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My question is how to avoid this state? I am apprehensive that I may be overconsuming calcium in the form of two eggshells per day. What is the best dose per day for the athletic young man and what are the best arguments pro and con?

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 is the calcium in eggshells bioavailable? – g. Jul 28 2011 at 18:59
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 love the new tag meliss. well played. – Jack Kronk Jul 28 2011 at 19:06
I don't know if it's too weird, I used egg shells for bone broth. – Katie Jul 28 2011 at 21:59
I assume the eggshell calcium is bioavailable. Judging from its effects on the body it 'feels' that way and other indices point to the fact(+electrical conduction/nervous stimulation; +bone mineral deposition as detected by solidity of teeth and general feeling of hardness). – PersonMan Jul 28 2011 at 22:33
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 How do you eat an egg shell? Just pop in in your mouth and chow down? That doesn't sound too pleasant... – TomInTexas Jul 29 2011 at 15:34
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Firstly, if you eat calcium rich dairy products such as cheese or milk then I doubt you need any extra calcium.

So how much calcium is in an eggshell? I shall assume you are talking about averaged sized chicken eggs.

Most of the estimates seem to say that a chicken eggshell weighes apporimately 5-6 grams. About 95% of this is calcium carbonate. With around 2 grams of elemental calcium. (Source)

Each egg shell probably contains several grams of calcium carbonate. Upto 6,000 milligrams.

If you eat 2 eggs shells per day you could be consuming many times more calcium than you need. I would be cautious about overdosing on it.

I don't know of any recommendations for how much eggshell to ingest as a calcium supplemnt. Maybe you could grind it into a powder and add a pinch of it to you food each day. Or a quarter teaspoon of ground eggshell. The calcium from eggshells appears to be easily absorbed by your body.

I would suggest that you stop eating 2 whole egg shells a day.

This looks like a usefull link: How to Make Calcium using Egg Shells

Some scientific links to pubmed:

Mineral, amino acid, and hormonal composition of chicken eggshell powder and the evaluation of its use in human nutrition.

Positive effects of a chicken eggshell powder-enriched vitamin-mineral supplement on femoral neck bone mineral density in healthy late post-menopausal Dutch women.

The present study indicates that healthy late post-menopausal women with an adequate Ca intake at baseline may increase BMD of the hip within 12 months following supplementation with the chicken eggshell powder-enriched supplement.

Chicken eggshell matrix proteins enhance calcium transport in the human intestinal epithelial cells, Caco-2.

Eggshell calcium in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.

The bioavailability of calcium from this source, as tested in piglets, was similar or better than that of food grade purified calcium carbonate. Clinical and experimental studies showed that eggshell powder has positive effects on bone and cartilage and that it is suitable in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.

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Nice citing of more info. Thanks. – Karen Jul 28 2011 at 21:07
I was under the impression that the calcium content of 1 large eggshell was 800 mg? That is obviously a lot less than 3,000! The source I consulted stated the former. What would you recommend for daily mgs. of calcium if anything? – PersonMan Jul 28 2011 at 22:36
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You're not going to develop fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva from eating too much calcium. If that's not what you mean by "ossified" i have no idea what to say.

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basically that was it only perhaps in a less extreme form, eg. "calcification of the soft tissues and stiffness of joints" type of state. That is what I'm trying to avoid. – PersonMan Jul 28 2011 at 22:31
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You can also roast eggshells over an open fire for 30 minutes. I've never tried it, and I really don't know why you'd want to do that, but you can indeed do it.

If it's strong bones you are interested in for climbing the mountainous ridges were you are camping out in the wilderness, well, then my advice is to up your intake of eggshells for sure. The calcium is more bioavailable than that of whole milk cheese, which I know you also gorge on.

May the Paleo force be with you PersonMan.

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"The calcium is more bioavailable than that of whole milk cheese." --- Interesting! – g. Jul 28 2011 at 19:26
lol grenadine. it may be, but for the record, i was just joking around. i have no idea. it's true that some people do grind up eggshells for calcium, but my answer here is primarily for good humor. i don't think there's much substance here. – Jack Kronk Jul 28 2011 at 19:33
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 I put them in all my bone broths. – The Quilt Jul 28 2011 at 19:48
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 @jack - d'oh! ok. (sad trombone) – g. Jul 28 2011 at 19:57
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Oddly enough I have bones in my scalpula that never fully ossified and yet I got a calcium deposit in my patelar tendon seemingly from consuming extra calcium while I had tendonitis.

I don't go out of my way to get extra calcium anymore. I just focus on my vitamins and other minerals and hope it's enough. Actually, I got hit by a car recently and had some bone bruising but no break so I guess I am doing it right.

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I believe that vitamin D plays a big role in how calcium is metabolized so you might want to look into that as well. If you had a lot of spare calcium kicking around in your bloodstream, isn't it possible that could contribute to plaque formation in your arteries?

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Thats one of the worries John. Hence the question. I'm thinking I will consume 1/2 eggshell per day and nothing else(cheese sometimes to substitue). As to Vit.D I get approx. 30 minutes of sun per day or tablets(D3). What would you recommend for D? – PersonMan Jul 29 2011 at 20:54
No idea, but Dr. William Davis of the Track Your Plaque blog has a lot to say about vitamin D supplementation. He says that "the longer you take vitamin D, the less you need". bit.ly/nU5o1U – John Naruwan Jul 30 2011 at 1:16
Sun exposure: 20 minutes per day + 1x 400i.u tablet of D3, otherwise up to 8 tabs if no sun exposure. Would this be too much? So much (mis)information out there: 10000i.u, 400i.u...who knows! – PersonMan Aug 3 2011 at 2:03

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