where your bones are as strong at 60 as they were at 30? This episode of Simple Nutrition Insights uncovers the fascinating role of calcium beyond just maintaining healthy bones and teeth. We discuss its critical functions in muscle performance, nerve signaling, and blood clotting. We also break down how your calcium needs change throughout different life stages and the importance of strength training in maintaining peak bone density, which typically occurs between the ages of 25 and 30. By understanding these key insights, you can take concrete steps to protect your bones and overall health as you age.

But that's not all! We also delve into practical strategies for tracking your calcium intake and the ongoing debate between getting calcium from food versus supplements. Learn about the most calcium-rich foods and how to effectively use nutrient-tracking apps to meet your daily requirements. We discuss the importance of consulting healthcare providers before starting any supplements and the potential risks of excessive calcium intake, including kidney stones. Finally, discover how lifestyle choices like caffeine and alcohol consumption can impact your calcium levels and bone health, and get tips on integrating calcium-rich foods and bone-strengthening exercises into your daily routine.

Calcium Handout
Calcium Article 

Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com

My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg

Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode in the Simple Nutrition Insights podcast. I hope you are doing okay. If you are in Fresno and you have kids in Fresno Unified School District, I hope they have a first day back to school. If you're a teacher, an administrator, or if your kids are just going back to school today, have a wonderful day. I dropped off my kids today. Today is the 19th of August. I know this is going to air next week, but either way, it felt interesting, right, because it's so quiet. I miss definitely the quietness, and so I hope they have a wonderful day. I hope they enjoy their classmates and their teachers and I hope they do great. So I hope your family does well too.

Speaker 1:

But last episode I talked about magnesium, right, and the important role of magnesium. That is involved in over 300 biochemical functions, and so today I decided to do one on calcium. Now, calcium is another mineral, and calcium is also the most abundant mineral in the human body, crucial for various physiological processes. Some of the key roles of calcium are bone and teeth formation, muscle function, nerve transmission and blood clotting, so it has a big role, right. It's also one of our electrolytes. So you know, if you take electrolytes, you'll see that as well. But the specific functions that calcium has in our body specifically is mostly in bone health. So about 99% of our calcium is stored in our bones and teeth. It is important for our bone density and prevention of osteoporosis, but it also has function in our muscles. So it helps with contraction and relaxation, creates like a balance, right of calcium and other minerals for the process of muscle contraction, and it also plays a role in nerve transmission, right, calcium ions are essential in transmitting nerve signals and the involvement in synaptic transmission. So the communication of nerves right. So it has really important roles, right, not only from well, sometimes when we think about calcium, we think bones and teeth. Right, calcium is for our bones and teeth. But there's other functions, right, as we talked about the muscle function, contraction. Sometimes we also think about potassium, right, in terms of muscle muscle spasms or cramps. Same thing with magnesium. But calcium also has a role in it, right. So calcium and sodium can play a role in it too. Same thing with, like, nerve connections from nerve transmissions, communication between nerves, nerve signals. So calcium plays a huge role in our bodies.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about what are the requirements, right. How much calcium should we consume. It really depends by age, gender and life stages, right. If someone is pregnant or lactating, that also a role in in how much calcium they're going to need. I actually created a quick handout for you, right, that you can use as a reference with the amounts. I'll just briefly discuss them as well, but you can always reference that handout back.

Speaker 1:

Right, I know there is a peak of calcium um storing, meaning that the amount that we are going, the amount of calcium that we are going to store at a certain age and that usually usually you know our early years we can make more bone deposits, right, that then we can withdraw because our bone cells right, they're not just like, oh, you grew bones, right, you got a certain height or a certain age and that's it right, but we continue to like, use bones, right, our cells are breaking down and using cells and rebuilding cells, using the calcium for it right in our bones. And specifically, there's an age, right, I want to say that between age 25 and 30, our bones reach their maximum strength and density, meaning that that's the amount, you know, the density and the strength that our bones are going to be at their peak, and then we kind of break down bones a little bit faster. Right, and there are some specific not things I hit my mic, not specifically things right, but activities that we can do to help with our bone density right, aside from nutrition, and one of them is doing strength training. So strength training has been shown to help with bone density specifically. Right, so we have calcium right, but we also have how to make these bones tighter right, more dense.

Speaker 1:

I actually did a client call right, and we were talking about the importance of strength training not only for getting strong right, having more flexibility, but also for bone density. And so you know he asked what does that really mean? Right, like how do you know when your bones are dense? And so, when you think about like your bone right, so if you've never seen a bone like microscopically, it's pretty tight. Right, there's not really a lot of like space right, and that's great because we want to make sure that they're tight.

Speaker 1:

So if, in case we fall or in case, you know, we trip or we hit something, we hit our bone right, we're not going to break it right away. That's why you know the density, the tightness right of these cells or these bones are pretty packed as we get older, right, or for some reason we're not, our bones are not dense or not strong, you start to see that a little bit more space, right, and then we get to a stage where it's, you know, the brittle, and that you see, like literally you see bigger holes, right, that, then that's in that, then that is basically osteoporosis. And so the tighter right, the space I don't even know space, but the tighter they are right, the density of them, going back to density, the better, right, because then that is going to tell you that you have good bone density, which is going to prevent osteoporosis, which is going to prevent injuries, right, or if you fall, breaking a bone, and so all that is really important, right. But we also have to help our bodies be able to do that. So, again, number one, or one of those factors right, is strength training, which is going to help keep those bones tighter, right and more dense. And then the other one that also plays a role in there, right, is calcium, like how much calcium we have to consume, how much calcium we consume on a daily basis. And so I'm going to tell you that right now.

Speaker 1:

So for ages one to three years old, right, they need about 700 milligrams of calcium. For children, four to eight, about a thousand milligrams. Teens, nine to eighteen, thirteen hundred milligrams. Right, it is higher. I think this is the highest. You're going to see that because they are needing more calcium right there. They're still growing rapidly, there's many hormonal changes that are happening and so they're needing more of that calcium as well. And then it kind of tapers off a little bit. You know, adults 19 to 50, 50 years old, a thousand women, 51 plus um, 1200 milligrams. Again, because now we're using what we store of the calcium, right, and so we have to be able to keep that demand going. And then for men, 71 plus again 1200 milligrams of calcium. And these are the recommendations based on the national institute of health. Again, you can reference that. If I went too fast or if you're busy, you'll have the handout, you can just click that at the end in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

So now that we know that information right, how can we get calcium right? And so calcium is, as I mentioned, a mineral. It's something that we need, right, it's an essential mineral. It's not that our bodies are able to make it. We have to get it externally, and so we get it in two ways. One, we get it from foods and two, we can get it from supplements, right, like calcium supplements. But we do have to be more cautious here. So, as always, food is going to be first. Right, we want to be able to get all our nutrients, if possible, from food first, and then, if, for some reason, we're not able to get that amount or if we're struggling, then we can add a supplement. But you always have to consult with your healthcare provider either your doctor, your practitioner, your dietician to make sure that you're getting the right amount and you're not getting too much, because sometimes we think like, oh, because this is something that I need more, it's better, and that's not the case. We have to also be cautious with that, and I'll go over that in just a moment. Um, but let's see, yeah, we talked about how much is there, okay.

Speaker 1:

So when we think of okay, where does calcium come from, oftentimes we think about milk. Right, there's a lot of commercials or ads about strong bones in milk, and actually milk has been fortified, for the most part, with calcium and vitamin d, and so really any, not only dairy, right, it's going to give you, uh, it's going to be a rich source of calcium and vitamin D, but anything else that is fortified with calcium and vitamin D oftentimes, but you can also find it naturally, for example, in sardines. You can find it in salmon, your fatty fish and your leafy greens You're also going to find it in leafy greens, in chia seeds and your beans and other foods that are also fortified, as I mentioned, your dairy, like yogurt, mozzarella, cheese, cottage cheese, your regular milk, but your plant-based milks too. Your plant-based milks are going to be fortified with calcium, vitamin D and other nutrients. And so oftentimes let's say if you're like, oh, I just drink soy milk, right, soy milk can give you about a quarter, about 25% of what you need for the entire day, right, so this is based on like a thousand milligrams. So if you have three cups of soy milk or any other plant-based milk just alone, there, you're getting 75 percent right, or close to that, of what you need of calcium during the entire day. Now, if you add tofu, right, let's say, if you're having like following like a plant-based plant, right. But even if you're not right, maybe you're, you're drinking almond milk for other reasons you still get at least 25 percent of your daily value that you need from calcium by drinking the plant-based milk and then adding, let's say, you do, a salmon, right, that will give you about 180 milligrams um for about three ounces, right. And if you add oatmeal or any other breakfast cereals that are going to be fortified, right the same. Then you use some chia seeds or you add some leafy greens, right. So you can absolutely get the amount that is recommended 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day by making sure that you're adding a variety of these foods with you know on on a consistent basis, and that way you can get that amount of calcium that you need.

Speaker 1:

Now we can ask the question well, how do I know how much calcium, um I'm having? Right? The only way that we're gonna know is by by tracking it right, or by choosing you know, your high calcium foods and tracking them. Like that, even if you just worry about tracking the calcium, you can know that way. But if you want something more comprehensive, right, and you're like I want to make sure that I'm having calcium and vitamin D and these other foods or these other nutrients, then using an application right to help you track these nutrients can be really helpful. So that's where they naturally, right, where the calcium can come from, specifically from foods. Again, you'll have that handout that you can reference back and then I'll add other resources to give you that specific amount. Even if you go to the USDA website, they have a nutrition data analysis and there you can also find so many other foods that are rich in calcium. So I'll probably add that resource for you as well, so you can take a look at that too and you can create your meals that have these high or rich calcium foods.

Speaker 1:

Now, how about supplements? And this is something that I often get asked right, like okay, can I take a calcium supplement? Again, as I mentioned, you have to first talk to your health care provider or dietician, whoever you're working with to help you with your um, your supplements, medication, nutrition, wherever it is, because you want to make sure that you're getting one that you need it right. Two, that you need it right, too, that you're adding these foods right that are rich in calcium. Again, because these specific foods that you're adding let's say, you're focusing on soy milk and tofu right? You're not getting only calcium from soy milk and tofu, you're also getting protein, you're also getting fiber. You're getting these other nutrients. If you add just a calcium supplement, right, you're only going to get the calcium, that's it. So that's why food is first right, because you get so many other nutrients by adding a variety of calcium-rich foods.

Speaker 1:

But let's talk about calcium supplements.

Speaker 1:

You can find it oh my gosh, the supplement industry. It's just humongous. But there's so many out there, right, they some of them are included, not a lot. You won't see these calcium being added to a multivitamin. You'll see a smaller amount, not necessarily to a higher percentage of your daily value, because sometimes calcium interacts with other nutrients, specifically with iron, right? Oftentimes calcium might get absorbed in all the iron and so if you have iron deficiency, anemia or any issues with your iron and you're taking iron and calcium, there could be that issue there.

Speaker 1:

So, again, that's why you have to talk to your healthcare provider or even your pharmacist, right, and just letting them know these are all the medications, these are all the supplements that I'm taking. Can you tell me which ones to interact with? And that way you take the supplements the right way? So there are different types of calcium, right Calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, and so in people specifically that have low levels of stomach acid, right, the solubility rate of calcium carbonate is lower, so that can also reduce the absorption of calcium. So, thinking about you know the things, that also the medications that you're taking, right, because sometimes the acidity of the stomach actually needs, it's needed right to absorb some of these vitamins or minerals. And so, as you're taking medications that affect that acidity, right, that can also play a role in the absorption of calcium and how much is absorbed. But most of the absorption of calcium, again in supplements, is greater when they are taken with food. Right, because it helps usually um.

Speaker 1:

Let's see what else here in terms of the supplements. They usually come in um for the most part, not always right. There might be they might be added with vitamin d. Vitamin d is needed to for the calcium to get absorbed better. You might see them in like 500 or 600 milligrams. Sometimes some of them are lower. But you have to remember right that if it's a supplement you're not going to want to take, you know a thousand milligrams of calcium. If you know, if you're working on, or if you're able to add this high rich, high calcium rich foods, right, which is the, the, the idea here, you want to do that first and then supplement, right, hence the name with uh, with a supplement. Ideal, I'm gonna say that should be fine. Okay, just reading a few things here If something that I haven't mentioned yet, okay, anyway, so there's that.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about specifically deficiencies right, and you can. One of the ways to measure deficiencies in terms of calcium right is either doing a um. Usually the blood test is just going to show like the calcium circulating in the blood for the most part. But you know, if you do a bone density test, a dexoscan right, where it measures your bone density and it shows that you you know you have low bone density, that you're needing a little bit more calcium, right? Or maybe you're not meeting your calcium needs, and so that's important to know.

Speaker 1:

But there are also some deficiencies right, and some symptoms that you can get if you have a calcium deficiency. Now I'm going to mention these symptoms, but you have to be cautious too, because these symptoms could also be affected by other factors, right? So, for example, muscle cramps, right, if you have muscle cramps, it doesn't only mean that you have a calcium deficiency. It could be other things, right? Maybe you're overtrained or you're dehydrated. So I don't want you to listen to these symptoms and you're like, oh my gosh, I have a calcium deficiency, let me add tons of calcium, right? No, finding out the root cause of why. You're like, oh my gosh, I have a calcium deficiency. Let me add tons of calcium, right? No, finding out the root cause of why, so that you're having that specifically? So, muscle cramps, tingling, brittle nails, frequent fractures right, that's a little bit more calcium. Bone specific, some, uh, long-term effects, right, like like calcium deficiency, osteoporosis and weakened bones.

Speaker 1:

Now I wanted to elaborate a little bit more on factors affecting calcium absorption. Right, the boosters, the things, right, the nutrients that are going to boost absorption of calcium, as I mentioned, is vitamin D and also low-oxalate greens. Calcium, as I mentioned, is vitamin D and also low oxalate greens. I might have to do just a podcast episode on oxalates, because that's a huge one too in kidney health. Inhibitors that affect calcium absorption are high sodium intake. So, if you're consuming a lot of salty foods, right, because calcium think of calcium and sodium as like opposites right, if there is too much um sodium, right, almost like calcium has to leave, right, there is not. There is that imbalance. So, um, if you're having high calcium intake, right, that could be affecting your calcium absorption.

Speaker 1:

Caffeine sometimes that also affects your calcium, right, too much caffeine. The recommendation, general recommendation is no more than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day, coming from all kinds of sources, not only coffee, alcohol too. Alcohol is absorbed in the stomach, right. That affects the absorption and also affects the absorption of calcium. High oxalate foods right, if we're eating this higher amount of oxalate foods, for example spinach, but I don't want you to feel like, oh my gosh, spinach is bad. No, there's times when we can add in, and also the amounts, right. So if we have one of these issues with calcium, we can always choose different leafy greens that are lower in oxalate. So there's that part of it.

Speaker 1:

Now, when we think about calcium overload right, meaning there's too much calcium what we have to watch out for is more. So it's going to come from your supplements. The recommendation depending on your age. Let's say you were needing a thousand milligrams but you're like, oh no, I'm going to take more because more is better, and you take over a thousand milligrams from supplements and you're still getting some from food, right, sometimes that's where the overload is going to be again, because oftentimes supplements are going to be absorbed better and so you're only getting calcium right, as opposed to with your foods that you're getting other nutrients.

Speaker 1:

So excessive calcium from supplements, specifically, may cause kidney stones, right? So, um, if you have recurrent kidney stones, really looking at you know your calcium. This is more like calcium stones that are formed and so, looking that, at that specifically, we have recurrent kidney stones. Like, okay, you might take a lot of calcium supplements, but that can. You can also feel fatigue and you might also have cardiac issues. But, again, really looking at the root cause of why you're having these symptoms, right, not only being like, oh, I have calcium overload, right, you really have to look into the root cause. So how can we maintain healthy calcium levels, right? So, now that we know this information, now that we know where calcium comes from or where we can get calcium from, how can we maintain these healthy calcium levels?

Speaker 1:

And this is almost like the, not the trend, right, but it comes to this time after time, not only with calcium, same thing with magnesium, same thing with every single nutrient. Is having more of these balanced meals, right, like really focusing, if you have a deficiency in calcium, if you do know that, hey, my bone density is pretty low, really making sure that at every single meal, right, or at least at two meals you're having, like rich calcium rich foods, right, and on a weekly basis, at least three to four times, you're having these high calcium rich foods. Ideally you want to have them daily, right, because it's something that you need on a daily basis. So, by being really strategic, right, and adding these foods and this is something that I see often more so with, like teen clients, um, that they're not drinking their, their milk, right, either their plant-based milk or their regular milk. They're just not drinking it and so they're not getting the calcium that they need, right, because they're not doing that at any other meals.

Speaker 1:

And maybe they might be replacing it with sugary drinks or with soda, right, specifically your dark soda that is going to have phosphoric acid. That phosphoric acid, it's going to bind with calcium, right, to be able to you could get metabolized or get digested or whatever. And so if you're drinking lots of dark soda, right, and there's not enough calcium circulating in the blood, that is going to be pulled right from your muscles, essentially, and so then you're getting even more weaker bones, right, so you want to be able to really think about those things, because phosphoric acid and you can see it on the ingredients list of your soda, oftentimes mostly on your dark soda. Sometimes you have it on your clear soda still. So if you're drinking that, right, replacing that, and not having your high calcium or high calcium plant-based meals, then you're already having that deficiency, right.

Speaker 1:

So really thinking about those things. But also if you are needing a supplement, right, again, talking to your healthcare provider, talking to your dietician, to your pharmacist, to make sure that you're getting the right one. But as we get older, right, the right one. But as we get older, right, we saw that for women 51 plus they need 1200 milligrams of sodium and for men 71 plus, they need 1200 milligrams of sodium. Calcium, excuse me, you need calcium. And so, um, making sure again, right, that if we are not getting enough, right, you can supplement, not replace supplement with a calcium supplement that your health provider recommend regular exercise, right, weight bearing activities to help strengthen those bones.

Speaker 1:

So, strength training, resistance training, and oftentimes, what you know, when I have a client that says you know what, I don't want to go to the gym or I don't want to do lift weights, even if you use your body to do these strength training exercises or even if you think about the daily activities that you do that require you to use your muscles right or to pick things up, because as we get older, that's what is going to help us right, to be able to do our daily activities. So if it's picking up a box, right, you're doing it properly. Or moving items right in your home. Or even doing like, using your cans, like can of food, right, doing them as weight. You know things like that. So you don't really have to go to the gym to do strength training or weight bearing exercises. You can do it at home anytime, right, it's just being able to do that.

Speaker 1:

Because as you get older, again one if you're not getting enough calcium and do adding strength training, imagine, imagine your bones right, how much your bones are going to change and the density of them is going to go down, right, that is just a fact. And so you want to be able to prevent that right, which is going to prevent injuries, fractures and just not being able to be mobile. So, thinking about those things in long-term, right? So if you hate exercising or you hate doing strength training, find a way to add it right that it doesn't feel like it's a chore, that it's more so looking at what things you do on a daily basis that require your muscles, right, and doing a few reps of that to help you.

Speaker 1:

Bone health monitoring, right, it's another way to maintain healthy calcium levels and, as I mentioned that, one of them is doing like a bone density test, like a DEXA scan, you know, once a year, twice a year, depending on how often your healthcare provider requires that, especially if you are at risk population, right, you're elderly, or you've been. You know history, historically been told that you have low bone density. You want to keep track of it, right, because, again, as we age, it's not that we're, you know, adding more calcium or making our bones stronger, right, we're actually needing more. So, really thinking about that, um, I talked about life stages, right, that have increased needs of calcium, like childhood, pregnancy and aging. So you know if you're in those categories, really, um, really looking into calcium needs and what amount of calcium, you're currently taking some dietary restrictions, right, there are some ways of eating that might restrict the amount of calcium, um, so, for exampleans lactose intolerant population, but it doesn't mean that you are going to just because you're vegan or just because you are lactose intolerant that you are going to be deficient by default, right? No, we still have to be really, really intentional. About making sure that we're adding these calcium rich foods Right. Your plant based meals again, they're going to give you 25 percent of your daily value. About making sure that we're adding these calcium rich foods, right, your plant-based milks again, they're going to give you 25% of your daily value. If you're adding chia, if you're adding leafy greens, if you're adding almonds, if you're adding these other foods, you can really get your calcium that you need, even if you fall in these. You know these type of these more dietary restrictions. Okay, my friend, I think that is it, just to do a quick recap. Right, we talked about calcium.

Speaker 1:

Calcium is a mineral. It is another abundant mineral in the body. We find it in. You're going to find it mostly in your bones and teeth. There are different recommendations for different life stages, right and you can reference that back on that handout that I'm giving you Some sources of calcium, right, that I talked about are, you know, your dairy products, like milk, yogurt, cheese, but you can also find it in fortified orange juice or any other juice that's fortified, your plant-based milks, your tofu, your fatty fish salmon, your soybeans, your fortified breakfast cereals I think it's the leafy greens, your chia seeds.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes bread might also be fortifiedified, so you can find it in different foods. Supplements you make sure you have to make sure that you talk to your health provider first about before adding them, to make sure that you get the right amount. More is not better, because you know that can also affect see, or it can also affect you right. You can also get symptoms. You want to make sure that you are monitoring your bone density right by either doing a DEXA scan or talking to your healthcare provider about how you can monitor your bones. And that is it. So check out that handout that I made for you. If you have any questions, you can email me. You can send me a text. When you go into the podcast episode it gives you that little icon on top. Send us a text. If there's anything that I missed, let me know too. But you have a wonderful rest of your day. Take care, stay safe and stay strong. My friend. Talk to you in another episode. Bye-bye for now.