Calcium filled foods

What a stunner of a day!! Just took the kids to the park and boy is it warm. It's days like these that call for a salad for dinner and good old Jamie Oliver has provided another one that is awesome for allergy suffers. We added some nitrate free bacon and mmm mmmmm. It was delicious. Am planning on having it with cooked chicken breast tonight. I LOVE SUMMER! Although technically Summer has not yet arrived.

Before I post that I just want to briefly address calcium intake for breast feeding mothers or for people with dairy allergies. A western diet depends heavily on dairy for our calcium intake milk, yoghurt, cheese and the like feature heavily in people's minds when calcium is mentioned. So what do you do when you can't eat dairy for whatever reason? Well I have pilfered from other websites and hopefully what I have come up with is of some help.

First a table with the recommended daily requirements:

Table 1: Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for Calcium [1]

Age	Male	Female	Pregnant	Lactating
0–6 months*	200 mg	200 mg
7–12 months*	260 mg	260 mg
1–3 years	700 mg	700 mg
4–8 years	1,000 mg	1,000 mg
9–13 years	1,300 mg	1,300 mg
14–18 years	1,300 mg	1,300 mg	1,300 mg	1,300 mg
19–50 years	1,000 mg	1,000 mg	1,000 mg	1,000 mg
51–70 years	1,000 mg	1,200 mg
71+ years	1,200 mg	1,200 mg

* Adequate Intake (AI)

(http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/calcium)

And now some non dairy sources of calcium:

Health diaries has come up with this:

Here are 15 foods high in calcium that don't come from a cow:

Sesame Seeds
A quarter cup of sesame seeds has 351 mg calcium.

Spinach
A cup of boiled spinach has 245 mg.

Collard Greens
A cup of boiled collard greens has 266 mg.

Blackstrap Molasses
One tablespoon has about 137 mg.

Kelp
One cup of raw kelp has 136 mg.

Tahini
Two tablespoons of raw tahini (sesame seed butter) have 126 mg.

Broccoli
Two cups of boiled broccoli have 124 mg.

Swiss Chard
One cup of boiled chard has 102 mg.

Kale
One cup of boiled kale has 94 mg.

Brazil Nuts
Two ounces of Brazil nuts (12 nuts) have 90 mg.

Celery
Two cups of raw celery have 81 mg.

Almonds
One ounce of almonds (23 nuts) has 75 mg.

Papaya
One medium papaya has 73 mg.

Flax Seeds
Two tablespoons of flax seeds have 52 mg.

Oranges
One medium orange has 52 mg.

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/15-non-dairy-foods-high-in-calcium.html

Other sources I have stumbled across are cinnamon. Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon have 56mg (yay for apple and cinnamon muffins).

Dates Medjool (another personal fave) have 15.36mg per date

Dried figs (another yum!) 13mg per fig

Prunes (not quite as yum) 75mg in one cup

Kiwifruit 26mg in one fruit

Dried Apricots (I suggest the ones without preservatives) 71.5mg in one cup

Cooked rhubarb (rhubarb and dairy free custard anyone???) 348mg in one cup.

So there are plenty of other ways to get calcium. I also know that watercress is a good source. While searching I also came across this little nugget of information:

"Calcium Absorption and Excretion

Calcium is easily absorbed from milk due to the presence of lactose sugar, but large amounts of protein cause calcium to be lost in the urine. As milk is an animal protein, a diet consisting of large amounts of dairy also means large amounts of calcium are lost from the body.

The more meat and dairy consumed, the greater the need for extra calcium (the RNI for calcium is set at 1000 mg for US adults). Other foods that cause calcium loss and increase the need for calcium include those high in fat and salt, as well as alcoholic, caffeinated and carbonated drinks." (http://www.healthwriter.co.uk/calcium-osteoporosis.html)

Which just goes to show that dairy isn't the answer to all of our calcium woes. If like me however, you are still concerned about not getting enough calcium in your diet as you may not want to eat fish cakes and dried prunes all day every day then consider a supplement. I use Thompson's liquid calcium which is available through most health stores in NZ and Australia. I pierce it for the kids and squirt it into their cereal or pancakes in the morning. My son has got to the stage where he will ask for it if it is not there.

Now just before I run off and dance to some music with my kids (great exercise when it is too hot to go outdoors) here is that Jamie Oliver recipe I was raging about before. I've changed it a tad as the measuring system was really weird and getting you to add 311.84g of pasta for example so feel free to play around with it. I did.

Jamie Oliver's DIVINE pasta salad (my words, not his)

• 300 g small shell pasta
• 3 garlic cloves
• 250 g yellow cherry tomatoes
• 250 g cherry tomatoes
• 100 g black olives, pitted
• 20 g fresh chives
• 50 g fresh basil
• 1 medium cucumber
• 60 ml white wine vinegar
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt
• fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
2. Throw in the pasta and garlic and simmer for about 5 minutes or until al dente, and drain.
3. Put the garlic to one side for the dressing.
4. Put the pasta in a bowl.
5. Chop the tomatoes, olives, chives, basil and cucumber into pieces about half the size of the pasta and add to the bowl.
6. Squash the garlic cloves out of their skins and pound in a pestle and mortar.
7. Add the vinegar, oil and seasoning.
8. Drizzle this over the salad, adding a little more seasoning to taste.

http://www.food.com/recipe/jamie-olivers-best-pasta-salad-39345#ixzz1aivAMl68