Can Calcium Help With Fat Digestion?
Have you ever felt lightheaded or not good after eating a meal with a lot of fat? Many people think they can't digest fats because they do not make the right digestive enzymes or the right bile. This bile comes from the liver and is kept in the gallbladder. But did you know that minerals also help with this? Could it be calcium?
How does the body digest fats?
To break down fats, the body uses several steps. It starts in the mouth when glands make an enzyme called lingual lipase. This happens under the tongue, but it does not do much. The main job of breaking down fats happens in the small part of the gut. When fat leaves the stomach and goes into the small gut, it is grouped into big globs that do not mix well with water.
To handle this, the liver makes bile. The gallbladder stores bile and sends it into the small gut when you eat fat. Bile has bile salts. These break big globs of fat into smaller drops. This helps by making a larger area for the enzymes to work on. This step is very important. It is because fats do not mix with the water in your body’s juices.
After the fat mixes well with bile, an enzyme called pancreatic lipase starts to work. The pancreas gives out this enzyme. It breaks down the main form of fat in your food, which is called triglycerides. It turns them into free fatty acids and monoglycerides. Next, these smaller parts move into the cells lining your gut. These cells are called enterocytes. Inside the cells, the small fat pieces become triglycerides again. They are then put into packages called chylomicrons.
Chylomicrons go into the lymph system first. After that, they move into your blood. The fats can get sent to your body’s cells to use as energy or to be kept for later. Hormones, like cholecystokinin (CCK), help control this whole chain of steps. CCK tells the body to let out both bile and pancreatic enzymes when there is fat in your gut.
What are the symptoms of fat malabsorption or steatorrhea?
When your body cannot break down fats the right way—a problem known as fat malabsorption or steatorrhea—you may start to feel several symptoms. A lot of these have to do with your stomach and not getting enough vitamins and other things your body needs. The biggest sign is having stools that look greasy, smell bad, and are pale in color. They can float in the toilet because there is a lot of fat in them. These stools are often big and hard to flush. This happens because the fats your body does not break down move through your intestines and come out in your stool instead of being used by your body.
Other symptoms are bloating, gas, and pain in the stomach, especially after you eat foods that have a lot of fat. Some people get diarrhea or loose stools, because the fat your body can’t take in can bother the stomach and intestines. Over time, when your body cannot take in fat, you can lose weight even if you eat the same or more food. This is because your body is not getting the calories and key things it needs from the fat you eat.
Fats help the body take in some important vitamins like A, D, E, and K. If you have trouble with fat digestion for a long time, it can lead to your body not getting enough of these vitamins. Signs of this can be dry skin, having a hard time seeing at night from low vitamin A, bruising easily because of low vitamin K, weak muscles from low vitamin D, and problems with nerves from low vitamin E. In kids, trouble with fat digestion can slow their growth and cause problems with development.
In more serious or long-lasting cases, there may be signs of not getting enough nutrients. These can include always feeling tired, hair getting thinner, and the body getting sick more often. Trouble taking in fat can happen because of things like problems from the pancreas (like in cystic fibrosis or long-term pancreas problems), celiac disease, not enough bile, or some surgeries done on the digestive system.
How does calcium play a role in fat digestion?
Calcium has an important part in how the body deals with fat. It mainly supports the way bile helps break down fats and works with the making of fatty deposits that help get rid of some fats from the body. Calcium itself is not an enzyme and is not a chemical that mixes fat and water. Still, it can help in the gut by linking up with fatty parts.
When the body breaks down the fats from what we eat, some of those fats connect with calcium and create what people call calcium-fatty acid clumps or "calcium soaps." This makes it harder for some fats and bile to get pulled back into the body, which might help control both cholesterol and fat levels.
In addition, calcium is important for the way many enzymes and cells work. This includes the things that control how the body sends out and activates digestive enzymes. For example, the body uses calcium ions to send messages that tell the pancreas to let out enzymes like lipase. Calcium also helps the gallbladder squeeze out bile into the small part of the gut. While calcium is not needed in the same way as enzymes or bile to break down fat, it does help several body functions. These things make fat digestion and how the body takes in fat better. So, even though calcium does not do the job directly, it still plays a big part in the way the body handles fat.
Most people do not get much calcium from what they eat. This is because many of us have trouble with dairy. So, you may need to use a supplement to help your body break down fat.
That is why we say you should try Upgraded Calcium. It can help you with this problem. With that in mind, it is good to remember that minerals should always be in balance. If you want to know more about your own unique body chemistry, you can run a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis test with us today!