A Highly Effective, Cheaper Alternative to Calcium Supplements is Already in Your Kitchen

Photo credit: Chris Salt

The importance of calcium intake is grossly underrated. When you think of calcium, you probably only think of it as a necessity for strong teeth and bones, but this mineral is required for so much more. For example, did you know that the formation of your cells depend on calcium? Your heart rhythm, muscles, nerves, and your mental health also need a supply of this mineral in order to function properly. 
 
The health problems that can manifest from low calcium levels are mind-boggling. Sleep, is one example -- Insufficient calcium levels can prevent you from getting good quality, deep sleep. 

Could you be deficient in calcium?  
Hypocalcemia or "calcium deficiency" is more common than you'd think and it can have devastating effects on your health.


Signs of hypocalcemia
Hypocalcemia can be asymptomatic for some people while others may experience life-threatening symptoms. 

It's important to know all the symptoms, but here are some of the more common signs of low calcium levels.

•  Muscle spasms/twitches, including in your face
•  Muscle cramps
•  Muscle weakness
•  Numbness
•  Shaking and trembling
•  Loss of body control 
•  Tingling sensations in your feet, hands, or lips
•  Seizures 
•  Slow or uneven heartbeat
•  Lightheaded-ness 
•  Cardiac arrest, in severe cases

•  Anxiety
•  Depression 
•  Confusion
•  Anger
•  Hallucinations, including auditory hallucinations

Those last 5 are interesting, if not scary. If you have the signs of calcium deficiency, then first thing you should do is start implementing this important mineral into your diet. 

Let's talk about how you can get those calcium levels up without having to shell (no pun intended) out a fortune on expensive supplements. 

Photo credit: Fetching Photos

For an alternative to expensive, questionable calcium supplements, try getting your calcium from eggshells. 

I know, it sounds horrifying, when you imagine crunching and swallowing something as sharp and glass-like as broken eggshells. 

The truth is, eggshell calcium is made by grinding eggshells into a fine powder, so it's much smoother than chewing on glass shards.

Is eggshell calcium better than a supplement?

Aside from the fact that it's cheaper to use eggshells (and cheaper is sometimes better in my opinion), there are a couple of reasons that eggshells may be a better alternative to calcium supplements.

•  Eggshell calcium (calcium carbonate) is said to be the perfect source of bio-available calcium, according to the research conducted in the1940's by Hungarian physician I. Krompecher. (Krompecher and his colleagues are the folks who developed the basics of therapeutic eggshell use.) The calcium in eggshells is similar to that found in our bones and teeth, so it's no surprise that eggshell calcium is at least a good source of calcium, if not "perfect," as Krompecher found.

*Bio-avaiable means that it's easily absorbed by the body. Some believe that our bodies don't always absorb minerals like calcium when we take them in the form of supplements. There's probably a reason why nutrition obtained from food sources (over supplements) is always the preferred and recommended route.

• Eggshells can contain up to 27 important minerals (like magnesium, phosphorous, silicon) and 20 essential amino acids (such as lysine, cysteine, isoleucine) all of which are critical for healthy bones and teeth. 

•  Store bought supplements often contain questionable ingredients like preservatives, additives, and who-knows-what-else. If you use organic, free-range eggs, you don't have to worry about the questionable ingredients that are found in supplements. Just be sure to opt for organic, free-range eggs.

Diseases That Benefit From Eggshell Calcium 
 

photo credit: Dawn Endico

1. Orthopedic diseases like osteoporosis.
Eggshell powder has shown significantly positive effects in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis, according to researchers from the National Institute of Rheumatic Diseases. Furthermore, clinical studies found that eggshell powder decreases pain and osteoresorption (problems caused by decreased bone formation) while increasing mobility in women with senile osteoporosis and post-menopausal women with osteoporosis.

The study authors also noted that healing time was faster when eggshell calcium was used in the treatment of orthopedic problems such as osteoporosis.



2. Arthritis 
Eggshell calcium stimulates the growth of cartilage and decreases pain from arthritis, according to a study conducted on animals.

3. Bone Mineral Density
Another study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that a year of taking eggshell calcium (added to a vitamin/mineral supplement) increased the bone mineral density in healthy, late post-menopausal women. 

4. Plaque and weak tooth enamel
Using an eggshell based toothpaste can strengthen tooth enamel and some folks are even using it to help remineralize their teeth and prevent cavities.

There's some information swarming the Internet claiming that  a dentistry school in the Philippines found that when used overtime, eggshell toothpaste leads to stronger enamel, cleaner teeth, and less plaque formation. I have to be upfront and say that I've had no luck finding any reputable source that mentions this "study."

5. Nutritional Rickets
Some parents use ground eggshells to prevent nutritional rickets and promote healthy bone tissue formation.  Dr. Krompecher, from the Biological Research Institute, began using crushed or ground eggshells to treat rickets in children back in the 40's. According to the study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, Dr. Krompecher would administer up to 6 grams of eggshells daily to children with rickets.

Note: Low levels of phosphorous and Vitamin D are also known to cause rickets, so don't rely solely on calcium. Eggshells are commonly ground into a fine powder and added to foods for this purpose.

How To Make Your Own Eggshell Calcium
If you're as thrilled as I was to learn a simple way to get of calcium without spending a lot of money, then you'll want to make your own right away. There are a few slightly different ways to go about making eggshell calcium, but each method is pretty simple. If you want to make your own eggshell calcium, pick whichever method suits you and follow the instructions below:

1. Rinse the eggshells, but feel free to leave the nutritious "membrane" (the white papery film attached to the inside of the egg.)

2. Bake or Hard boil the eggs to kill any pathogens. Some people speculate that boiling the eggshells would diminish their mineral content. Reports have stated that this isn't the case except with the potassium content, which will leach out of the shells. Some people opt to bake them, which is what I do. Spread the shells out on a baking sheet and bake at 325 F for 15 minutes.

3. Crush 'em! (Use a food processor, coffee grinder or blender) Personally, this is my favorite part and you'll probably find it odd, but I actually enjoyed crushing them by hand (mortar and pestle style.) There's something a little soothing about the repetitive crunching of the shells. Either that or I had no other option but to crush them by hand, so I've convinced myself it was enjoyable! 

It's much more time consuming to crush the eggshells by hand. I have managed to crush a batch down to powder form, but you'll probably want to use a coffee bean grinder or a food processor if you have one. Just don't use the plastic bag + hammer method. I tried it the first time and it was a total fail. 

As for using a blender, it won't grind them down into a fine powder, but you can mortar and pestle the rest of the way or just toss your eggshell in the blender with smoothie ingredients.

4. Store your eggshell calcium in a jar with a tight lid. Glass baby food jars work well, but the only jar I had on hand was a plastic instant coffee container. Some people store the jar of calcium in the fridge.

How to Make Calcium Citrate:
Calcium citrate is a more easily absorbed form of calcium for some people. You can make calcium citrate easily by adding either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to your eggshells. I only tried making calcium citrate once, but I find the powdered method easier.  

Watch the step-by-step video tutorial by Living The Hedge Witch Life if you're interested in making your own calcium citrate.

How Much Eggshell Calcium Should You Take
 
1 teaspoon of crushed eggshell contains around 800 - 1,000 milligrams of calcium. Or around 400 milligrams per gram. The old study "Eggshell Calcium for the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis" published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy says 1 gram of powder contains 370 milligrams of calcium.

Obviously, the daily dosage of calcium will depend on your personal daily needs, so you'll have to adjust your dose accordingly. The most common "dosage" I've heard of people using is between half a teaspoon to  1 teaspoon daily. I'm not one for exact measurements, so I typically just dip my teaspoon in and eyeball it.

How Should You Take Eggshell Calcium?
If you ask me, the quicker and easier, the better. Well, when it comes to taking supplements. 

Most days, I just scoop a small amount of powder out (usually around half a teaspoon) and swallow with water or juice. However, you can add this virtually tasteless powder to many foods and drinks if you really care to.

Most people seem to prefer taking their supplements in smoothies. You can put your eggshell calcium in applesauce, oatmeal, juice, ice cream, thick soups, etc. You can even sprinkle it on your salad or other dishes. Just keep in mind that the powder will give your smoothies/foods texture. If small bits of powdered shell is bothersome, you might have to get creative.

How to Make Natural Toothpaste Using Eggshells 
You can make your own toothpaste using a scoop of your crushed eggshell powder and very few other ingredients. The best part about DIY toothpaste is that the recipes can be tweaked to include ingredients that fit your specific needs and taste.

Here is a quick video that tells you how to make a super simple eggshell toothpaste using coconut oil and eggshells

  

Baking soda and coconut oil are the most commonly used base ingredients. As long as you have those, you'll be able to make your own toothpaste right away.

Warning: Only use calcium carbonate for your toothpaste. Do not use calcium citrate -- it's too acidic for use on the enamel.

Marissa from the Becoming Kindred blog has a simple recipe for those of you who are interested in making your own eggshell-based toothpaste.
 


Note: Always remember that your body needs all its  important nutrients, vitamins, and minerals in order to properly utilize them, and calcium is no exception. It works with other vital nutrients and minerals. In other words, calcium can't do much for you if you're deficient somewhere else. 

Vitamin D3, Vitamin K, and Magnesium are some of the critical ones needed for calcium to be useful.

Working My Way to Better Health With Bone Broth

Bone Broth for Better Health

*Excuse my goofy pictures. I was under the influence of extreme excitement over getting to try organic bone broth, so I resorted to selfies with the bone broth when it came in the mail.*

Bone broth is considered a super-food by many, like the Weston A. Price Foundation for instance, and for good reason. It's known for its immune-boosting properties. Good bone broth like Bone Broths Co.'s nutrient-dense, organic, grass-fed bone broth is even used to aid in recovery from illness, or the flu/colds. It helps strengthen and restore many of the body's important functions, like the immune system.

It just so happens that when Bone Broths Co. sent me their bone broth, I had been dealing with the pain of a broken wisdom tooth for months, so it was the perfect time to try it since bone broth is so amazing for dental (and overall) health.

I want to go ahead and interrupt for a minute to say that one of my main reasons for wanting to try bone broth was for my bone and dental health. At one point, while in excruciating pain, I had the idea to hold some of this bone broth in my mouth around my wisdom tooth to see if it couldn't give me some relief. I was pleasantly surprised that the extreme inflammation seemed to calm each time I did that. I also alternated between other home remedies and when I went to the dentist two days ago, he surprised the heck out of my by poking my mouth with three needles (anesthesia) and going straight to extracting the tooth! 

The reason that's a surprise is because the tooth was very broken, in one place, all the way to the gum and had been this way for around three months, so I expected to be sent home with a round fo antibiotics on my first visit and then asked to come back for the extraction. I've never heard of someone getting their tooth extracted the very same day! 

I assumed it must have been because I didn't have much infection in the area. I know it was infected after it broke because I was in so much pain.

For good measure, before he went to town jerking my tooth out, I asked if there was much infection. He said he really couldn't see much at all. So, I have come to the conclusion that all my home remedies I'd been using actually did keep the infection down!

I used a variety of different natural remedies to keep the pain and infection as low as possible, but I have to say, the bone broth and the tea tree oil (which is what I used to brush with since it helped with pain and worked wonders to relieve the infection) seemed to be the most helpful to me. In fact, in the week leading up to my dentist visit, the only things I was using was tea tree oil and bone broth!

I just wanted to jump in and share that interesting bit of information real quick before continuing.

Bone Broth is rich in trace minerals like calcium, phosphorous, silicon, sulphur, magnesium, and others.

The benefits of a good bone broth are so numerous that I probably couldn't name them all, but I've listed many below.

- Builds strong bones.

- Improves metabolism
 

- Promotes healthy muscles and connective tissue, making bone broth beneficial to those looking to build more muscle.

- Provides protection to digestive lining

- Provides fuel to cells in the small intestine
 

- Bone broth is said to help aid in detoxification of cells, liver, and "gut."

The main reason I became interested in adding a good, organic bone broth to my diet was due to what I'd read from Weston A. Price's work and other health experts. 

Since I've been working diligently at improving my dental and bone health -- and hopefully even remineralizing some of my teeth --  I finally decided it was time to really go all out and add the beloved bone broth into my diet.

I'd already adopted most of the other important things for proper dental health anyways -- such as quitting all toothpaste and only using natural stuff like essential oils.

I've been dealing with a broken wisdom tooth for months and the problems have been severe. So what better time to begin the bone broth, right? I was given the opportunity to collaborate with a reputable bone broth company -- Bone Broths Co. at just the perfect time when my teeth needed it the most.

Note: I'm not saying that consuming bone broth will cause my severely broken wisdom tooth to somehow heal magically. This is one case where I believe I'll have to have the tooth extracted, but in the meantime, I'm excited to begin adding the mineral and nutrient-rich broth to my diet to help improve my dental health (and overall health) as a whole.

Health Problems That Benefit From Bone Broth:

 - Arthritis and pain associated with osteo/arthritis

*Bone broth contains gelatin, which is super important as it's said to be used to treat many diseases, even cancer. It is used as medical treatment in ancient China. 

Gelatin is not only important for joint and cartilage health, but it's also great for digestion and has even been used to help people heal from digestive problems like "leaky gut syndrome," crohn's, ulcerative colitis, and IBS (something I've battled with on and off for years.) It also helps with candidiasis as bone broth promotes the growth of "good" bacteria which in turn can fight off the bad, like candida albicans.

- Food allergies

-  Bone broth helps fight colds, flu, and malnutrition.

- Skin health

Many say that because of the collagen in bone broth, drinking it regularly will reduce cellulite and wrinkles.

3 Important Things to Look For Before Buying Bone Broth:

 
As with anything consumable these days, it's important to make sure the bone broth you consume is free of harmful items that are often found in many store-bought broths.

Make sure the bone broth you use is:
1. From grass-fed animals
2. Free of MSG (a neurotoxin found in most shelved stocks/broths)
3. Free of artificial growth hormones and antibiotics
From what I have read, these are the three basic things to look for if you plan to buy your bone broth.

Product Specs:

- 2 Servings per box

- Does not require refrigeration until box is opened

- Contains only 100% Organic vegetables, sea salt, herbs and grass-fed bones. No fillers, additives, artificial flavors.

- Bone Broth Co.'s broth does gel

Back label of Bone Broth Co. package

*The back of the label reads: "We combine modern day packaging technology with the old fashioned way of cooking bone broth to bring you a delicious and healthy shelf-stable beef bone broth. Every batch of our beef bone broth is made with bones from grass-fed, pasture-raised cattle without antibiotics or added hormones. We also use garden vegetables, sea salt, and spices. Our broth is cooked at a slow simmer to extract all the flavor and nutrients..."

Ways To Consume Bone Broth

Above is a quick chili "dip" + crackers. The chili "dip" is basically venison chili (made with bone broth) and shredded cheese, sour cream, garlic, and onions, and I believe a few other flavorful things that I currently cannot recall at this late hour. Clearly I also couldn't be bothered with any decent dishes at the late hour when the snack was made either. Hey, paper plates really can be a life-saver even if they are ugly. 

As someone new to broths, I can't say the flavor of the straight broth in a cup was delicious to me, but it certainly wasn't intolerable.  I had no trouble allowing the broth to sit in my mouth for several seconds. I did this for my teeth, especially since my broken wisdom tooth was giving me severe pain and the gums and teeth around the broken tooth were extremely inflamed. 

Bone Broth can be used in a huge variety of dishes, but many people love drinking it as a warm beverage! I was surprised to learn this last winter, but I've read/heard/saw dozens of folks say they love drinking bone broth. In fact, there was a drive-thru place open somewhere in New York I think where you could get a warm cup of bone broth.

For those who aren't fond of drinking their bone broth, I've came across loads of different recipes that you can use it in. 

Most people use bone broth in their soups, stews, and slow-cooker (crock-pot) dishes. I've seen pasta recipes like spaghetti that use bone broth as well. 

As I've noted, bone broth is versatile in that it can be used in numerous dishes like stew and even spaghetti, but you can also include it in your sauces. The beef broth I'm using from Bone Broths Co. has so far went splendidly in every dish I've tried it with so far, including spaghetti.

Since I'm very new to bone broth, I've not had the chance to try it very many different recipes, so I'm just discovering the possibilities at the moment.

So far, I've found it enjoyable in vegetable soup (my favorite soup) and even in my mom's chicken chili! Chicken chili is basically a creamier kind of chili in my opinion. It's a blend of chili powder, beans, vegetables, and chicken instead of beef. My mom always includes herbs like parsley, basil, oregano, a variety of beans, sour cream, and of course cheese! That's exactly how I love it. 

We tried using the bone broth in chicken chili and it was absolutely perfect. I thought it added more flavor rather than a watery, blandness it often has.

I could even imagine this bone broth being tasty in chicken noodle soup, for those of you who like the stuff.

Why I Love Bone Broths Co.'s Bone Broth

 
- This is the first truly fresh, never frozen bone broth
 

- Grass-fed garden vegetables

- All natural, no artificial ingredients, no added hormones, no antibiotics

- Gluten-free 

- Minimally processed (slowly simmered)

- Paleo-friendly

- US inspected and passed by department of agriculture

"We keep things real by keeping things simple. Grass-fed bones, organic vegetables, sea salt and organic herbs are the only ingredients in our fresh and never frozen bone broth."

Ingredients in Bone Broths Co. Beef Bone Broth:
Filtered water, grass-fed beef bones, onions, organic carrots, organic parsley, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, black peppercorn, bay thyme, rosemary extract.

Bone Broths Co. is offering a 10% discount on your order. Just use the code bonebrothpal10   at checkout.

Disclaimer: I am not a specialist, expert, professional or doctor of any kind. Content on this blog is not intended to be taken as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or advice of any sort. I'm simply sharing information about my own experiences and results from use of a product or activity in hopes of providing useful information to readers, not to be taken as a patient/medical adviser relationship. I am not responsible for what readers choose to do after viewing the content here. Furthermore, I do not hold an "exceptional" or other special relationship with any company mentioned on this site. I'm simply a consumer who worked with the company on a review that is in compliance with FTC's guidelines. That means, everything you read here is my own words, not anything of the company's. I was not provided with monetary compensation for my review. All information posted has been done so with complete honesty. No action should be taken based solely on the content of this publication ( I'm not responsible.) Readers who rely on the information in this blog to replace the advice of an appropriate health care provider assume all risks of such behavior.