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All the Foods I Can Get Calcium From (And Some Are Unexpected)

When it comes to dairy, almost all of us invariably wonder if we’re getting enough calcium. Calcium intake is essential at any time in our lives, but it will be even more relevant in periods of greatest growth, when mineralization of bone mass occurs. This time interval is between the fetal period and young adulthood (21-25 years), with a maximum peak at puberty. We have other peaks where calcium intake is crucial: in the case of women, during pregnancy or postmenopause; in the case of men, from the age of 70. In these peaks, calcium consumption should be even higher, since, being more necessary for the health of our bones, it is also a fundamental participant in other equally demanding areas of our body, such as muscle contractions, the transmission of impulses nerves and coagulation of our blood.

The latest data that evaluates the dietary intake of the Portuguese is from 2016-2020 and concludes that, on average, the Portuguese consume 1,003 mg of calcium per day, so they have sufficient consumption to cover their needs. In this report, dairy products appear as the main source of calcium in the Portuguese diet, followed by vegetables and then cereals. But this is not the reality of all Portuguese. More and more people have stopped consuming dairy products. In this report, the beginning of this trend was glimpsed, since the consumption of milk and dairy products had a decrease of 3.6% compared to the values ​​prior to 2016.

What if I told you that there is a fish that has more calcium than a glass of milk? In a guessing tone, we can say that this fish is one of the smallest, it is part of the Portuguese culture and should be part of all Portuguese tables. I think you’ve got it right: it’s the sardine. And another good news: thanks to canned fish, we have sardines available all year round. In a canned sardine we can obtain 473 mg of calcium. It is almost half of the daily needs of many Portuguese, since the goal will be around 1000-1200 mg of calcium per day. Already in a 200 ml glass of milk we get 240 mg of calcium.

If this sardine is accompanied with 100 g of turnip greensin Green cabbage or of turnip cooked we managed to add another 130 mg of calcium. If you prefer a salad, substitute it for raw watercress, which has the same amount of calcium. And, to the surprise of many, if we add a spoonful of Dried oreganoFor example, in a tomato salad we get an extra 64 mg of calcium. Another alternative: the dried thyme it is also a great solution for this purpose, giving 82 mg of calcium per tablespoon. Anyway, the mint and the parsley will be the best herbs for this purpose, giving 200 mg of calcium per 100 g, followed by basil, with 177 mg per 100 g, which is just as good in a soup. If you like cilantro, know that you also get 100 mg of calcium in 100 g. A poppy seeds, being a very small seed, give 126 mg per tablespoon. Thus, it is clear that enriching a dish with herbs and/or seeds provides nutritional benefits beyond the organoleptic result, demonstrating that nutrition is much more than calories.

If you want to make a biscuit rich in calcium, the ingredients that I suggest are carob flour, chopped almonds, ground flaxseed and cinnamon. Almonds are a perfect snack and are rich in calcium since 60 g of almonds – which corresponds to the amount that fits in two cups of coffee – contain 160 mg of calcium. And the lower legso used in Portuguese cuisine and so versatile, it offers 78 mg of calcium in 1 tablespoon.

To be fair, it is important to say that the food rich in calcium is part of the dairy family: it is the Parmesan, with 1050 mg of calcium in 100 g. But soon a seed called sesame, with 825 mg of calcium per 100 g. Since we are not likely to use such a large amount of sesame in a meal, this is the amount of calcium we get in one tablespoon of sesame: 124 mg. The best suggestion to use sesame will be like Addition in salad, to coat baked fish fillets but also to grind and add to soup, so that the whole family has a good supply of calcium. Right after the sesame comes the canned sardinessince, when consuming this fish, we end up ingesting part of its very fine and practically imperceptible spines, rich in this mineral.

For those who have switched from milk to plant-based beverages and realize that they need one more source of calcium, it is best to look for those fortified with calcium since there are many solutions on the market and the amount of calcium in these fortified beverages is generally the same as that provided in a glass of milk.

The official data on the nutritional content of each food is available free of charge for anyone who wants to consult this website.

True or false? If I eliminate gluten, I lose weight.

Fake. Anyone who suspects they are gluten intolerant should eliminate gluten and keep an eye on symptoms as well as their weight. Those who were very inflamed and clearly intolerant, by removing gluten-containing cereals from their diet, sometimes have a weight loss among other health improvements, but due to the reduction in inflammation by removing the allergen. There are also many cases of people who, without any intolerance, eliminate gluten from their diet and do not experience any weight loss.

A frequently asked question in consultations: as long as I have the soup, can I not eat more vegetables for the rest of the day?

Soup, if it is just vegetables, is a great food, since it manages to combine several types of vegetables, and it turns out to be a good amount. However, vegetables are cooked and therefore lose temperature-sensitive vitamins, as well as fiber through heat and sometimes through grinding. It is important to say that the soup does not replace the raw salad and they are complementary.

Two reading suggestions:

Gluten Free with Passion, by Sofía Paixão, ed. moon paper

It’s a cookbook that really works for anyone who wants to try a gluten-free diet. The gluten-free recipes that we find do not always allow us to reach a final product like the one in the photo of the recipe. But with these recipes, you can. They also have the website, where you can find some recipes to get you started.

Recharge, less stress, better performance, by José Soares, ed. Porto Publisher

José Soares is a university professor of physiology and an excellent communicator. He is a great connoisseur of performance, be it sports or corporate. In this book, he writes about useful tools for managing stress and fatigue and about resilience and how it influences our productivity. He also talks about nutrition in the chapter titled “Refuel.” These are important concepts for our quality of life and that influence health.

Did you like this newsletter? Do you have doubts about food that you would like to clarify? Write me at [email protected].
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mariana chavez She is a clinical nutritionist, author of the podcast Aprendi a Comer, on Rádio Observador, and the book Dieta Única (ed. Guerra e Paz, 2016) [ver o perfil completo].