Importance of Calcium

The average body of a human being contains about three pounds of calcium. Most of it is found in the bones. Calcium is an essential part of the structure of the bone. In fact, we might compare the structure of a bone of reinforced concrete. The bone has certain fibres called collagens, which are like the flexible iron wires often embedded in concrete. Calcium forms the bed in which those bone fibres are fixed.

But the calcium content of our bones changes as we grow older. During the first year, a child’s bones have little calcium and great flexibility. A child can perform all kinds of contortions without braking any bones. By the time we are eighty, our bones may be 80 per cent calcium and break easily.
One of the reasons young children are urged drink a great deal of milk is that it is the ideal food which is rich in calcium which, the children need. One quarter of cow’s milk contains almost two gm of calcium. Cheese, buttermilk, and yogurt also are rich sources of calcium.

In those parts of the country where it is hard to obtain calcium, people have trouble with their teeth and often suffer from bone fractures. A frequent cause of calcium deficiency is the practice of making hard water soft by removing the calcium from it.

Hard water interferes with the lathering of soap. The calcium in hard water combines with acids and salts in the soap and produces compounds which don’t dissolve.

The practical of removing calcium from hard water also has a bad effect on the foods cooked in the water. If the water has a low calcium content, foods cooked in it actually lose part of their own calcium to the water. But foods will gain in calcium content when cooked in hard water with high calcium content.