Calcium issues for vegan lifestyle.?

Question

I have recently started to become vegan and am having trouble with milk. I dont like soy milk or rice milk and have cut out cows milk for obvious reasons. Where else can I get calcium from in my diet. I am a bit lost.

Answer 1

Adult cows don't consume dairy or fortified soy and rice milks so they must get it from plants.

http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/bone...

Answer 2

The best sources for calcium are spinach, dried figs, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tofu (made with calcium carbonate), baked beans, broccoli, almonds, sesame seeds, and green leafy vegetables, such as kale, swiss chard, and red leaf lettuce. And dont forget, calcium pills.

Answer 3

Good question.

The best sources of calcium in a vegan diet (or just about any diet for that matter) are green leafy vegetables. This includes kale, broccoli, Swiss chard, spring greens, bok choi and the like. Calcium enriched packed tofu is good too.These are all high in absorbable calcium, and if you eat 5+ portions a day of a variety of these, you're pretty much sorted.

Other sources also have calcium in lesser quantities. These include veggie baked beans, most legumes, oranges, cashew nuts, oats, molasses, peas, and chick peas. These have less than the greens but several servings together can make up several hundred millgrams to the diet each day. Every little bit helps.

My favourite vegan source is Ready Brek in the UK, which can be made with water or even fruit juice instead of plant milks. Don't know if you've got something equivalent if you live outside the UK, but this is made with calcium carbonate.

Include a good source of vitamin D too, either moderate amounts of sunlight on the skin or supplements, as this helps boosts calcium uptake and use in bones and the like.

If you struggle to eat these kinds of foods, as a last resort, I'd recommend a supplement, but hopefully, wouldn't be needed.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

PROBABLY not an issue. Many vegan cultures have low rates of osteoporosis. The issue that many people are naive about is that when you have a high protein intake (especially animal protein and dairy), it causes your body to excrete more calcium. Lower protein eating is actually beneficial to your bones (and kidneys). If you are really worried, eat some greens like kale (high in calcium). (Spinach, although high in calcium is not good because it has oxalets which bind to the calcium and stop it from being absorbed). Or take a calcium magnesium supplement (magnesium works with calcium).

Answer 5

make it easy on youself and think of these words: calcium fortified orange juice.

Answer 6

vanilla almond milk is bomb

and as the guy said above me, it comes naturally through lots of veggies, and cow's milk doesn't even really have that much calcium in comparison to vegetables and such

and calcium vitamins too : )