Episode 38: The Calcium Connection
Welcome to the Beauty of Better podcast, where we help moms thrive in health and faith.
Hey, mamas, welcome back to our podcast.
Today, we are gonna continue our dive into talking about different nutrients.
If you tuned in last week, we were talking about vitamin D and kind of sources and why that's important for our bodies.
And today we're gonna talk about calcium and kind of how vitamin D and calcium work together and why those are important to get from the foods that we eat and kind of why that's important.
So one of the big things with vitamin D in particular is that it helps make sure your bones are strong.
And strong and dense bones are really important, especially as you move into aging, to prevent that breakage from like a simple accident, a simple trip or simple fall.
And we really want to make sure that we're taking care of our bone health.
And so we'll talk about that to prevent that bone loss or bone fractures, and kind of how calcium and vitamin D work in concert with one another.
Yeah.
So vitamin D and calcium.
So calcium like Christiana was talking about, it does help maintain that bone mineral density and reducing that fracture risk.
As we get older, as women, we get closer to menopause, that just increases.
And it can also help with cardiovascular support.
So just help helping regulate things like your heart rhythm, and how contractions are happening with your heart, and just blood clotting in general too.
So if you don't have enough calcium, that can be linked to hypertension or high blood pressure.
So that is something to be aware of.
And it's also very important for things like managing PMS symptoms even too, because it's related to those things.
So like PMS symptoms meaning like how your mood swings are going, bloating, fatigue, things like that.
And also, calcium is very important for muscle contractions and muscle cramping.
So that's very important.
And it is something that we can get quite a bit of from the food that we eat too.
So I'm going to bounce it to Kathleen, and she's going to tell us about that.
Yeah, I just want to share.
So kind of about how much calcium we should be getting in a day.
And if you look on the nutrition labels, you'll see it's often listed in like milligrams.
And so our kind of goal is to get around a thousand milligrams of calcium per day.
And honestly, this is achievable by food alone.
You know, we always encourage food before supplements, and calcium is one of those that especially we can reach through the foods that we consume every day.
So if you look at a food label and it says, like, 300 milligrams of calcium, that would translate, so 300 milligrams out of a thousand would be 30% of your daily value you're getting from that serving size of your food.
So if you want to, you know, track that, if that's something that you feel like you need help with, boosting your diet, that's a simple way that you can go about that.
Aim for around a thousand milligrams a day and just kind of keep track of the foods that you're eating.
So yeah, that's a kind of simple way to track that.
But, you know, there's lots of different foods.
Like maybe, though, you have issues with milk.
I think a lot of people just commonly associate calcium with milk.
But I know in our household, my husband has had lactose intolerance, and a couple of our kids have had issues with that as well.
So that might not be your go-to thing, is like the dairy options.
For me, I call myself, I have an iron stomach of the Midwest.
I was actually raised on, like, Crisco.
So I'm like, I can handle, I know, right?
I joke about it now.
But I just feel like I can consume anything, and it just slides through.
But I know not everyone's like that.
So there's lots of other ways to find calcium.
Just a few examples, soy is a way that you can get calcium in there, broccoli, oranges, kale.
We'll make a list of these foods like on our Instagram.
That will just help give you some other ideas.
But I just wanted to say that just to encourage you.
Also, a lot of breads are fortified with calcium.
A lot of different foods, sometimes cereals are fortified with calcium as well.
So we can often get this through our diet alone.
But maybe I'll hand it over to Danielle if you had some thoughts that you wanted to share.
Yeah, I was even just going to preface this episode because we are switching it up a bit.
So typically in this series, we've been going through a research article and kind of dissecting it for you.
But we felt like, you know, calcium is one of those more well-known minerals that we know that we need, and we hear about it a lot as we're aging.
And so this week, we changed it up, and we're actually using a great website.
It's bonehealthandosteoporosis.org, and we're going to link that to our podcast transcript on our website.
So if you want to read through it, you can.
And it just has really great information about why is calcium so helpful, as we've mentioned, just with bone health, and as we age, and bone density, and preventing breaks and falls, and just getting stronger.
The other thing I wanted to point out with this is the importance of vitamin D.
And I know Cristiana touched on this as well in Kelsey, but your bones cannot absorb calcium without vitamin D.
And in our last episode, we really talked about how so much of the country, so many people in the country are vitamin D deficient.
And so you really, really need to be making sure that you're getting your vitamin D along with your calcium so that they can work as a pair, and they can work together to help build your strong bones.
Because at the end of the day, if you're eating all the calcium, and taking even calcium supplements, if you don't have vitamin D, it doesn't matter.
And so you really need to be making sure that you're getting your vitamin D with your calcium.
And as Kathleen mentioned, a lot of those foods are really high in calcium.
And you can look on this website.
It has a whole list for you.
Anytime think like green leafy vegetables.
A lot of times those have almost a quarter or a third of the calcium that you need, which is why it's like if you're getting your fruits and vegetables, you're getting dairy or some kind of dairy alternative.
And you're getting those things three times a day.
You're probably getting the calcium that you need.
So I feel like this one isn't quite as hard to attain like we've talked about with protein, where it's your part-time job.
It's a little easier to get.
But I think the harder portion to get is the vitamin D that works with calcium.
So I think just being aware of that and making sure that you're getting both together is so, so important.
I think kind of building off of that too with calcium, our bodies can't produce its own calcium.
And so that's why it's so important that we are getting that from food.
And then if we don't have enough calcium, and maybe you're not eating that well, or maybe it's not absorbing because the vitamin D isn't playing its part, but you're going to have that calcium stolen away from your bones.
So that's going to really negatively impact it.
So it's not just, oh, we build it, but it actually can have the reverse impact.
So we really do need to make sure that's coming in to play with nutrition.
And we do lose calcium through sweat and nails and skin and different things like that, urine even as well.
So that's why there has to be that replenishment of that.
And finding something on that list of all of the possible foods, it doesn't have to be your least favorite thing, but there's so many options that you can just build into your program and then check those vitamin D levels to make sure that you have that player working together with that calcium, so that you can get the maximum benefit from the foods that you're eating.
It reminds me of what we talked about with vitamin C, where you have to just keep eating it.
In theory, you could take a calcium supplement or eat a whole bunch at once, but your body absorbs it a lot easier and in a better way if you take it throughout the day.
So if you're eating calcium-rich foods throughout the day, it's better than just trying to get it all at one time.
Yeah.
And I also just want to highlight too that calcium is not technically a vitamin, it's a mineral.
It's a macro mineral, which means that it is one of the ones that we need in larger amounts.
And minerals are just essential nutrients that our body needs to support various functions like we've been talking about.
So like primarily bone health is the big one with calcium, but yeah, so it is one of those macro minerals that we need in larger amounts.
And we're going to talk about some of the other macro minerals coming up to like magnesium, potassium, things like that.
So it's just important.
Yeah, go Kathleen.
Yeah, no worries.
Yeah.
I mean, I just love talking about vitamin D.
Obviously, our main focus is on calcium today, but I did want to share a little bit just on vitamin D.
You know, the three ways that we get it is sunlight, food, and supplements.
And the way that we get that from the sun, and even it's shown that people living in sunny California are showing signs of vitamin D deficiency, which you wouldn't think that, but this website helped show that even sunscreen with an SPF of as low as 8 reduces vitamin D production by 95%.
Isn't that crazy?
So like be outside without the sunscreen on for 20 minutes and then put the sunscreen on.
Yes.
That's what I do.
I do that with our kids and stuff too.
And I think sometimes, you know, we get overprotective as moms, or it's like, okay, they tell us that you have to have the hat and the sunscreen.
And you see these kids just like with that purple sunscreen on and the hats and like the sunglasses, and you're like, okay, it's okay to have like a little bit of sun, you know?
And because yeah, because our the way our skin makes vitamin D in reaction to the sunlight, it stores it in our fat for later use.
And, you know, so over time, like there's different things that affect how our vitamin D, how our skin can produce it, depending on the time of day, the seasons, like the latitude that we live at, the skin pigmentation, age, and other factors.
So just realizing there, you know, you can live in a sunny place and think that, hey, I'm getting like it all sorted.
But just realizing that food plays a big role in that as well.
And then also the vitamin D supplements.
So, you know, this website even talks about how it is hard to get it through sunlight and food alone.
So it actually encourages a supplement when it comes to vitamin D.
Just to, yeah, to help with those aging issues that we have when it comes to like bone density.
But there's also different groups that are at risk.
You know, people who maybe work indoors all day, or, you know, living in nursing homes, also like people with celiac disease, inflammatory bowel conditions.
Also, people who are overweight and obese, that's a risk factor for being vitamin D deficient.
And also, also people with very dark skin, they're often at risk for vitamin D deficiency.
So I just wanted to share this.
And where you live makes a big difference too.
Yes.
Like the northern states, the states where it's like heavy winter, lots of clouds, less sun.
I've actually looked through disease maps in the country and just looking at vitamin D deficiency, disease distribution, and it's crazy how it's just so heavily correlated with more northern states.
So that's when supplements are really, really needed.
I just think it's so cool how like, I don't know, God just designed us to also to be in the light, literally.
And like, you know, how we find these little things of like the reason that God says these things and then, but also like the food that he gives us, like there's, you know, just the vitamin D that's in foods that we need to consume regularly to just make our bodies function the way he designed them to.
So I love just correlations.
And the list of foods, a lot of them are like whole foods, less processed, although fortified, like you can look at those food labels, and we do have an episode that talks about that as well, to see the percentages, but yeah, trying to have more of those like whole foods in your routine and less processed, you could get it in its more natural state, but fortified is still better than not.
So just recognizing like our bodies need both vitamin D and calcium, and if we're not getting it, we are gonna have detrimental effects.
And just like we've talked about in the previous episode too, make sure that you're connecting with your provider because you might be noticing different symptoms or ailments that you think are tied to something else that you have health-wise, but sometimes maybe it is just tied to a nutritional aspect.
So it's good to always kind of do some of those follow-up tests and really dig in and see how you can optimize your health through these simple changes.
Yeah.
Mamas, we hope you're encouraged this week, and just really as you start taking a look at where are you getting your calcium and how much are you getting in a day and how easy it's actually to get through food, but also how we have to work on vitamin D a little bit harder so that they can work hand in hand.
And we just hope that you're encouraged by this episode and empowered by this episode, and again, to have conversations with your physicians, but also to just feel like you're getting what you need to get.
And that's a good feeling.
And so we hope you're blessed by this.
And as you take one small step to becoming better.
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