Calcium is essential in the forming of healthy teeth and bones. Because it facilitates communication between nervous cells, calcium is good for your nervous system also. Calcium is responsible for the muscle contractions and for the beating of your heart. A lack of calcium leads to irritability, headaches, frail nails, rotten teeth, and in the worst cases it can create osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a disease that reduces the density of bones making hip fractures and spine deformations common in the ones affected by it.
A nutrition rich in calcium, fruits and vegetables can help you get rid of high blood pressure and prevent colon cancer. But there is an even better news: studies have shown that in dieting calcium is a reliable ally. The consumption of calcium helps out your weight loss efforts considerably. People that go on a low calories diet but rich in calcium can lose as much as twice weight as the people that eat the same number of calories but get smaller quantities of calcium. The results are even better in the cases when calcium is taken not from pills but from natural foods like dairies, orange juice or cereals.
Cereals are the least expensive source of calcium that we can tap. One bowl of cereals with milk ensures about one third of the daily calcium your body needs. Cereals are a healthy food to include in your diet, especially for breakfast.
The daily calcium requirement
Women should consume between 1000 and 1300 mg of calcium daily. Most men need to consume between 1000 and 1200 mg of calcium per day. Postmenopausal women need to consume more calcium, between 1200 and 1500 mg daily. Also pregnant women need to increase their normal daily quantity of calcium.
You can eat all the calcium rich foods and swallow all the calcium pills that you want, if you don’t assimilate it it’s all in vain. Vitamin D is responsible for the assimilation of calcium in the body and it can be taken from cereals too. Of course there are other foods that contain vitamin D also.
May 2, 2009
Diets & Nutrition