Calcium

It’s important to include calcium in your diet to make sure your teeth and bones stay healthy. And to help your baby develop properly once you’ve conceived.

But did you know calcium has other important roles to play as well? For instance, it helps muscles contract properly, helps maintain your blood pressure and is crucial in the process that allows blood to clot when you’re bleeding.

Dairy foods are the best single source of calcium, so try to eat at least three servings each day. Drink a glass of ice cold milk or pour it over your breakfast cereal. Enjoy a pot of yoghurt with fresh fruit as a snack. Grate cheddar cheese on a jacket potato for dinner…

Calcium is abundant in other foods as well, particularly green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans and fish with small bones (like canned sardines). Other sources include calcium-fortified soya products, bread and figs.

Fortified white flour products like bread are rich in calcium. If you live in a ‘hard water’ area, you will also get a substantial amount from your tap water.

Some bottled spring waters contain a reasonable supply of natural calcium and some drinks, breakfast cereals, fruit juices, snack bars and energy bars are fortified with additional calcium.

Even after your baby is born, you should make sure, as a matter of course, that you are eating enough calcium as a lack of it can lead to serious and debilitating osteoporosis, or ‘brittle bone’ disease in later life.