How To Get More Calcium into Your Diet

Getting more calcium into your diet is a smart way to promote your heart’s health. Calcium is important to the heart and therefore must be integrated into your diet. A bowl of whole grain cereal or a bowl of oatmeal when topped with skim milk will help a person meet his required calcium goal. Milk could be taken during meals; when it is done regularly, it becomes a good habit.

Low-fat cheese is also a good source of calcium. It tastes best on crackers and sandwiches. To be integrated into one’s diet, the cheese could be shredded over some vegetables. Cottage cheese on mixed fruits would offer a great morning or afternoon snack. They are both sources of smart calcium.

Yogurt is a fat-free cream and good for snacks. Frozen yogurt is another source of calcium. It is important to have adequate calcium in one’s diet, because an insufficiency of calcium causes the bones to deteriorate. Bones and teeth become healthy with adequate calcium intake. Not only bones and teeth benefit from calcium. It also helps keep a healthy weight, shields our hearts, and prevents colon cancer.

To get more calcium into one’s diet, the following suggestions may be followed:   

1. Be aware of the calcium that a person of your age needs. Males and females over 50 years old should get 1,200 milligrams. Do not acquire more than 2,500 milligrams of calcium per day, because it could damage the kidneys and obstruct the absorption of important minerals.
2. Dairy foods such as skim milk or yogurt, and cheddar cheese should always be part of one’s daily meal.
3. Drink a cup of orange juice for breakfast to gain the daily calcium intake.
4. Dark green vegetables such as spinach have as much calcium as milk.
5. Canned salmons and sardines with bones add some percent of your daily calcium per serving.
6. Eat foods with vitamin D. This vitamin absorbs the calcium your body needs.

Our everyday diet has some calcium. However, this may not be sufficient, because we do not know how much we should take a day. Among the foods rich in calcium are green vegetables, cooked collared greens, turnip greens, beet greens, mustard greens, spinach, kale, and broccoli all of which will help us reach our daily calcium requirements.

Many of us cannot meet the recommended levels of calcium intake because we are not aware of how much we should be taking in each day. When we decide to increase our calcium rich foods, we should not forget dairy products. Yogurt, cheese, milk and ice cream are excellent sources of calcium. For those who are lactose intolerant, meaning those who cannot take milk, plenty of green vegetables would suffice.

Calcium is a vital mineral that everyone should have. A typical menopausal woman should get plenty of calcium. Osteoporosis is a defect of the bones of one whose calcium intake is not sufficient.