Hi everybody this is Monica Reinagle the nutrition diva here with your quick and dirty

tips for eating well and feeling fabulous and today I've got the first of a two-part

episode on calcium and how to know whether you're getting enough or maybe even too much.

But first I just wanted to mention that my new book, The Nutrition Divas Secrets for a Healthy Diet Diet is now in bookstores. It's got everything

you need to know to shop and eat healthy, including some of my favorite recipes, meal

plans, ingredient guides, and answers to your nutrition and food questions.

Pick up a copy today wherever you like to buy or download books.

We hear a lot about the importance of getting enough calcium in order to build and maintain strong bones. But in fact, calcium's importance

extends way beyond your skeleton. If you were to think of your body and all its functions

as an economy, calcium is the currency that facilitates all the transactions,

everything from contracting your muscles

to dilating and constricting your blood vessels

to transmitting nerve impulses and secreting hormones.

Aside from keeping you from being a shapeless blob,

your bones function primarily as the bank,

where your body's currency or calcium reserves are stored.

If blood calcium levels get low, your body will withdraw funds from its bone bank to keep the economy humming.

Now if you're constantly withdrawing more than you deposit,

the bank will eventually get low on funds.

But the way your body sees it,

the need to keep your muscles contracting

and your nerves transmitting is way more important than keeping your bones from crumbling.

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