Calcium
Eighteen milligrams as calcium carbonate, one and a half per cent of a day, and declared with a percentage like everything else on this panel.
Eighteen milligrams, declared with its percentage like everything else here. In a capsule this size calcium carbonate is usually doing a job of engineering.
What the figure means
Eighteen milligrams of elemental calcium. Calcium carbonate is about forty per cent calcium by weight, so rather more than eighteen milligrams of the carbonate went into the capsule; the panel declares the mineral, not the compound's weight, which is the correct convention.
What it is likely doing here
In a capsule this size, calcium carbonate is often as much a matter of engineering as of nutrition. It is a dense, cheap, inert powder that helps a blend fill consistently. The label declares it because anything present has to be declared.
Where your calcium actually comes from
Dairy, tinned fish eaten with the bones, calcium-set tofu, kale, broccoli and fortified plant drinks. A single glass of milk carries something like three hundred milligrams. One and a half per cent of a day is not where your intake is decided.
On the panel it reads
Calcium (as Calcium Carbonate) — 18 mg
1.5% of the daily value
Where it turns up in food
Dairy, tinned fish eaten with the bones, calcium-set tofu, kale, broccoli and fortified plant drinks. Most people take in the bulk of theirs before lunch.
About Calcium
Should I take this for my bones?
No, and nothing on this site suggests you should. One and a half per cent of a daily value is a rounding error against what you eat, and bone health is a conversation for your physician, not a capsule.
Does calcium interfere with the other ingredients?
At eighteen milligrams this is far below the amounts where calcium is discussed as affecting the absorption of anything. If you take a separate calcium supplement at a real dose, that is worth mentioning to your physician.
Why is it listed above the amino acids?
Convention. Nutrients with an established daily value are listed first on a supplement facts panel, which is why the two smallest figures by weight sit at the top.
The other six entries
Seven entries, all of them printed
No proprietary blend on this label, which is why a page like this one can exist at all.
Checkout, payment and delivery are the seller’s. Sixty days from the date of purchase to ask for your money back, empty bottles included.
