What it is
Phosphorus partners with calcium in bone and teeth, and stars in a molecule you burn all day: ATP, the literal energy currency of your cells. Structural and metabolic — few nutrients do both.
How much
The reference intake is about 700 mg a day, and here's the unusual part: almost everyone clears it without trying. Phosphorus rides along with protein — meat, dairy, fish, legumes, grains — and processed foods add more via phosphate additives. Deficiency from diet is genuinely rare.
The population that must watch it runs the other direction: in kidney disease, phosphorus control matters and a clinician's limits take over — one of the few contexts where this quiet nutrient becomes a daily number.
How well it's tracked
Sparsely — phosphorus rarely appears on labels, so your total reads well under reality. For most people that's harmless (the true intake is comfortably sufficient); for renal diets, the app's number is not a substitute for the dietitian's food lists.
Food sources
Dairy, meat, fish, eggs, legumes, nuts, whole grains — and colas plus many processed foods, where phosphate additives are absorbed especially completely.
In the app
Phosphorus has its Insights card with contributors and history, and a custom goal for anyone tracking it on medical advice.