Calcium Chews

One of the things I have tried to do over the years is to take calcium every day. I had a bone scan ten years ago that made me regret my aversion to milk since not drinking it may have done me some harm. The scan on my hip said that I was on the borderline of osteopenia. As a young person who did weight bearing exercise and ate well, that was a wake-up call that I needed more calcium in my diet.

My problem with calcium supplements over the years is that they were either horse pills or chalky chews or generally disgusting. I would buy it and forget to take it. But, I finally found one that tasted just like a homemade caramel candy. I kept them on my desk so that popping one in my mouth became a part of my morning routine—turn on computer, straighten up the papers, eat multi-vitamin and take my calcium.

Unfortunately, I was not the only person who liked them. I sat down at my desk yesterday and noticed a couple of little black ants darting across my papers. I was annoyed because I thought that on the second floor of my house, far away from the dog food bowl or garbage, that I was safe from ants.

I live in the northeast and this time of year those little black ants swarm up and become the biggest nuisance. I am not a big believe of using poison and pesticides, but I take great pleasure in squirting down the “gel” to annihilate as many little black ants as possible.

Then I opened up my calcium to a creeping crawling mass of little black ants feasting on my caramel calcium chews. I quickly clamped on the lid and tied it up in a plastic bag to suffocate the swarm. That is not a pleasant way to start the day.

I guess for the summer months I will go back to a less-tasty variety of calcium, or maybe I’ll just use this as excuse to eat my favorite thing in the world, cheese, at every meal.

Kendall Egan