Many people believe that shrimp skin is the best calcium supplement food. Judging from the nutritional content, the calcium content of shrimp skin is more than ten times that of milk of the same weight. Now that you have Shopee, it’s easy to meet your calcium needs, so why drink milk?

However, this idea is a typical "content-only theory". There are still many problems hidden behind the nutrient content data per 100 grams of food.

First of all, I didn’t consider how much food I could actually eat. Anyone who has cooked knows that dried shrimps are very light and dry. A pack of dried shrimps can last you a long time. When cooking, you can only put one or two handfuls at most at a time. When converted into weight, it is 5 to 10 grams. If making soup, adding 1 to 2 grams is enough. It is impossible to eat dishes with dried shrimps every day. Therefore, although there is a lot of calcium in 100 grams of dried shrimps, the amount of calcium you get is not too much if you eat not much.

In contrast, milk is very convenient to drink. It is no problem to drink it every day. Each person drinks 250 grams once a day, and the total amount of calcium obtained reaches nearly 300 mg. Plus the calcium in the daily diet. More than 400 mg of calcium is already close to the recommended amount of 800 mg.

Secondly, can shrimps really be fully digested with so much calcium? In fact, shrimp skin does contain a lot of calcium, but the absorption rate is not ideal. In order for calcium to be absorbed, it must first be dissolved. However, human teeth cannot completely chew shrimp shells, and only a small part can be dissolved after being acted upon by gastric acid in the stomach. Most calcium is excreted from the body along with undigested residue. Unless it is finely crushed, the effect will be better.

The calcium in milk is in a soluble state and forms a subtle complex with protein, citric acid and phosphoric acid, so there is no need for the human body to chew it.

Thirdly, there is only calcium in shrimp skin and there is no factor to help calcium absorption. It does not contain vitamin D, so calcium utilization is not fully guaranteed. Milk naturally contains vitamin D, which can promote calcium absorption. Lactose in milk, lactic acid in yogurt, and casein phosphopeptides produced by digestion of milk protein can also promote calcium absorption. Therefore, the calcium in milk is the most highly utilized among various natural foods.