how do you get your calcium?

[nightlight]

being a lady, i'm concerned about getting enough calcium. i know i don't. i already have a sub-par back, and i want to make sure that when i'm an old fart, i can stand up straight.

right now, i do some yogurt, some cheese, but that's about it. i'm ok getting my dark green veggies, i also eat the occasional can of sardines. i was never much of a milk drinker.

how do YOU get your calcium?

[werwolf]

I have milk on my cereal in the morning, string cheese with my lunch, and often yogurt or cottage cheese for an afternoon snack. I also eat dark greens (including broccoli), almonds, and raddishes. (And fresh figs whenever I can get my grubby little hands on them. Yum!) Sesame seeds are apparently super high in calcium too, but I tend to only eat those in tahini form and only rarely.

[Lowenna]

I'm not even slightly a milk drinker, I really don't like it. I have quite a bit of cheese, but I take a calcium supplement as well because I know my diet is low in calcium.

According to the vegan society, good non-dairy sources of calcium are almonds, chickpeas, currants, figs, oranges, sesame seeds and tofu, as well as dark green veg. As my diet improves I'm going to add in some more of these.

[Raincloak]

I don't worry too much about it, osteo-problems luckily do not run in my family and I figure I'm most likely getting all the calcium I need. Hopefully weight-bearing exercise will make sure my bones stay nice and dense until I'm 130 years old. My weekly diet usually includes a few reps of the following:

- couple tablespoons of milk in my tea

- 1-2 eggs

- some dark green leafies (about 4 times a week, needs to be more but I'll get there)

- tinned fish (usually comes with a few little bones, crunch)

- couple ounces of good cheese

- scoop of yogurt (with sliced almonds on top, mmm)

Oh, and a daily multivitamin (when I remember to take it, which is not every day). I'm also stuck with eating sliced bread fairly frequently, and that stuff is often fortified, and I indulge in the occasional scoop of ice cream. So far nothing's gone "snap."

[spezzy]

i take a supplement, in addition to the eggs and the dark green leafies.

i figure whatever you don't use your body just gets rid of anyways.

[Oogiem]

I am of the age where osteoporosis is a problem and I'm already borderline at the last x-ray. I eat a lot of cheese, I also eat almonds and take calcium and vitamin D supplements daily. Leafy greens when I can get them (short supply now in winter), We don't eat any fish in our house so that is not an option. I do eat lots of eggs from our chickens so I know what they get including lots of bugs, mice, alfalfa and other plants and fly larvae. Makes for great eggs. Right now we've got oranges, the local Mennonite colony has relatives in Arizona that raise citrus so they go down and bring a bunch back to our valley so I have oranges, grapefruits and lemons now. I can tell when I forget my calcium supplement though. First sign is I get muscle spasms at night.

[nightlight]

given what you all are eating, and what i have in my diet, i think i need to look at exactly how much calcium i need, and how much i'm actually taking in. *running over to the daily burn to set a goal*

[Raincloak]

Oogiem, have you tried frozen spinach? Spinach is rich in calcium, it's good in all sorts of recipes, the frozen stuff is always in season, and it's dirt cheap. Frozen veggies and berries are the answer to "not in season / too expensive." (They freeze the stuff when it IS in season, so it frequently tastes better than out-of-season fresh food!) I like Trader Joe's "pesticide free" bags. You can't make a salad out of it, but you can cook it up with eggs, potatoes, a little garlic....

And I am jealous of your eggs, I love those delicious eggs from birds that run around and eat bugs. My cousin's got classmates who raise chickens, and we buy their eggs, but the birds live in a pen so there's a limit to how many bugs and plants they're getting.

[CokeCanNinja]

Make sure to do some load bearing activity (even walking around counts). In countries where they don't get much calcium but move around lots osteoporosis is rare. But it the US where it's very easy to get calcium but we don't move very much osteoporosis is more common.

Here's a MDA article about osteoporosis: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/skeletal-health/

[Alethea]

Get lots of weight bearing exercise, lots of sunlight and usually a vitamin D suppliment (vitamin D rocks in so many ways, this is good to take regardless). Avoid the caffeine, avoid the nicotine.

It's quite difficult to get the recomended daily calcium intake (1,000mg/day) through food. It works out to one of:

3-4 servings of milk a day

10 servings of beans

11 servings of almonds

5 servings of salmon WITH bone

6 servings of oats

33 servings of broccoli (dark leafy greens have some calcium, but not a lot)

(*taken from http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile68e.stm )

If you don't have a LOT of dairy products every day (and I don't think you should. Even if stuff made from baby-cow-food was good for human consumption, it's processed the point of uselessness), take a suppliment.

[Oogiem]

Oogiem, have you tried frozen spinach? Spinach is rich in calcium, it's good in all sorts of recipes, the frozen stuff is always in season, and it's dirt cheap. Frozen veggies and berries are the answer to "not in season / too expensive."

I hate spinach except occasionally fresh as a salad. Cooked it's vile and disgusting.I've never managed to eat it ever in my whole life once it's been cooked and the frozen stuff has the same off flavor and texture.

I also don't buy any frozen fruit. I do freeze my own though. Also don't tend to buy frozen veges except peas.

[CokeCanNinja]

Cooked it's vile and disgusting.

I think that statement applies to most vegetables.

[kahn265]

Due to weight-loss surgery, I've real concerns getting Calcium (a 39 year old man who's been diagnosed with Osteopenia).

So...

1. Everyday 1 cup of Mootopia (it's milk, but they add extra calcium among other things)

2. 2 600mg supplements of calcium/day - am dose and pm dose - because the body can only take so much calcium at a time

3. 400 IU of Vitamin D with each dose

4. Broccoli and spinache

5. Loadbearing exercises

In April/May I'll go in for another density test and I'll let post updates.

[nightlight]

wow aletha. never thought i'd need to eat 33 servings of broccoli. it's my favorite vegetable, but that's a ton.

i think i may add a supplement -- especially on the vitamin D angle. i know i don't get enough sunlight in the winter months.

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

If you are going to supplement vitamin D, don't go by the USDA recommendations. 600 units is only enough to prevent rickets. I have seen a lot of recommendations of 2000 - 10000 units a day.

[athousandwords]

I've noticed that since I switched to eating full-fat dairy and waaaay more spinach/broccoli (okay, more vegetables in general), my nails are much stronger. I always had problems with them breaking and splitting before. Not sure if this is a sign that I'm getting more calcium, but it does seem to me like my diet is improving for the better. They weren't even this strong when I was taking a calcium supplement every day!

And I love cooked spinach! Not a huge fan of it raw, actually.

[athousandwords]

given what you all are eating, and what i have in my diet, i think i need to look at exactly how much calcium i need, and how much i'm actually taking in. *running over to the daily burn to set a goal*

Also, it's a little hard to track calcium on sites like DailyBurn, MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople etc. Their databases are usually accurate when it comes to calories, but user-entered foods often skip entering calcium. I've noticed on occasion I'll log things milk or broccoli and the calcium content is 0.... clearly wrong. Just something to pay attention to if your calcium total is weirdly low.

[nightlight]

If you are going to supplement vitamin D, don't go by the USDA recommendations. 600 units is only enough to prevent rickets. I have seen a lot of recommendations of 2000 - 10000 units a day.

thanks for the heads up. i'll do some reading before i start supplementing.

Also, it's a little hard to track calcium on sites like DailyBurn, MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople etc. Their databases are usually accurate when it comes to calories, but user-entered foods often skip entering calcium. I've noticed on occasion I'll log things milk or broccoli and the calcium content is 0.... clearly wrong. Just something to pay attention to if your calcium total is weirdly low.

yeah, i noticed with daily burn you can't track calcium. i'm keeping a spreadsheet!