Nutritional Misconceptions 101: Calcium
We all grew up thinking that we need milk to maintain strong bones and teeth.
Well, thats just wrong.
I know many people will push back against this idea and I understand that change is hard especially, when we have been socially conditioned at an early age.
I think our first mistake is, assuming the food industry has our health as a primary focus and concern.
That too is just wrong.
They have making money as their primary concern and will pretty much tell us anything to sell more dairy products. And they do it under the false narrative that we need milk to have strong bones.
Do you know who need cow’s milk to have strong bones?
Baby cows.
Humans are the only species that
a) drink another species milk and
b) drink milk after weaning. Milk is designed to make baby cows into massive, heavy animals.
But, what about Calcium?
Well, as it turns out milk is actually not a good source of calcium because most adults lack the enzyme necessary to breakdown milk which causes gastrointestinal upset. You may get some calcium but, you are also getting antibiotics, hormones, and saturated fat among others nasty things.
There are better options!
It is better to get your calcium from dark leafy greens like spinach, kale, and green vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, and snap peas. Whole grains and beans like quinoa, white beans and soy beans have high amounts of calcium, nuts and seeds like sesame, chia and almonds are also good sources of calcium.
Avoiding certain foods will also help maintain your calcium stores.
Drinking pop is SO bad for your bones, it’s high in phosphorus and may result in calcium being pulled out of your bones to restore your calcium/phosphorus ratio.
A diet heavy in animal products like meat will deplete your bones, for the same reason as pop, it’s high in phosphorus.
Calcium is important and involved in many functions not just bone health, it is crucial to heart function, enzyme production, nerve transmission and cell membrane function.
If you have a mild deficiency in calcium may experience muscle twitching, palpations, insomnia, depression, nerve sensitivity, brittle nails, anxiety or confusion.
I would be remiss to not touch on how the food industry gets the milk from the cow. It’s not pretty, in fact it’s really barbaric and hard to see. I will leave it at that if you want to see for yourself, which I strongly recommend you do. I feel that, if you want to continue to eat meat and dairy you should at least see where and how the industry operates. The documentary Earthlings is a very eye opening movie.
For meals high in calcium see:
An adult requires a minimum 1,000mg Calcium per day.
Here are a few non dairy sources of Calcium
1 cup of soy milk = 290mg of calcium (1 cup of 1% cow’s milk is 305mg)
1 cup of spinach = 290mg
1 cup of tofu = 250mg
1 tsp of chia = 75mg
1 cup of chickpeas = 80mg
1 orange = 65 mg
1 tbsp of sesame = 51mg
1 medium sweet potato = 40mg
9 almonds = 40mg
A plant based diet that is varied and balanced will provide enough good sources of calcium that your body can fully digest and assimilate.
If you have questions, concerns or want to know more about nutrition, feel free to contact me!
Sarah
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