For the healthy functioning of the body, it is extremely important to ensure that all essential nutrients are consumed in adequate amounts by the body. Each of the nutrients including different vitamins and minerals have their own important role to play to take care of specific functions in the human body.
Similarly, the intake of appropriate amounts of calcium is important for children, men as well as women of all the age groups. The requirement of calcium is for the entire lifetime of an individual and therefore being careful about the right and the most appropriate calcium rich foods is extremely important.
In addition to calcium which can be supplemented through the calcium rich foods, there are several other minerals that are important for the appropriate functioning of the body. These include magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, etc. All of these are categorized as dietary minerals. However, calcium is one of the most abundant and most visible amongst all available dietary minerals and the requirements of calcium in our body can be taken care by consuming different calcium rich foods.
The daily intake value of calcium continues to increase in human beings as the age of a person increases. The children who are in growing age group particularly require greater amounts of calcium in order to support an adequate growth of their growing bones and to also make the bones strong and healthy. The parents of the growing children should be particularly careful about the intake of the calcium rich foods for their growing children in order to ensure healthy development of their teeth as well as bones. Not only, calcium also plays a very important role in different age groups for maintaining a normal heartbeat as well for regulating the blood pressure in a human being. Not only this, an adequate intake of calcium through the calcium rich foods is also helpful in contributing to a healthy nervous function in our body.
Research has also shown that calcium rich foods and calcium supplements can be also helpful in relieving the different symptoms associated with premenstrual syndrome. Some of the research studies have also proven the role of calcium in the reduction of colon polyps. Thus, one must ensure an appropriate intake of calcium in order to gain from its several roles and functions. This can be assured through an adequate intake of calcium rich foods.
The adult men and women need approximately 1000 mg of calcium daily whereas the post-menopausal women need 1200 mg of calcium daily. The different examples of the various available calcium rich foods include milk, cheese, plain and fruit yogurt, milk shakes, etc. One can easily check the calcium nutrition offered by different food items by checking their labels. These are the examples of the dairy calcium rich foods.
However there are several non-dairy calcium rich foods also which offer adequate amounts of calcium. These include beans (white as well as baked), broccoli, peas, almonds, spinach, etc.