Why is Calcium Carbonate used in certain foods? Essay

Did you know that there's cocoa powder in hot chocolate mix? Well of course you do, but do you know that there's Calcium Carbonate in it too? I know what you're thinking, whats calcium carbonate? Well, I'm going to tell you, but first you need to know some basic facts. Calcium Carbonate's formula is CaCO3, some other well known names for it are limestone and chalk, and it's an ionic compound. Calcium Carbonate can be created two ways. One way is by digging up natural resources like limestone and marble quarries in which these things contain calcium carbonate. Another way is by creating it in a laboratory. Now the way to do that is by chemically combining calcium chloride and sodium carbonate. Hot chocolate is a very important house product especially if you live in a cold climate like Chicago because what else would you drink after playing in the snow for three hours. Well now the question is why is calcium carbonate, also known as limestone, in hot chocolate. The main reason for calcium carbonate being in certain foods like hot chocolate is because it's a way to get calcium without eating pure calcium. Since the body needs calcium, but people don't tend to have pure calcium having different types of calcium compounds. The purpose, reason, and function of calcium carbonate being in hot chocolate is to give the person consuming the hot chocolate calcium and since calcium helps your bones be stronger. Not only is calcium carbonate in hot chocolate, but it's in breakfast cereals, cereal bars, frozen waffles, and different types of milk. Now are you shocked yet or what, because I'm just bewildered. I have cereal or hot chocolate every morning at least twice a month, but I always thought that I don't get enough calcium. Maybe I wasn't as accurate as I thought since now I know that hot chocolate and cereal contain calcium well a form of it. And finally the part you for sure have been waiting for, the facts. Did you know that children ages 9-18 need at least 300 more mg of calcium than adults do. To be a bit more exact children need 1,300 mg of calcium as a daily dosage whereas adults only need 1,000 mg of calcium as a daily dosage. This should make sense since children grow more than adults and calcium keeps our bones healthy and calcium helps them grow healthy. This may come as a shock though women as of the age of 50 do indeed need to up their daily intake to 1,200 mg. The reason for this is because women of this age, tend to have to trouble taking in the nutrients so if they have more to take in, then they don't have to worry too much about not getting enough and later getting sick. Lastly, at a whopping 7% of the Earth's crust being made up of it, Calcium Carbonate is leading that charts as far as compounds on Earth go and their abundance.