I am also taking calcium (Viactiv chews) and trying to increase my intake of calcium through food. While in college (in the previous century), the professor of a health class I took discussed how scientists believed Americans had the most expensive urine because most of the vitamins they took were just excreted. I don’t know if that is still an accepted theory, however that has stayed with me all these years later. I think our bodies absorb more vitamins and minerals from the foods we eat-just my thoughts on the matter.