Best Calcium Supplement?

@kjane322 - I’m am just sharing what this intensive osteo course from an Integrative Dr and researcher has shared with us . She actually feels like our overall calcium intake should be about 8O0 mg. So she recommends you figure out what your average daily intake of calcium is by the foods we eat and then supplement to make up the difference. You take it from there. But will say 600 mg at a time is probably not as good as compared to if you cut down the doses used at each time to around 390 or so. Your body only absorbs so much at a time. When it gets beyond this the absorbability decreases…. So the actual gains by taking more at one time is blunted.

I use the same system: same drinking glass for measurement purposes, and the scale, and enter it all on the chronometer app. I'm getting pretty efficient with all that. I'm getting enough calcium without supplements most days. My current supplement, Osteo Sustain, a McCormick product, has a small amount, about 165 mg calcium per tablet, along with other nutrients, designed to be taken 3 times a day. I'm currently trying to figure out how to tease all those apart to get what I need without the added calcium. It is definitely simpler just to take the one.

I'm interested in the app you mentioned. I've seen references to it on other posts. What is the name of of the app and is it easy to use?

It's called Cronometer. I use the Android free version. You can add a food by name, by type, or by scanning a bar code from packaging, and then add the amount you ate of it, usually in cups, tspn, ounces or grams, or portions thereof. You can enter recipes of things and determine a portion size. For example I entered all the ingredients in my morning smoothie, so I just enter 'smoothie' .rather than each ingredient. You can star items that you eat frequently and store them on a favorites list.
It becomes very quick after you've entered many of your frequently eaten foods and get used to the app.
The amount of nutritional info it instantly calculates is amazing and illuminating. I highly recommended it.

What is confusing to me is that I can think I have consumed the best amount of protein and calcium from my food (and I much prefer getting what my bones need from what I am eating) but then there are all the other foods that can interfere with absorption of that calcium. So then I wonder how much of it is going to help my bones? Did the osteo course cover managing anti nutrients one might consume in a daily diet—nuts, greens, soy, etc.? I know food prep (boiling, soaking, sprouting, fermenting..) helps but then again one wonders.

@trixiegirl - what I didn’t go into so as not to confuse everyone is the idea of oxalates. Many foods people consume that are high in calcium have oxalates in them and as your calculating your calcium consumption you are to subtract out those that are oxalate foods. Do your own research as to what oxalate foods are.

I know, but my endocrinologist says 1200 because of osteoporosis. So am I overdoing it? I honestly don’t know.

I see a nurse practioner, hard to get in to see MD, they are full up with patients, she recommends 600 mg calcium, I wonder if that isn’t too low?