You’ve heard the news reports–”Getting enough calcium can help decrease your risk of osteoporosis“. Individuals especially at risk for bone loss are women of childbearing age and teenagers, although many studies show that most age groups do not get enough calcium. This post will give you the basics on calcium and will provide you with several good links to go to for more information.

The Numbers

Here’s the numbers (on average) on how much calcium you need each day:

Teenagers (including those females who are pregnant or breastfeeding) = 1300 milligrams

Adults under 50 years of age (including those females who are pregnant or breastfeeding) = 1000 milligrams

Adults over 50 years of age = 1200 milligrams

Like the famous saying goes, “everything in moderation“. This saying holds true as well for calcium. Studies suggest that eating over 2000-2500 milligrams of calcium a day may lead to kidney stones. Not good!

High Calcium Foods

Remember your mom saying “drink your milk”?:
Light yogurt (up to 400 milligrams)
One cup (8 ounces) of milk (300 milligrams)
Cheese: Cheddar, Swiss, Ricotta, Provolone, Muenster, and Gouda cheeses contain around 200-300 milligrams per 1.5 ounce serving (looks like 4 stacked dice)

Fair sources of calcium:

1/2 cup of cooked okra, turnip greens or collard greens contains about 100 milligrams
1/2 cup of beans (50 milligrams)
Nuts (1 ounce or small handful) contains on average between 15 - 40 milligrams
Tofu (if calcium was added in processing–check the food label), oranges, sardines, and calcium-fortified products are also good source of calcium.

Want to get 100% of your calcium needs? Eat Total cereal!

Additional Information

Another point to keep in mind: eating over 500 milligrams of calcium in one sitting will decrease your body’s absorption of calcium. So, it is important to eat some calcium-containing foods throughout the day, instead of at one sitting.

As well, calcium inhibits the absorption of iron, so don’t drink a big glass of milk with your steak! Choose to drink the milk as an evening snack!

Resources

Curious to find out how much calcium you’ve been taking in a day? Check out The Calcium Information Resource (a website from GlaxoSmithKline, who makes two kinds of calcium supplements). Put in your age and choose how often you eat each food. It’s pretty cool!

Now, what if you find out that you haven’t been getting enough calcium on a daily basis, and you just don’t like many foods that contain calcium? You could take a calcium supplement (Stick around for that article!).