Calcium is important for maintaining the human body. It’s an integral part of bones and teeth and also helps in maintaining the acid base balance and keeps muscles and heart working optimally along with other many other functions.
Dairy is considered to be a good source of calcium, which it is too. However there are three things worth noticing:
- dairy is not the only source of calcium
- milk is not the best source of calcium
- processed, pasteurized and branded milk and products like nestle are not good sources of calcium and are in fact harmful for our body
So this brings us to the non dairy sources of calcium!
Why non dairy sources of calcium?
As stated above, milk and milk products are good source of calcium, however the publicly available milk isn’t the milk in first place as it lacks almost every quality a milk should possess along. Other than that some people may have lactose intolerance or personally prefer not to have milk or milk products due to various reasons.
Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium
Obviously calcium and other nutrients can be taken through supplements, however natural sources are always considered to be the best. Following are some good non-dairy sources of calcium.
- White beans
- Spinach
- Egg (natural, not white / artificial eggs)
- Chicken (natural, not white / broiler / artificial chicken)
- Sardines
- Dried Figs
- Bok Choy
- Blackstrap Mollasses
- Kale
- Black-eyed peas
- Almonds
- Oranges
- Turnip greens
- Sesame seeds
- Seaweed
There are various other sources too! If you want any of them to be listed let us know in the comments!
Remember that the egg and chicken has to be natural one to be of any nutrient value not the white and artificial one. Also make sure that whatever you eat considering it to be a source of calcium or any other mineral should not read anything labelled “fortified” or “Added” as they are artificially added and would not be effectively absorbed by the body and may hinder in the absorption of other nutrients too or cause any other side effect in the body.