Chewable Calcium Citrate

I kept forgetting to post this, maybe I need more B. Carlsonlabs.com makes chewable calcium citrate, vanilla flavor (mild flavor, not too sweet).  250 mg per tablet, casein and milk free.  I found them at Nutrition Unlimited, in the same strip mall as the Big Lots on Eureka in (or near) Taylor.  Downriver, anyway. I paid $6.72 for 60.  The Carlson  website lists them for kids in a bottle of sixty (what I bought in the store) and a bottle of 120 with the same description that doesn't say for kids.  Smaller wafers than Country Life and I think a better price, but tase is everything.  Yes, they are gritty, but that is a characteristic of calcium, I do believe.  I've been taking two or three different kinds daily to gt to the doctor's required 1500 mg (n no fewer than three doses) a day.  I figure that even if some of them (like the generic sticks of chalk ?) don't dissolve in my system, I'll still have a fighting chance. I was getting a chewable with the Meijer brand name but I can't find it anymore.  The only chewable they offer now is carbonate, also called Why Bother.  I've been asking them for the name of the old supplier but they aren't responding. You ARE taking your supplements, right? 

Hey girl....Don't know much about the chewables, I don't take that one, I do Viactiv and then my Flintstones.  How are you doing? I miss the first friday dinners......thought everyone forgot. Although things get pretty busy.

Hope all is well....

 

Thanks for the info. Jane. I take the Centrum Chewable caramel and they are pretty good. I think a lot of GAPs (my new favorite word) take Viactiv or other carbonate and don't realize that it isn't the best formulation for us. You're such a smart cookie!  (sf, of course!)

Hey Jane! We had the same dr! :)  I thought they said not to take supplements with carbonate like viactiv?? I just pitched mine, and am giving my friend my giant container of Caltrate. Was I mistaken??? I just posted this on another thread, hope you don't mind I post it here too (I'm all about the deals lol)  I ordered creamy citracal bites, and sublingual b-12 liquid (that's half off! I got two! Hope they're not gross! LOL)  *Offer available exclusively online at CVS.com. Maximum $10 value. This coupon excludes prescriptions. Tax charged on pre-coupon price where required. This coupon is not transferable. Limit one coupon per customer. No cash back. This offer is not valid for orders placed on the CVS/pharmacy Online Photo Center. Expires 10/12/07. Free standard shipping on nonprescription orders of $30 or more. Your e-coupon discount will appear during checkout on the Order Confirmation page. http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/promotion?pid=6046&Aff =BOAM  HTH!

Most doctors tell you not to do the Viactiv because they are calcium carbonate which we don't digest.  We should do calcium citrate but some doctors don't tell their patients that.  Do what your doctor or NUT says to do.  I love the Citracal Creamy bites.

I know I have posted this before, but it really does explain a lot:

Unlike deficiencies of vitamin B12, iron, and folate, for which periodic blood testing is a sensitive indicator of status, calcium deficiency is more difficult to detect. Only 1% of the body’s calcium is in the blood stream, the rest being in bones, teeth and marrow. When blood stream calcium is low, the body regularly borrows calcium from bones and marrow. Consequently, blood stream calcium is seldom low even when the body intake is insufficient. The blood stream calcium may be adequate, but the bone calcium level has been depleted. Hence, a blood test for calcium will not register a bone calcium deficiency. A bone density scan is required to do this.   Once ingested, calcium normally is absorbed in the duodenum and proximal jejunum by an active saturable process that is assisted by vitamin D. The surgical exclusion of these intestinal segments from digestive system acts to diminish net calcium absorption.

A second factor affecting calcium absorption is the form of the calcium. Calcium is most commonly available as calcium carbonate and calcium citrate. Calcium carbonate, table chalk, has a higher concentration of calcium and is less expensive. However, calcium carbonate is not absorbed well in a non-acidic environment. Calcium citrate has a much higher bioavailability rate than calcium carbonate, particularly for gastric bypass patients who have little if any stomach acid available to assist in absorption. Viactive is calcium carbonate, so it is not absorbed as well as calcium citrate, such as Centrum Creamy Bites.