Calcium should be taken before or after meals?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Specialist Doctor II Ho Viet Le Diem - General Internal Medicine - Department of Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.
Calcium supplementation is a measure to help prevent the risk of osteoporosis in the elderly, strengthen bones for pregnant women and postpartum women. The following article will advise you to take calcium before or after meals to achieve the best results.

1. Drink calcium before or after eating?

Calcium is one of the important elements for the healthy development of the human body. Calcium helps form bones, skulls, teeth, and participates in blood clotting as well as muscle cell contraction activities....If the body lacks calcium, children will be stunted and slow. growing, hair loss, night crying, night sweats, slowing down, or being sick. For pregnant and lactating women, the lack of calcium leads to pain in the muscles, joints, back, shoulders, neck, hair loss, cramps, postpartum back pain, early osteoporosis... For the elderly, Lack of calcium leads to osteoporosis, fragile bones so extremely dangerous.
Many people understand the importance of calcium, so they regularly add calcium right from food to pills. However, not everyone knows how to eat foods to absorb calcium in the body, and it is more reasonable to drink calcium before or after a meal.
According to nutritionists, calcium should be taken in the morning (about 7am - 8am) to be most easily absorbed into the body, reducing the risk of calcium accumulation in the kidneys and urinary tract. At the same time, do not drink calcium before eating to avoid affecting the stomach.
So should take calcium after breakfast about an hour. Combined with breakfast, you can both eat and sit in the sun on the patio, vitamin D from the sun will help support calcium synthesis, maximum absorption into the body.
In addition, you can also take calcium after lunch about an hour. Because normally, a day an adult with calcium deficiency needs about 1000mg of calcium, so divide it into two after breakfast and lunch so that the body can absorb calcium slowly, it will be more effective.
Note that calcium should not be taken in the afternoon or evening, especially after 9 pm. If you are taking other antibiotics, take them every two hours. Note that you should not drink with milk, coffee, fruit juice... do not drink calcium together with too salty foods because that can increase the amount of calcium excreted in the urine, causing calcium loss.
Every day pregnant women need to load about 1000mg of calcium, 200mg of DHA, so taking calcium and DHA at the same time does not affect the absorption of both substances. However, in order for the body to best absorb these two substances, you should note:
DHA should be taken right before or right after a meal. Calcium is taken 30 minutes before or after eating.

2. How much calcium should be added?

Besides being interested in the issue of when to take calcium, you also need to know how much calcium is enough. Calcium is present in each of our sixty trillion cells, but is lost every day through sweat and excretion, even at rest. The amount of calcium required by the body varies from body to body. For pregnant and postpartum women, the elderly will need more calcium than other subjects, the average calcium requirement of pregnant women is about 1000-1200mg of calcium per day.
If young children take calcium, it is necessary to pay attention to the dosage because the needs of each age are not the same, avoiding calcium deficiency or excess is not good for health. Supplement for children every year from 2 to 3 times, interval from 3 to 4 weeks. In addition, you need to keep your child outdoors to get vitamin D from the sun.
As analyzed above, even at rest, calcium is always lost every second, every minute, even though eating a lot of calcium-rich foods, in adults, up to 80% of the calcium in food is excreted. outside. Therefore, you need to avoid eating foods high in phosphorus because this substance will cause calcium deposition to form insoluble salts. If you only eat foods rich in fiber or whole wheat bread, corn, wheat ... will create problems when absorbing calcium and avoid eating foods containing oxalate because it inhibits the process. calcium absorption.

3. Notes on calcium supplements

Calcium is absorbed more perfectly thanks to vitamin D, they are abundant in eggs, red meat, milk, butter... and in the sun. For people with osteoporosis, taking calcium and vitamin D is important. In the meal, if there are many foods containing protein, it will increase the amount of calcium excretion. When taking calcium supplements, drink plenty of water to avoid kidney stones. Calcium in food is not fully absorbed in the intestines and about 70-80% of it is stored in the stool, especially when a lot of cellulose-containing foods are introduced into the body. Inadequate fat digestion causes calcium absorption to be significantly reduced. Therefore, you should not eat too much fat, protein, salty food ... each meal you should plan, menu to have enough nutrients, ensure nutrition.

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