Despite commonly held assumptions, we don’t have to eat dairy in order to have healthy bones. We can get adequate calcium from many other food sources. So I’ve put together a list of foods high in calcium.
For each food source I’ve included an amount that will provide roughly 300mg of calcium. The recommended daily intake for adults between 19-50 is approximately 1000mg.
I’ll be sharing some calcium rich recipes soon so make sure you join my newsletter here to stay informed about those.
As a comparison, if you were eating dairy to obtain 300mg of calcium your intake of dairy would be, 1 cup milk, eat 3/4 cup yoghurt, 1.5 cups cottage cheese, and eat 1.5oz / 45gms of firm cheese. So to eat your equivalent 1000mg per day you would have to drink 2 cups milk, eat 3/4 cup yoghurt and eat a bit of cheese too. I know I’d be on dairy overload if I had to eat all that!
Of course you’d also be including other foods as well so you probably wouldn’t have to go to that extent but it makes a good example. So let’s take a look at other foods high in calcium and ways we can incorporate them into our daily routine.
Foods High In Calcium
Each dose contains approximately 300mg which is almost 1/3 of your daily dose.
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Tinned salmon with bones 1/2 – 7.5oz / 200g can Tinned sardines with bones 1 can – 100g / 3.5oz Mackarel 1 can – 120g/ 4.2oz / 3/4 cup Herring 2 fillets – 184g / 6.5oz Almonds 1/3 cup Hazelnuts 1/2 cup Dried figs 6 Sesame seeds 2/3 cup Chia seeds 1/2 cup Seaweeds like nori, wakame, kombu 1/2 cup |
Flaxseeds 1 cup Kale 1.5 cups Collards 1 cup Bok choy 2 cups Mustard greens 1 cup Brazil nuts 1.5 cups Almond butter or tahini 3 tablespoons Almond or rice milk 1 cup Brocolli 2 cups All beans range from 1-2 cups |
The foods in this list are not the only foods that contain calcium, there are many other foods that contain calcium too but the foods above have the highest amounts.
How To Include Calcium Rich Foods Everyday
So let’s look at how we can get our daily required amount of calcium using these foods on a daily basis.
Tinned fish is something we can try to incorporate every second or third day. Fish cakes, fish salads, and I’ll include a couple of recipes soon too.
Day 1: If we had a salmon salad with kale and greens for lunch we’d get approximately 900gms of calcium. Add a small handful of nuts to that and we’d meet our daily requirement.
Day 2: We could make some nut balls with figs, tahini, and sesame seeds, that might be about 400-500mg. Then we could eat a dinner with chicken, a cup of brocolli, and a tahini sauce and we’d be meeting our daily requirement.
Day 3: Include some greens in a breakfast scramble. Eat an apple coated in 3 tablespoons of almond butter for a snack. Some nori rolls for lunch with extra greens included inside and maybe some fish?? I’ll experiment with a recipe and let you know how that goes.
A few more ideas on incorporating these foods:
- eat a small handful of nuts daily
- add chia or flaxseeds to a smoothie with almond milk
- add different seaweeds to soups and stir frys
- include greens at every meal
- make a flax and chia seed cereal with figs and tahini – Mmm…another recipe I’ll be sharing soon.
I hope that gives you some insight into adding more calcium rich foods into your diet.
Your health is your wealth,
Jedha 
P.S. Make sure you join my newsletter because I’ll be sharing some calcium rich recipes very soon.
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