The most fashionable supplement is chelated calcium. It is being promoted so fiercely that it is even impossible to understand how useful and necessary it is. It's just that the stench rises immediately, and no one can calmly explain.
People love to buy calcium dietary supplements. We all need 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day, but not everyone eats that amount with dairy and vegetables. You have to buy something in supplements.
In fact, with chelated calcium, not everything is simple
Chelates are compounds in which a metal ion is trapped inside a (usually organic) molecule.
Iron, zinc, magnesium and our beloved calcium can act as a metal.
The most popular is the so-called calcium bisglycinate. It is a chelating compound in which two molecules of the amino acid glycine grab and hold a calcium atom.
In general, there are different calcium salts: carbonate, citrate, gluconate, phosphate. The better these salts dissolve in the stomach, the better the calcium will be absorbed.
Calcium bisglycinate really dissolves the best.
True, after dissolution, something incomprehensible happens. Rather, no one has ever checked how well this calcium then acts. The additive is new, unexplored.
Bisglycinate was used as a chelating agent thirty years ago for supplements with iron, magnesium and zinc. Everything worked out there. But we haven't figured out calcium yet.
Calcium bisglycinate is the most expensive of all other salts. Therefore, they love to sell it. Well, they also promote aggressively. If you try to delve into this topic, then at the very first traffic light you will be hit and named. This is interesting too.
Calcium bisglycinate tastes nasty.
Calcium bisglycinate acts as a buffer. That is, it very stubbornly maintains the pH of the environment in which it falls. Moreover, it maintains the pH somewhere at 10. Have you presented? It is an alkaline medium like a soap solution. Therefore, calcium bisglycinate spoils food.
There is little calcium in bisglycinate. Well, that is, in the simplest calcium carbonate, as much as 40% calcium. Therefore, it is considered an easy-to-swallow additive. The tablets are small. If calcium carbonate is taken with food, it is well absorbed.
But in calcium bisglycinate of this very calcium, only 13%. The rest of the space is occupied by a chelate compound, which is (for a minute) chemically active. True, they say that as much as 44% will be absorbed from this calcium (this is a lot).
Benefits of Chelated Calcium
- In 2008, the European Food Safety Authority solemnly approved calcium bisglycinate as a dietary supplement.
- Calcium is well absorbed from it.
Disadvantages of Chelated Calcium
- It is alkaline.
- It hasn't been properly tested yet.
- It is expensive.
Already overstocked with chelated calcium?
