Next we are going to discuss the two most important minerals inside your body (however, they are all very important).

This may point out to you just exactly how important they should be to your diet choices.

Without calcium and magnesium our bodies would not function at all.

These minerals are so important that your body could not truly function, as you would like it to, without them. In this article we will deal only with the mineral calcium, and then discuss magnesium in part seven.

Our diet is sometimes based on our taste buds and it should not be. It should be attached to the knowledge that certain foods need to be eaten to keep our health in great shape.

As one changes what one eats, the taste buds will also change to get used to new tastes that are healthy for the body, and then they will produce the desired effect of good health.

When you get used to sugary foods, for example, you will have much worse health because they produce nothing we need, and they will replace the desire for more food that we do need, and that would be good for our physiology.

What our bodies need will keep the body you are living in working properly, so that you can continue doing the things you need to do, and want to do.

If you become ill, or fat, you have not been keeping up with taking care of the body you live in. You need to change what you eat, and possibly learn more about what you should be eating to get healthy again.

You also need to become more active in your lifestyle. If you work at a sedentary job and sit practically all day, then you need to go out and do something physical daily, or go to a gym or exercise classes. Being a healthy fit person can only come from having movement of the body, either from exercises, playing sports, swimming, working with weights, or even just Tai Chi.

Ask your doctor if you can take a daily multivitamin, then if you can, you need to find a really good one at the health food store, without fillers, and take it every day. You will notice the difference.

Calcium is one of the most important minerals your body needs. It will keep your bones strong so that you can walk around and move about in the manner to which you are accustomed.

It is found in the cytoplasm of each and every one of your cells. Cytoplasm is a substance that is gel-like, and inside of the cell, but outside of the nucleus. This mineral, as an ion Ca2+, signals for many different processes to happen, by moving into, and back out of, the cytoplasm. Most of the cellular activities actually occur inside the cytoplasm.

It is involved in hundreds of reactions throughout your body and is required for a strong healthy heart, as well as being necessary for the communication between your nerves in their transmissions.

Without the proper amount of Calcium in menopausal women, they can end up with osteoporosis.

The permeability of cell membranes is dependent on the proper level of Calcium in your blood, as well as the prevention of muscle cramps, and cancer.

This mineral is required for healthy skin, energy, secretion of some hormones, neuromuscular activity, enzyme activation, DNA and even RNA protein structures, to lower cholesterol, to promote healthy teeth as well as bones, healthy gums, and a healthy heart (in the prevention of cardiovascular disease).

It is a requirement for muscle contraction, and the release of neurotransmitters.

Our bones are always rebuilding as we live, and this requires a constant resupply of calcium to keep our bones strong and healthy.

With all of these functions in the body requiring this important mineral, and yet it is only 1% of the calcium in our bodies doing this, and the other 99% is taking care of the bones and teeth, and stored in the bones.

It plays a necessary role in signal transduction, and is a requirement for fertilization. It also plays an extracellular role in maintaining the potential difference in action potentials, as they cross the cell membranes.

The plasma calcium concentration is the most closely regulated of all human physiological functions. If you are actually drinking too much cola, which is full of phosphates that take your blood calcium with it when you excrete this substance, this is when the physiology of the human body will go so far as to take it back out of your bones, to keep the homeostasis of the calcium level in your blood plasma correct, because it is that important to the correct functioning of your body.

If your plasma calcium gets too high (which is rare), it can actually cause arrhythmias and other damaging health conditions.

Calcium supplements can cause some people to have problems with constipation. This is because they are taking the wrong kind of calcium supplement. These people are taking calcium carbonate, and it has this effect on most people. The calcium supplement we are supposed to take, to keep this from happening, is calcium citrate (not egg shell either). This is also the kind of magnesium supplement we should take, so we can simply get a calcium magnesium citrate supplement and we will not be plagued with constipation.

Some people take mineral oil every day, and this is not good for your health either. When all they need to do is take the proper kind which is calcium citrate with half as much magnesium (also citrate), every day, and they will be rid of their problems with constipation for good.

Our calcium supplement should have at least half as much magnesium in it, because calcium depletes magnesium.

There is also a more recent brand of vitamins called "Garden Of Life" and they only use organic food as the ingredients for their supplements, which of course is much better. They make a calcium supplement from raw organic food which is an extremely good product to take as our calcium supplement (which is the one that I take).

Food sources of Calcium are: good organic milk, cheeses (Parmesan, Gruyere, Romano, Mozzarella, Hard Goat Cheese, Swiss, Cheddar, and Provolone), kale, Jute (Meloukhia), broccoli, salmon with bones, mustard greens, blackstrap molasses, almonds, figs, asparagus, sardines, cauliflower, nopales, turnip greens, filberts, dandelion greens, collard greens, dulse, kelp, dark green leafy veggies, Amaranth Greens (Callaloo, Chinese Spinach, Kulitis, Hinn Choy, Bayam, Rajgira, Yin Tsoi), chili powder, seafood, chia seeds, carob, yogurt, tofu, watercress, buttermilk, ice cream, frozen yogurt, sesame seeds, Lotus seeds, oats, flax seeds, grape leaves, fireweed leaves, Herring, Brazil nuts, whey, soybeans, prunes, cabbage, Arugula, brewer's yeast, buttermilk, goat's milk, and some herbs (celery seed, thyme, marjoram, dill, rosemary, oregano, sage, basil, sisymbrium, parsley, spearmint, chervil, and poppy seed).

The list of food sources that are the richest in dietary calcium are in order from highest to lowest respectively...yogurt, tofu, sesame seeds, sardines, goat milk, collard greens, spinach, cheese, turnip greens, and cow milk. There are some of these sources that are high in cholesterol and should be substituted with the ones lower, like the greens, for those who have a problem with high cholesterol.

Excellent sources of dietary calcium are: collard greens, spinach, turnip greens, tofu, and mustard greens.

Down the line from excellent to great sources of dietary calcium are: Swiss chard, blackstrap molasses, kale, goat milk, yogurt, mozzarella cheese, thyme, basil, dill, cinnamon, and oregano.

And even further down the line from great sources to good sources of dietary calcium are: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, summer squash, garlic, fennel, lettuce, sesame seeds, celery, cabbage, asparagus, oranges, cumin, cloves, rosemary, Crimini mushrooms, coriander, scallops, cow milk, and kelp.

Some deficiencies symptoms of Calcium are: Ricketts, lethargy, abnormal heart rhythms, loss of appetite, improper blood clotting, kidney stones, tooth decay, high cholesterol, eczema, insomnia, numbness in the legs or arms, high blood pressure (hypertension), convulsions, hyperactivity, a pasty complexion, RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis), heart palpitations, nervousness, delusions, muscle cramps, depression, cognitive activity impairment, aching joints, Tetany (tingling or numbness in the hands or feet, or muscle pains and spasms), brittle nails, Polycystic ovarian syndrome, higher risk of colon cancer, Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and it can lead to the absorption of lead by the teeth and bones in the body.

As you can see, calcium plays such an enormous role in our life and in our body, doing its chores by the minute, and by the second, inside our bodies, as we go about our day, that we cannot do without the proper amount of this mineral, and in the correct form. Too much can go wrong.