Nutrition alert: Why calcium is a must for women runners

Running is one of the easiest and most accessible exercises. Its benefits are dynamic, with a positive impact on the heart, brain, muscles, bones etc. It also serves as a means to lose weight, feel energetic or simply have a good time, making it a great exercise for one’s overall as with any new habit that involves a lot of physical activity, runners also need to make certain dietary modifications that not only help sustain the habit, but also boost performance. Running is a high-impact exercise, which means that when you run, your foot bears around three times your through every stride, which puts stress on your bones, said Vikas Singh, CEO and Founder, An ingenious new study of marathon runners and their non-running spouses should reassure anyone headed for a spring marathon that prolonged training doesn’t damage the heart, a concern that has been raised in previous research. At the same time, becoming fit as a marathoner doesn’t seem to protect the heart to the extent you might expect, although it may have unexpected benefits your  exercise is healthy, some research has begun to raise questions about whether it’s possible to overdo a good thing. A few studies have found that long-time endurance athletes can have a heightened risk for abnormal heartbeats, and even for scarring of the heart muscle. Likewise, experiments with lab animals have found possible links between prolonged, extremely strenuous running and undesirable changes in the structure and function of the heart 

Calcium requirements in women:

*A teen, aged between 14 and 18, needs of calcium per day through daily diet and supplement.
*An adult, aged between 19 and 70, needs of calcium per day.
*A pregnant and lactating woman’s calcium needs spike during this period to more than  of calcium per day.
*The elderly, aged over 70, demand greater amounts of calcium, too,   per day.

a runner, your calcium needs are likely to be higher than the average — between  depending on your fitness goal.

*If you are running to lose weight and are on a calorie-deficit diet, you are probably not getting enough calcium from your daily meals.
*As you run, you tend to sweat and therefore lose calcium.
*If you are a vegetarian or a vegan, your meals are less likely to provide adequate of calcium stores from the bone. It’s therefore important to have a balanced diet and start meeting your calcium needs today   amounts of calcium through diet is often overlooked, partly because the  is only felt later in adult life, when the body starts using the calcium stores from the bone. It’s therefore important to have a balanced diet and start meeting your calcium needs today! Consider calcium carbonate, as its absorption doesn’t depend on food.

*Avoid taking calcium supplements with a large serving of salad, as large amounts of acid in greens can impair calcium absorption.
*Another compound that can reduce calcium absorption is caffeine, so avoid taking your supplements right after your cup of coffee or tea.
*Don’t club your iron supplements with calcium. Both minerals use the same binding site, and this can impair iron absorption. Take them at least two hours apart.

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