How do you get your calcium?

[Second Summer]

The recommended daily intake of calcium for adults - males and females, is about 1000mg. It's more for teenagers: 9-13y.o.: 1300mg, and for older folks. See e.g. here.)

There is about 300mg in a glass (250ml) of fortified soya milk. This is one of the best vegan sources. I drink maybe 200ml soya milk per day, so get about 240mg of calcium there.

My question is, how do you get the remaining 700+ mg of calcium? I suppose I can drink more soya milk ...! Or another fortified plant milk.

I eat tofu maybe once a week. That seems to have a little bit if it's made with calcium sulfate.

 

[beancounter]

The prescription I'm on leaches calcium from the body, so I have to take a suppliment.

 

[Oasis]

Dark green vegetables and some seeds and nuts contain calcium. I have all of those on a daily basis, plus I have a couple of glasses of fortified almond milk every day. I never really liked milk pre-vegan, and I didn't always eat the above three types of foods every single day, so I know I definitely get more calcium now than I ever used to. Hopefully it's enough, but I've yet to see evidence otherwise.

 

[SummerRain]

The NHS recommends 700mg of calcium.

Calcium naturally occurs in more vegan foods than you might think (from here and here):

• 191mg in 1 cup of white beans
• 107mg in 8 dried figs
• 188mg in two cups of kale
• 185mg in 1/2 cup of black eyed peas
• 72mg in 20 almonds
• 65mg in 1 orange
• 88mg in 1tbsp sesame seeds
• 136g in 80g water cress

And some foods I eat a lot of, but aren't particular high in calcium, all add up too:

- 58mg 1 cup parsnips
- 40mg in 1 cup of peas
- 90mg in 1 cup of butternut squash
- 62mg in 1/2 cup of hummus
- 74mg in 1 cup of chickpeas
- 92mg in 100g peanuts
etc..

I eat quite a lot of beans, nuts and veg (that's kinda most of my diet!), and I think that's where most of mine comes from, because I don't eat/drink fortified products very often. But I think calcium is one of those things that if you eat a lot of veg and a variety of nuts/beans it'd be quite hard not to get enough of. If I made a curry, I might put in 1 cup of chickpeas, 1 cup of butternut swaush, 100g of spinach, 100g tinned tomatos = 295mg which is about 42% of my daily requirements without even trying.

 

[Second Summer]

If I made a curry, I might put in 1 cup of chickpeas, 1 cup of butternut swaush, 100g of spinach, 100g tinned tomatos = 295mg which is about 42% of my daily requirements without even trying.

Would you eat that yourself in one sitting, or would it be a meal for two, though?

I think for myself, the easiest thing I can do is to drink another glass of fortified plant milk. I don't eat a lot of dark green vegetables or nuts/seeds on a daily basis.

 

[SummerRain]

Would you eat that yourself in one sitting, or would it be a meal for two, though?

Yeah that's about the amount I'd eat for little ol' me, with some rice. A pretty standard example of what I eat for dinner! My lunches vary, if I have soup then that's loads of veg and/or beans too, or a pasta/cous cous/rice salad with veg and beans/chickpeas. I usually have two veg/bean heavy meals a day.

 

[SummerRain]

Oh also I think bread is fortified with calcium (in the UK). The Bakers Federation.org.uk say

Calcium in Bread
By law white and brown flour are fortified with calcium therefore white or brown breads are preferable to wholemeal for people whose calcium intake may be inadequate.

Amount of Calcium in Bread
Type Of BreadCalcium Amounts
White 177 mg per 100g
Brown 177 mg per 100g
Wholemeal 177 mg per 100g
Source: McCance & Widdowson's The Composition of Foods 6th Summary Edition (2002)

Four medium slices of white bread per day would provide more than 30% of the RDA for calcium.

I think some popular brands fortify more than that also, I know the Hovis website said 2 slices of their bread = 48% or adult recommended amount of calcium. So if you eat bread every day that will make a big difference to how much calcium you're consuming.

 

[Blobbenstein]

better to eat wholemeal bread, an just take a supplement.

 

[SummerRain]

Wholemeal is fortified too - they all are.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I thought they didn't legally have to fortify wholemeal with calcium, only white and brown.

your quote says:
"By law white and brown flour are fortified with calcium therefore white or brown breads are preferable to wholemeal for people whose calcium intake may be inadequate."

I'm a bit confused.

 

[SummerRain]

Oh sorry, I'm tired, you were right ... I got confused because later it said there was the same amount of mg in wholemeal as white.

Spoiler: I read some more on the topic, but put it in a spoiler, because it's pretty dull!

I read a bit more from here:

The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 are national rules which have come under increased scrutiny as part of the Hospitality Food and Drink sector and the review of regulations relating to food composition and labelling.
Under these regulations all wheat flour (except wholemeal flour) is required to have added to it certain specified quantities of four nutrients, namely iron, calcium, thiamin and niacin. The rules date back to post war times when nutrient deficiency particularly for calcium and iron was of significant concern. Flour is a basic commodity which is widely consumed and therefore an excellent vehicle for fortification with desired nutrients. Fortification of flour is also a relatively straightforward process which is carried out easily during the final milling process.
Three of the nutrients, iron, niacin and thiamin are added back for restoration purposes to bring the levels of these nutrients back up to the amounts naturally present in the wheat before the milling process. Calcium is added for fortification purposes at levels higher than naturally present.

This place says there's about 540mg/kg in wholemeal bread and 1100mg/kg in white.

 

[spottygiraffe]

I don't eat very much bread, but I'm not sure if they fortify it or not over here in France anyway. I've just had a bone fracture which made me really wake up to my calcium requirements, so I have been eating tons of green leafy veg -but not spinach or chard because we can't absorb the calcium from them and they inhibit the calcium absorption from other foods. I have maybe 1/3 litre of fortified non-dairy milk every day. I find it weird that they don't seem to fortify the soy yoghurts. And while we're on the subject, does anyone else find it hard to get all the calcium and other nutrients we need without taking in too many calories?

 

[Snowcone]

Tofu and almond milk. I also have supplements when I feel lacking.

 

[thefadedone]

I eat beans, leafy greens, almond milk (over a cup a day) every day and tofu maybe 4 times a week. Plus I take a Calcium + Vitamin D supplement twice a day.

 

[Moll Flanders]

I take a calcium supplement about four times a week as I have known a few older women who have osteoarthritis. I have a soya milk fruit smoothie and a multivitamin daily. I must eat a lot of other foods with calcium too but I don't measure it on a daily basis. I need to buy some vegan vitamin D actually.

 

[shyvas]

I also take ca daily calcium and vitamin D supplement.

I also eat tofu, almonds, broccoli and drink soya milk. However I don't buy fortified food and the tofu that I purchase has iron and magnesium listed in the ingredients and no calcium.

 

[mary1]

Soy milk and tofu mainly. Greens have calcium but after tracking my calcium intake over a couple months, I've noticed that it is hard to eat enough greens to meet those RDA without purposely drinking soy milk or my Vega One smoothies.

 

[Spang]

I guess I get most of my calcium from Almond Breeze, a glass a day, and beans.

 

[spottygiraffe]

Interesting to read everyone's answers. A great source of calcium that doesn't seem to be listed anywhere is corn tortillas. 2 of those gives you 1/4 of your RDA.

We have to be careful what we eat with our calcium too because certain other foods can inhibit the absorption, such as tea and coffee. I've gone down to having one cup of coffee a day midway between breakfast and lunch.

 

[spottygiraffe]

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.php