Home>College>Calcium for middle-aged and elderly
Publish Date：2026-02-06 00:00:00
Spring Festival 2026 is approaching. In my many years of scientific career, I have seen countless X-rays, some of which were as dense as white jade, while others were as loose as dead wood. And at this particular juncture of Spring Festival, what I most want to talk about with everyone is not the cold T value (bone density indicator), but rather the “invisible loss” caused by love at this dinner table.
01 Mom‘s “baby” that she hid for a year is actually consuming our “bone energy”
When you return home, you might find that your parents have aged. Not only have their hair turned white, but their backs don‘t seem as straight as they used to be.
When you ate, Mom brought out the plate of bacon sausages she had personally salted and hung under the eaves to dry all winter, as if presenting a treasure. As she placed the thinnest piece of meat in your bowl, she said, “You can‘t eat this outside, can you? Mom specially saved it for you.”
It was the taste of home, the sediment of time, and the heavy weight of motherly love.
So, we gobbled up the meat, gulped down the unstinting carbonated drinks, and enjoyed this rare reunion.
But as a friend who knew a little about medicine, Lizhizhu watched this scene with mixed feelings.
Because every salty taste we eat, every refreshing sip we drink, may be secretly reaching out to our and our parents‘ already fragile bones under the cover of this tenderness. This is a paradox about love: the people who most want to replenish our bodies, but unknowingly, bring out the “accelerator” that accelerates bone loss.
02 Unveiling the Truth of Bone “Wealth” Loss: The Unbalance of the Calcium Phosphorus Seesaw
Why do you say that? We need to talk about the pair of brothers in the human body who love and kill each other: calcium and phosphorus.
You can imagine our bone health as a seesaw.
1. On the left sits “Mr. Calcium” (responsible for strong bones);
2. On the right sits “Mr. Phosphorus” (responsible for bone construction and energy metabolism).
In ideal conditions, the ratio of calcium to phosphorus is approximately between 2:1 and 1.5:1, when the seesaw is balanced and the bones are at their strongest.
But the Spring Festival dinner table completely disrupted this balance.
1. High-phosphorus bombardment: Those processed meats that taste excellent (salad, ham, sausage) are often added with large amounts of phosphate salts for preservation and water retention.
2. Carboic acid assistance: The carbonated drinks on the dining table are even more heavily phosphorus-containing.
The data are heartbreaking: the median daily phosphorus intake of our residents has reached (941.1 milligrams), far exceeding the appropriate value (720 milligrams); while calcium intake is only half of the recommended value.
When we ingest too much phosphorus, the body does something stupid: in order to maintain blood balance, it orders the body‘s “regulator”—the Parathyroid hormone—to “regulate” the calcium in the bones to balance the excess phosphorus in the blood.
The result was that although the phosphorus was expelled, the calcium in the bones was also taken away by the thief. For parents who already had reduced gastric acid secretion and reduced calcium absorption ability, this was undoubtedly an added blow.
03 Keep your bones and your money without hurting your feelings: Four brocade bags, retaining the family‘s “bone spirit”
Seeing this, are you ready to rush into the kitchen and throw away all the pickles? Never. That‘s not meat being thrown away, it’s the old man’s heart.
Good health management is by no means an anti-human absolute prohibition, but wise “swapping” and “balancing.”
For the New Year, the important thing is to feel comfortable. We can change the way we eat, both taking care of our parents‘ emotions and protecting the bones of the entire family.
Here are four “brocade bags” to help you keep your family’s bones healthy :
Brocade Bag One: Give Bacon a “bath”
Phosphates and salts in processed meat are mostly water-soluble.
Method: Before frying bacon and sausage, boil them in water for 5-10 minutes, dump the boiling water, and then cook.
Speaking technique: “Mom, I saw that chefs online all do this. They say that this way the meat is softer and has a better texture. Do you try it?” (Don‘t say it’s for health, say it’s for deliciousness.)
Brocade Bag 2: “Moving Flowers to Connect Trees” in Beverages
Phosphate in carbonated drinks is an inorganic phosphorus directly added, with extremely high absorption rate and most damaging to bones.
How to Do It: Replace the Coke with bubbly water (no phosphorus), or homemade lemon soda. A better option is to replace it with yogurt or soy milk, which not only has no phosphorus, but can also supplement calcium, just right to push the “跷跷板” back.
Speech Technique: “Dad, let‘s drink some Western air this year. This yogurt is both spicy and bland, and it can also nourish the stomach.”
Brocade Bag Three: “God‘s Attack” on the Dining Table
Since there‘s too much phosphorus, we artificially increase calcium intake and forcibly balance the seesaw.
Cooking: If this meal has bacon, it must be accompanied by a plate of dark green leafy vegetables (cucumber, mustard greens, boiled water to remove oxalic acid, oxalic acid affects calcium absorption, boiled water is better), or take a tofu soup.
Action: Give your parents more greens and tofu, telling them, “Meat with vegetables is healthy.”
Brocade Bag 4: Choose the right “protection shield,” supplementing calcium without taking detours
In fact, many times parents are not not supplementing calcium, but “not supplementing.” Older people secret less gastric acid, and traditional calcium carbonate tablets depend on gastric acid decomposition. They eat them easily and have poor absorption, and often have gastric bloating and constipation. This is also why many people still have low bone density when they undergo physical examinations.
If you‘re worried about not getting enough nutrition, or if your parents have sensitive gastrointestinal systems, you can pack a box of Lizhizhu® Compound Calcium Carbonate Granules for home.
Its special “black technology”—the in vitro compound technology. Simply put, when it boils in the cup, it has already turned itself into a water-soluble lime-acid calcium compound that can be steadily absorbed by the intestines without consuming the parents‘ precious stomach acid. Moreover, it completes the process of producing gas in the cup (you will see it bubbling), and when it drinks it in the stomach, it doesn‘t gas up.
This is the best “invisible defense line” for parents: both to make progress and to make their stomachs comfortable.
04 Last Watch: Keep your “bone and spirit” safe, that‘s the longest-lasting companionship
The Spring Festival lasts only seven short days, but love flows for a long time.
Our generation, with old and young, is the backbone of the family. We focus on bone health not only so that we can shoulder more responsibilities, but also so that when our parents grow old, their legs can still support their desire to see the world.
Even if it was just to cook the meat for a while longer, even if it was just to change that bottle of drink, we were using professionalism and care to build an invisible defense line for our family.
Lizhizhu helps you protect your family‘s health, right in this tiny change of one vegetable and one meal.
“Love is restraint, and it is also the recklessness of wisdom.”
May everyone have strong bones and the spirit of dragons and horses in the upcoming Spring Festival! We‘ll see each other here when the warm flowers bloom next spring.
