Calcium is an essential nutrient that helps our bodies stay healthy. For most of us, our mothers have been encouraging us to drink milk since we were toddlers. This wasn’t just another one of mom’s ways to torture us; she knew what she was talking about. You see it often now in advertisements with the “got milk” campaign slogans, beautiful celebrities sporting the old ‘milk moustache’. But this ad campaign is not a gimmick; calcium is a required nutrient that our bodies need.

What are some of the health benefits of calcium? Calcium helps our bodies keep our bones strong and healthy and helps fight diseases like osteoporosis from attacking our systems and damaging our bones. In addition to strong bones, calcium has other important roles in the body such as fighting high blood pressure, helping prevent heart attacks and colon cancer.

The good news is that you do not have to drink gallons of milk everyday in order to get the required amount of calcium in your diet. It is possible to get the calcium you need through supplements and other food sources. Dairy is the most common food source for getting calcium from, which includes cheeses and yogurts. There are also a lot of calcium enriched products and supplements you can find in the stores that work great as well.

Another benefit of calcium in our bodies is the way it works to move nutrients in our body across membranes and helps our bodies absorb the nutrients. It also is great for helping relieve chronic backaches by its ability to strengthen the bones and skeletal system in the body.

With all of the benefits of calcium and the positive affects it has on our bodies, it is definitely worth the effort to make sure we are getting enough in our diets. If you are a person who is lactose intolerant, there are soymilk products and other enriched and supplemental products that will help you get the required amount of calcium.