Scientific facts on two minerals — pursuant to EU Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
Sugilithzirkel records the amounts in which the two minerals are present in the body, at which point they become measurable, and how the statements authorized for them read in the Official Journal. Each statement appears with the mineral to which it belongs.
To the dossierCalcium and phosphorus occur together in hard tissue, but in the register of the European Union they are listed separately. Each statement names exactly one element and exactly one function. The following entries are therefore listed individually and not combined.
An adult body carries around 1,000 to 1,200 grams of calcium. About 99 percent of it sits as crystal in the hard tissue of the skeleton and teeth; the narrow remainder is distributed across blood plasma, tissue fluid, and the cell interior. In blood plasma the total value in adults lies between 2.2 and 2.6 millimoles per liter; roughly half of it is freely mobile ion, while the remaining part is attached to albumin or to small acids.
The labeling value on European packaging is 800 milligrams per day. German-language professional societies state 1,000 milligrams for adults. Both figures refer to intake via food, not to a measured value in the blood.
Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
Phosphorus reaches roughly 600 to 700 grams in the adult organism. As a free element it practically does not occur; what is measured is always phosphate, that is, the compound of one phosphorus atom and four oxygen atoms. About 85 percent of the stock lies in hard tissue; the rest is contained in cell membranes, nucleic acids, and energy-carrying molecules.
The labeling value is 700 milligrams per day; the professional societies cite the same figure as the reference for adults. In blood plasma, inorganic phosphate ranges between 0.8 and 1.5 millimoles per liter, with a discernible daily rhythm.
Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
The outer layer of a tooth consists of about 96 percent mineral by weight; the remainder is water and a few proteins. This layer does not lie dry but is permanently covered by a thin film of fluid. What happens between crystal and fluid is pure chemistry: ions go into solution and attach again, in both directions, without any cells being involved.
Saliva contains calcium and phosphate ions at concentrations above the solubility equilibrium of the tooth mineral. In technical terms this is called supersaturation. As long as this state persists, the fluid has no reason to draw further material from the crystal — the balance points rather in the other direction, toward deposition.
Decisive for this balance is the degree of acidity. If the pH immediately at the tooth surface falls below about 5.5, the equilibrium shifts: the solution is then no longer supersaturated and takes up ions. If the value rises again, the direction reverses once more. Both processes occur several times each day.
A supersaturated solution tends to precipitate spontaneously. That saliva does not do so is due to a small group of proteins. Statherin, a protein of 43 amino acids with a strongly negatively charged initial segment, binds calcium ions loosely and keeps them in solution. The proline-rich salivary proteins work on the same principle.
The same molecules form a wafer-thin coating on the tooth surface within minutes, the pellicle, measured in fractions of a micrometer. It sits between crystal and fluid and helps determine how quickly ions cross the boundary in one direction or the other.
The pH in resting saliva typically lies between 6.4 and 7.0. After the intake of carbohydrate-containing foods it drops rapidly at the tooth surface and then requires a certain time before it reaches the initial range again. How long this takes depends above all on the amount of saliva that flows in during this period.
No statement about symptoms can be derived from these relationships, and this page makes none. The register entry describes a maintenance function, nothing more: Calcium contributes to the maintenance of normal teeth — Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012. The corresponding statement for the second element reads: Phosphorus contributes to the maintenance of normal teeth — Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012.
An adult produces between half a liter and one and a half liters of saliva depending on the day. Without external stimulus, about 0.3 to 0.4 milliliters per minute flow; while chewing the value rises to five times that and above. The major glands deliver fluid of differing composition, which is why measured values always state the collection situation as well.
In resting saliva, calcium ranges roughly between 1.0 and 2.0 millimoles per liter, inorganic phosphate between 2 and 6 millimoles per liter. Under strong stimulation of flow the phosphate share falls, while calcium tends to stay the same or increase slightly. Two samples from the same person at different times of day can therefore differ markedly.
These figures describe a bodily fluid, not an intake recommendation. How much calcium and phosphate reaches the plate over the course of a day is a separate calculation with its own sources:
Of the calcium taken in, roughly a quarter to a third passes through the intestinal wall on a normal diet. For phosphate the share is higher, on the order of one half to two thirds. The exact values depend on accompanying foods and are broken down by food group in the dossier.
All three statements quoted on this page come from the Union list of permitted health claims. They are reproduced unchanged and are each assigned to the element for which they apply.
The dossier carries the calculations sketched here through to the end: saliva values from two measurement series, content tables for calcium and for phosphorus, intake tiers by life stage, and an appendix with the quoted regulatory texts in their original wording.
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