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New to osteoporosis and overwhelmed

Osteoporosis & Bone Health | Last Active: Jan 7 12:46pm | Replies (54)

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@lynn59

Good morning @teb. I’m glad to hear another viewpoint as I was wondering if I should stop eating my delicious morning breakfast of homemade granola (puffed kamut, almonds, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds baked with a little honey/maple syrup) topped with blueberries, blackberries, bananas, 5 tbl. yogurt and skim milk. That equals about 460 mg of calcium! Then I drink at least one glass of skim milk (300g) a day, and if I don’t get a second glass or substitute that with hard cheese, I take 250mg-500mg of liquid calcium at night. I find I’m taking the supplement at night more often lately, perhaps I should stop and start counting the calcium I get from other sources like broccoli, arugula, clementines, etc. Thoughts? Do you keep a daily tally? What are your primary calcium sources?

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Replies to "Good morning @teb. I’m glad to hear another viewpoint as I was wondering if I should..."

@lynn59, it looks like you are working your diet very consciously!

I've been calculating my nutrition for several years now so at this point, I kind of have a feel for whether or not I've achieved my nutritional daily goals. I still like to calculate it sometimes to check in (hey, it's fun!) but I just don't need to as much as in the past. I use the website cronometer.com. It's really terrific as it has the nutritional content of whole foods as well as many of the packaged foods you might buy. In addition, if you have a particular daily meal or recipe that you repeat regularly, you can create a "recipe" for that and it will calculate your nutrition for that meal or recipe. Then you just have to click on that recipe item to add all of the ingredient components at one time. Your daily diary is retained long term so you can track your changes and see your progress if you care to.

I don't consume dairy (or gluten) due to autoimmune issues so it's a little more challenging getting my calcium requirements. I start every day with a heaping serving of sauteed collard greens along with 2 eggs, homemade nut and seed crackers, sauerkraut and some avocado. The collards alone give me a full serving of calcium and along with the crackers, etc, I get almost 400 mg. The rest of the day, I eat lots of dark leafy greens, broccoli or broccolini, canned salmon with bones or sardines (when I can stomach them), almonds, figs, oranges, carrots, etc. I take a spoonful of Eden black sesame paste like a supplement when I need to. Two tablespoons has 35% of your daily dietary calcium need (along with protein, iron and good fats). I often add a Tblsp of blackstrap molasses to a cocoa drink concoction I make. One Tblsp has about 145 mg of calcium along with iron. I drink nettles and peppermint teas daily which are also calcium and mineral rich. If I do need a calcium supplement, I try to take it in smaller doses throughout the day.

One area you might consider is replacing your skim milk with whole milk or better yet, yogurt, kefir or a well-aged gouda (has one of the highest amounts of vitamin k in cheese). There is mounting evidence that whole fat dairy offers benefits over skim, fermented full fat dairy being the best (but who knows, nutrition "evidence" is constantly evolving!).

A study published in the British Medical Journal determined that "Higher intake of whole fat (but not low fat) dairy was associated with a lower prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and most of its component factors, and with a lower incidence of hypertension and diabetes."
Quite compelling!
https://drc.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000826