Listed below are some grossly simplified search conclusions of mine, followed by selections from the list. This format doesn't make it easy to know how much calcium you got today, but it does make it easy to see how much calcium you would relatively get by supplying your daily calories using different foods. I hope I get the energy to do the same thing by calcium per 100-grams. That will make nuts, meats, and cheeses look great, I bet.
By the way, don't overlook the dietary calcium contribution of hard water.
Conclusions:
- After removing non-caloric foods like salt from the top of the list, Mozzarella cheese is the first dairy product at number 42. Non-fat milk is number 57.
- Lumping food groups as calcium sources and estimating the median calcium content, I get vegetables 200-1500, dairy 200-1000, fruit 250-500, fish 50-400, nuts 15-100, grains 30-60, eggs 30, beef 10-30
- Boiling apparently leaches calcium out of food. All boiled food variations were lower in calcium.
- By this measure, it looks like leafy green vegetables and cheeses are the super sources, cow milk and lots of varied vegetables are the good sources, fruits and legumes are generally the okay sources, and most fishes and nuts are poor sources.
Selections:
mg of Calcium per 200 calories | Food |
---|---|
1290 | Cheese, mozzarella, nonfat |
1183 | Spinach, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt (many greens are high measuring by calories) |
900 | Spinach, frozen, chopped or leaf, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt |
698 | Milk, nonfat, fluid, protein fortified, with added vitamin A (fat free and skim) |
581 | Yogurt, plain, low fat, 12 grams protein per 8 ounce |
431 | Broccoli, frozen, chopped, unprepared |
407 | Fish, salmon, pink, canned, drained solids with bone (highest fish except mollusk) |
340 | Seeds, sesame seeds, whole, dried |
377 | Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat |
340 | Seeds, sesame seeds, whole, dried |
365 | Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice |
343 | Peppers, chili, green, canned |
305 | Beans, snap, green, frozen, all styles, microwaved (green beans) |
270 | Milk, chocolate, fluid, commercial, whole |
257 | Lettuce, iceberg |
253 | Nuts, coconut water (liquid from coconuts) |
243 | Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt |
236 | Peas, edible-podded, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt [Snowpeas, Sugar snap peas] |
220 | Limes, raw |
205 | Squash, winter, butternut, cooked, baked, with salt |
183 | Carrots, baby, raw |
163 | Yogurt, chocolate, nonfat milk |
174 | Fish, perch, mixed species, cooked, dry heat |
130 | Beans, white, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, with salt |
91 | Milk, human, mature, fluid |
86 | Refried beans, canned, fat-free |
27 | Fish, cod, Atlantic, cooked, dry heat |
19 | Fish, tuna, light, canned in water, drained solids |
20-90 | Most other nuts |
1 comment:
The safety of cow milk has been challenged by Dr.J (http://www.dogtorj.net/id16.html). I would like to see more of the greens included, as they are possibly the most logical choice for calcium (other than supplementation) if cow milk is eliminated.
Not all sources of calcium are equally bio-available. Wiki has a good article on calcium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk
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