When we say calcium, what’s the first image that comes to mind? The dairy industry has done a fantastic job in getting us to believe that the best source of calcium is cow’s milk.
Unfortunately, this has led to a hyper-consumption of dairy products that contain components that are harmful to our health, such as saturated animal fat, cholesterol, antibiotics, and even pus, which can be defined as a thick yellowish or greenish opaque liquid produced in infected tissue consisting of dead white blood cells and bacteria with tissue debris and serum.
All of these have a negative impact on our health, and that’s a pretty high price to pay for some calcium. Now first, we want to cover where calcium comes from, and no, it doesn’t come from cows. Actually, cows consume it. It’s a mineral that comes from the earth that makes its way up into the plants that the cows consume.
We want to show you how easy it is to get fantastic amounts of calcium simply by going to the plant food and avoiding the middle cow, which means avoiding those unwanteds that we mentioned earlier.
Now, do your best to remove the association between the words white and calcium because calcium is white and milk is white. People feel that if a food isn’t white, then it probably doesn’t have calcium in it, but that’s wrong.
Another association we want to help change with you is with calcium and bone strength. Although calcium is associated with bone health and strength, many scientists believe that exercise has more to do with preventing osteoporosis than calcium intake does.
That being said, some plant foods that are high in calcium are collard greens, brussels sprouts, kale, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, navy beans, soybeans, tofu, dried figs, and calcium-fortified plant milk provide adequate amounts as well.
It’s really easy to get calcium in your diet from plant food. You can add some of the foods I’m eating today. For instance, for my salad, I’m combining two cups of chopped spinach with two cups of chopped kale.
I’ll add two tablespoons of tahini, and in addition to the salad, I’ll have a cup of chickpeas with a piece of whole-wheat toast. From this light meal, I’ve already consumed 37% of my daily calcium needs along with a tremendous amount of other essential nutrients, including fiber.
It’s not necessary to go for the entire amount that you need in one meal, and best if your nutrients are spread out throughout the day. If you’re a fan of soy products, and you add foods like tofu and soybeans, which contain large amounts of calcium, you’ll be getting to that hundred percent a lot quicker, but you can see how easy it is to get great amounts of calcium without dairy products.
But remember, if you’re at all concerned about bone health – just make sure you’re involved in regular physical activities that involve resistance. We need our muscles to be pulling on our bones to stimulate bone growth and increase bone density.
Without exercise ingesting calcium can no more increase bone density, then eating protein can increase muscle size. It takes weight-bearing exercise to do both of these. There are plenty of plant foods that contain great amounts of calcium. All you really need to do is an online search to find them, so for your health, get your calcium from plant sources.
