Do You Get Enough Calcium?

All your life you’ve been hearing how good calcium is for your bones and your teeth. The American Dairy Association, and your mother, told you to drink your milk to get all that goodness you need. And study piled upon study points to the need for calcium, what it does for us, what can happen if you don’t get enough, and, what can happen if you get too much. For instance, some studies say that adequate calcium can aid weight loss, improve PMS symptoms and help relieve muscle pain. Calcium is also needed for proper muscle contraction, function of blood vessels, transmission of signals through the nervous system and much more.

Getting too much can increase your chances of developing kidney stones, or could even upset the balance of calcium in blood and calciium in your bones, sometimes causing calcium to leach from your bones. But this is not a problem for a lot of people. Getting too little calcium is more like it. Especially for people like me, who can’t tolerate dairy. So there go all of those “wonderful” sources of calcium that those dairy farmers want me to imbibe.

What’s to do?

First of all, how much do you really need? Most dietitians agree that the average adult, premenopausal woman should get about 1000 mg per day. If you’re postmenopausal (to protect those bones when estrogen levels drop) or over 50, whichever comes first, you should get about 1200 mg per day. What’s important to note is that this figure is your total calcium intake per day – that includes calcium from your diet and from any supplementation. The people who are getting too much calcium are the ones who down enough supplements to get to this figure and then don’t count contributions from their diet.

If you’re a non-vegan who can (and wants to) eat dairy, you can easily get your RDA with 2-3 servings of milk, yogurt or cheese.  But where do you go if you can’t eat dairy products? Many foods are now fortified with pretty much everything, but one of the most common supplements added to foods is calcium. You can find it in your orange juice and your soy milk (about 300-350 mg per serving), even in your breakfast cereal. Those oily fishies, salmon and sardines, which are so healthy for everything else, are also a decent source of calcium, at 220-240 mg for 3.5 ounces. And a half-cup of firm tofu, depending on the brand, could check in at 200 mg. Hemp milk is also an excellent source. Check the nutrition labels. And while you’re checking that label, make sure that you’re getting magnesium as well. The two minerals work best together in a proportion of about 3:2. Vitamin D also helps you absorb more calcium.

You can also get calcium from broccoli, and leafy green vegetables, particularly my favorite, kale (1 cup, cooked, is about 10% of your RDA), collard greens, and Swiss chard. Despite myths to the contrary, don’t count on spinach to give you that calcium hit – its oxalic acid binds with the calcium and renders it pretty much useless. So Popeye was probably in it for the iron.

To make up what you’re not getting in your diet, you may have to resort to supplementation. If you do, try to avoid calcium carbonate. Calcium in this form is more difficult to digest, could lead to constipation, and, depending on the manufacturer, is more likely to contain traces of lead. Look for an easily absorbable form like calcium citrate. And, as with your foods, follow the calcium/magnesium plus D rule. The three nutrients work together to help keep the calcium in your bones.

So…are you getting enough calcium?