Eat a Diet Rich in Calcium
Here's Why:
Calcium is the most prevalent mineral in the human body. It plays an important role in maintaining good health. For example:
- Calcium is essential to build and maintain strong bones at all stages of life, and therefore help prevent and/or manage osteoporosis. Calcium may also help with weight loss. In addition, research suggests that calcium and vitamin D supplementation may help to optimize blood glucose metabolism.
-
Calcium helps reduce your risk for these serious health conditions:
- High blood pressure
- Certain complications of pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and premature birth)—especially in women who have a diet low in calcium
- Possibly colon cancer
| Age |
Adequate Intake
(mg/day) |
|---|---|
| 0-6 months | 200 |
| 7 months-1 year | 260 |
| 1-3 years | 700 |
| 4-8 years | 1,000 |
| 9-18 years | 1,300 |
| 19-50 years | 1,000 |
| Men 51-70 years | 1,000 |
| Men 71 years or older | 1,200 |
| Women 51 years and older | 1,200 |
| Pregnant and breastfeeding teens | 1,300 |
| Pregnant and breastfeeding adults | 1,000 |
Here's How:
| Food | Portion size |
Amount of calcium
(mg) |
|---|---|---|
| Yogurt | 1 cup | 300-400 |
| Milk | 1 cup | 300-400 |
| Macaroni and cheese, homemade | 1 cup | 362 |
| Parmesan cheese | 1 tablespoon | 336 |
| Eggnog, nonalcoholic | 1 cup | 330 |
| Chocolate milk | 1 cup | 300 |
| Ricotta cheese | ½ cup | 300 |
| Powdered milk | ¼ cup | 290 |
| Cheddar cheese | 1 ounce | 250 |
| Swiss cheese | 1 ounce | 250 |
| Provolone cheese | 1 ounce | 215 |
| Cheese pizza | 1/6 of a frozen pizza | 210 |
| Mozzarella cheese | 1 ounce | 175 |
| American cheese | 1 ounce | 160 |
| Cottage cheese | 1 cup | 120 |
| Frozen yogurt, soft serve | ½ cup | 100 |
| Ice cream | ½ cup | 80 |
| Food | Portion size |
Amount of calcium
(mg) |
|---|---|---|
| Carnation breakfast bars | 1.3 ounce bar | 500 |
| Tofu, regular, processed with calcium | ½ cup | 435 |
| Calcium-fortified soy milk | 1 cup | 250-300 |
| Salmon, canned with edible bones | 3 ounces | 212 |
| Calcium-fortified orange juice | ¾ cup | 200 |
| Total raisin bran cereal | 1 cup | 200 |
| Blackstrap molasses | 1 tablespoon | 172 |
| Pudding, from cook & serve mix | ½ cup | 150 |
| Dried figs | 5 figs | 135 |
| Tofu, regular, processed without calcium | ½ cup | 130 |
| Anchovies with edible bones | 3 ounces | 125 |
| Turnip greens, boiled | ½ cup | 100 |
| Milk chocolate bar | 1.5 ounces | 85 |
| Okra, boiled | ½ cup | 77 |
| Tempeh | ½ cup | 77 |
| Kale, boiled | ½ cup | 70 |
| Mustard greens, boiled | ½ cup | 65 |
| Orange | 1 medium | 50 |
| Pinto beans | ½ cup | 45 |
- When making oatmeal or other hot cereal, use milk instead of water.
- Add powdered milk to hot cereal, casseroles, baked goods, and other hot dishes.
- Make your own salad dressing by combining low-fat plain yogurt with herbs.
- Add tofu (processed with calcium) to soups and pasta sauce.
- If you like fish, eat canned fish (eg, salmon or sardines) with soft bones on crackers or bread.
- For dessert, try low-fat frozen yogurt, ice cream, or pudding.
- In baked goods, replace half of the fat with plain yogurt.
- Eat dairy foods along with a meal rather than alone; the presence of other foods in the digestive tract can make it easier for your body to tolerate the lactose.
- Eat smaller portions of dairy foods. Many people find that they are able to tolerate ½ cup or ¾ cup of milk at a time, several times during the day, rather than 1 cup or more in one sitting.
- Choose aged cheeses, such as Swiss, Colby, Parmesan, and cheddar, which have most of their lactose removed during processing.
- Try dairy foods made with live, active cultures, such as yogurt and buttermilk. The "friendly" bacteria in these foods help to digest the lactose. These foods should have a "Live and Active Cultures" label.
- Be sure to include nondairy sources of calcium in your daily diet.
- Since the amount of calcium differs among products, check the label.
- Check your vitamin D intake too. This vitamin is essential for absorption of calcium. Milk is a great source of vitamin D, as is sunlight.
- If you take both calcium and iron supplements, take them at different times of the day, because they can impair each other's absorption.
- If you take more than 500 mg of supplemental calcium, space it out throughout the day; it is better absorbed that way.
RESOURCES
American Dietetic Association http://www.eatright.org/
Office of Dietary Supplements http://ods.od.nih.gov/
CANADIAN RESOURCES
Dietitians of Canada http://www.dietitians.ca/
Healthy Canadians http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/
References
Bowes and Church's Food Values of Portions Commonly Used. 17th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1998.
Calcium. Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health website. Available at: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-QuickFacts/. Accessed April 14, 2011.
Duyff RL. The American Dietetic Association's Complete Food & Nutrition Guide. Minneapolis, MN: Chronimed Publishing; 1998.
Duyff RL. The American Dietetic Association's Complete Food & Nutrition Guide. 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2006.
Garrison RH, Somer E. The Nutrition Desk Reference. New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing; 1995.
Heaney RP. Calcium intake and disease prevention. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol. 2006;50:685-693.
Hofmeyr G, Duley L, Atallah A. Dietary calcium supplementation for prevention of pre-eclampsia and related problems: a systematic review and commentary. BJOG. 2007 Jun 12. [Epub ahead of print]
Pittas AG, Lau J, Hu FB, Dawson-Hughes B. The role of vitamin D and calcium in type 2 diabetes. A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007;92:2017-2029. Epub 2007 Mar 27.
Straub DA. Calcium supplementation in clinical practice: a review of forms, doses, and indications [review]. Nutr Clin Pract. 2007;22:286-296.
7/6/2006 DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance: Villar J, Abdel-Aleem H, Merialdi M, et al. World Health Organization randomized trial of calcium supplementation among low calcium intake pregnant women. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2006;194:639-649.
7/6/2009 DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/what.php: Kumar A, Devi SG, Batra S, Singh C, Shukla DK. Calcium supplementation for the prevention of pre-eclampsia. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2009;104:32-36.
