Try Choosing Healthier Dairy Foods
Need to eat dairy foods for the calcium, but want to lower your cholesterol too? Fat-free dairy foods have slightly more calcium than full-fat varieties, so by choosing fat-free instead of whole or 2 percent milk, you can decrease saturated fat and boost calcium intake at the same time. Fat-free or reduced yogurt is another good choice for calcium.
Calcium-Rich Nondairy Foods
Most of us automatically turn to dairy foods as a calcium source, but there are a lot of calcium-rich nondairy foods that are efficiently absorbed by the body and contain other important heart-healthy nutrients. Soy milk and rice milk are usually fortified with calcium, so that is another alternative to dairy milks.
Women need between 1,300 and 1,500 milligrams of calcium a day, so try some of these foods as a milk alternative. To get 100 milligrams of calcium you could eat:
- 2 large dried figs
- ½ cup soy nuts
- ½ cup cooked broccoli or turnip greens
- 1 package of instant oatmeal (The new Quaker weight control is what I recommend.)
- 1 cup cooked navy beans, baked beans, or black beans
- 2 oranges
- 23 whole almonds (Don’t go over 23 if you are watching your weight!)
- 2 ½ tablespoons of almond butter