3 kinds of food that children often eat will make the baby grow 10 centimeters less! Many families have it on the dining table
When it comes to calcium supplementation, parents have their own attention.
Some of them keep drinking milk, and some of them keep eating cheese. Coupled with soy products and green vegetables, a three-piece set of dietary calcium supplementation does not fall.
But calcium supplementation is really not just about "eating enough", and "absorption" is also very important!
If the child does not absorb it well, no matter how much milk he drinks and eats more tofu, he will eat it for nothing!
And there are 3 kinds of "assassins" in the daily diet, who will make small moves at the stage of "absorption" and constantly "steal" the calcium in the child's body!
Calcium Stealer Assassin One: Foods high in sodium
When we consume calcium through our diet, most of it will be absorbed in the intestines and then stored in the bones (there are also in the blood, but it accounts for a small proportion), and a small part of it will be excreted if it is not absorbed.
The kidneys are the main way of calcium excretion! The total amount of calcium filtered from the glomeruli can reach 10g every day.
However, calcium filtered through the glomeruli is usually reabsorbed in the renal tubules, and the absorption rate can reach 99%. In other words, out of these 10 grams, 9.9 grams will be reabsorbed and will not be wasted.
However, sodium competes with calcium in the process of tubular reabsorption! When sodium intake is high, calcium reabsorption will be reduced correspondingly, and urinary calcium excretion will be increased.
We all know that sodium has the characteristic of "eating more and eliminating more". Normally, only a small part of the daily sodium intake is required by the body, and most of it is excreted from the kidneys.
If you don't sweat much and don't have diarrhea, more than 98% of your sodium intake is excreted in your urine.
Originally, there was no problem with it excluding it, but the guy "sodium" didn't give up, and he had to pull a cushion when he left, and "calcium" was the big wrong.
For every 2,300 mg of sodium excreted from the kidneys, 24~40 mg of calcium is taken away!
Therefore, if you want to improve your child's calcium absorption, you must achieve a low-sodium diet!
According to the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents, the daily sodium intake of children of different ages is shown in the figure below:
Image data source: Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents Reference Intakes for Nutrients (2023 Edition)
Note: The sodium content in the graph is the total amount of the whole day, which includes salt, soy sauce and other seasonings, noodles and other grains, and even snacks for children. All together, it's best not to exceed the optimal intake!
Calcium Stealer II: Foods high in phosphorus
Phosphorus is widely found in foods, and animal foods such as seafood, lean meat, animal liver, etc., and plant foods such as seaweed, peanuts, and tree nuts are rich in phosphorus.
Normally, natural food sources of phosphorus do not cause excessive phosphorus intake.
However, in recent years, with the application of phosphorus-containing additives in the food industry, the total phosphorus intake has increased greatly.
And when the phosphorus intake is too high, it will interfere with the absorption of calcium!
It is generally believed that a diet with a ratio of phosphorus to calcium in a diet of more than 3:1 is a high phosphorus diet.
When high phosphorus is ingested, the serum concentration of 1,25(OH)₂D₃ decreases, resulting in a decrease in the absorption rate of calcium.
For example, if a child consumes 500 mg of calcium per day, if the intake of phosphorus exceeds 1500 mg at the same time, the child will not be able to fully absorb the 500 mg of calcium.
Ideally, the ratio of phosphorus to calcium is 1:1.4. In other words, the daily intake of phosphorus must not exceed that of calcium, so as to facilitate the absorption of calcium.
Therefore, when you buy processed foods for your children, such as bread, sausages, luncheon meat, etc., you should always pay attention to the ingredient list to see if it contains phosphorus-containing additives such as sodium tripolyphosphate (phosphate).
If you have it, it's best not to eat it, or eat less, and limit the amount of single serving!
Calcium Stealer III: Foods high in oxalic acid
As mentioned at the beginning, some green vegetables are also rich in calcium, and eating more can also achieve the effect of dietary calcium supplementation.
However, when choosing, it is necessary to avoid vegetables with high oxalic acid content, or blanch them during the production process to dissolve oxalic acid.
Otherwise, the oxalic acid in vegetables will form insoluble calcium salts with calcium, affecting calcium absorption!
For example, round-leaf spinach, although there are 102 mg of calcium per 100 grams, the oxalic acid content per 100 grams is as high as 606 mg.
The calcium content and oxalic acid content of common vegetables in life are shown in the figure below, and you can press and hold them for preservation.
Image data source: "Encyclopedia of Chinese Nutrition Science (Second Edition)"
OK, the above is an assassin who "eats more" and will "steal calcium", everyone must try their best to avoid it in real life, don't let the calcium that children work so hard to make up is not absorbed, it is all in vain!
So what does "eating less" affect calcium absorption?
There is also, it is the familiar vitamin D!
Vitamin D can promote the absorption of calcium by the intestinal mucosa, and can also promote the osteolytic process, which increases blood calcium, and promotes renal tubular calcium reabsorption.
Equal to every step of calcium absorption, vitamin D will help. However, vitamin D cannot be synthesized by the human body, and there are very few dietary sources, so it is okay to bask in the sun, but it is very unstable.
Therefore, vitamin D is mainly obtained by supplements. After the child is born, he should start eating, 400 IU per day, never stopping, until he is old!
Finally, I attach the common foods with high calcium content in life, and the reference intake of calcium in the diet of Chinese residents, that is, how much calcium should be eaten per person per day. I hope the children can grow tall and have great health!
Source: Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents Reference Intakes for Nutrients (2013 Edition)
Image data source: Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents Reference Intakes for Nutrients (2023 Edition)