Mineral Tip #3: Eat calcium-rich foods with every meal
Foundation: Nutrient-dense diet – building blocks (minerals)
Please note that while these lifestyle tips are intended to support your mineral health, please remember, holistic nutrition is not a substitute for medical advice or for your family physician or other appropriate healthcare provider. If you suffer from a medical or pathological condition, you need to consult with an appropriate healthcare provider. A Registered Holistic Nutrition Practitioner is not trained nor licensed to diagnose or treat pathological conditions, illnesses, injuries, or diseases or prescribe medications.
Every individual is different and your unique needs and bio-individually should always be honoured.
Please disregard, if they are not appropriate for you.
Okay, we have reached the grand-finale!
This tip marks the final one I’ll share on the topic of minerals this month.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll see that the 2 preceding tips (Mineral Tip #1 and Mineral Tip #2) have laid the ground work to support the absorption of minerals, specifically calcium, (preparing the digestion and including animal fats to facilitate absorption) so now we are adding on the final piece, and that is integrating calcium-rich foods into each meal.
Calcium Considerations
Before I dive in to the tip, here are 3 considerations I think would be helpful to frame your thoughts around the topic.
- Minerals are Essential Nutrients
Calcium, as with all minerals, it is important for us to remember that they represent a group of essential nutrients that must be obtained from our diet - through our food, water and broths, and other beverages.
While our bodies are incredible and there are instances where they can synthesize vitamins and nutrients to some degree through alternate pathways, minerals are not part of this group. They must be obtained through diet, so there is no hoping you’ll magically create them in some other way!
- Ancestry and Bio-Individuality
Next, I would also offer that as you choose your calcium-rich foods, remember to consider whether this food was a part of your ancestry.
You may recall that I am an advocate for taking your ancestry into account when choosing carbohydrate sources, as I shared in What is macronutrient balancing?, but it rings true here as well.
For example, while we all know that dairy is a rich source of calcium and other minerals, if it isn’t part of your ancestral past, I truly suggest that you be cautious, on the grounds that it is unlikely to have resonance with your bio-individuality.
Cellular health experts remind us that our mitochondria (the powerhouse of our cells that create energy for life) are always seeking safety and alignment with our internal and external environments, which includes alignment with our past lineage.
In fact, we often can have digestive difficulty with foods that don’t align with our lineage, to some extent. It all becomes apart of what shapes our bio-individuality.
The same would be true for soy-based foods, such as Natto, that is indeed rich in calcium, too, but again, may not align with everyone’s background.
It is just important to take your digestion and absorption of these nutrients into account as well.
- Chasing a Number
This leads me to the last consideration and that is, that while calcium and all our minerals are essential, and yes, we do need to ensure that they are consistently present in our meals, please consider resisting the idea of “chasing” the number of milligrams you are consuming in a day.
Can you? Of course you can...if you want to, but my belief, as you may know, is that eating ought not be a numbers game, in any capacity. I don’t believe that our ancestors functioned (or thrived) in this manner and it certainly isn’t how the French operate, if we consider their culture and positive relationship with food to be aspirational, which I believe in so many ways it is.
To reduce the food we eat down to its mere nutritional value measurements and map out our eating based upon a calculation I just can’t see as the hallmark of a positive relationship with that which nourishes us.
So, yes, understand calcium and mineral-rich sources of food, and yes, give them a consistent place on your plate, but re-consider chasing or calculating amounts. Enjoy your food!
Plus, remember what we learned in the initial post I shared on this topic, Minerals: the Missing Pieces, that it isn’t so much that we generally lack calcium (although if chips, crackers, and cookies are the foundation of your diet, you might be), it is the7 essential co-factors for its absorption that we are more likely to be falling short on, so these are of equal importance in our attention.
Calcium (and Mineral-Rich) Foods
- Leafy greens & Cruciferous Vegetables (kale, collards, Dandelion greens & broccoli. All leafy greens are abundant in calcium, so certainly seek whatever is available to you)
- Dairy (milk, yogurt & cheese. Choose raw, organic, and/or full-fat as they are available to you)
- Nuts & seeds (almonds, sesame seeds & Brazil nuts are rich sources, but again, all nuts and seeds generally have some presence of calcium, so work with what you’ve got and are drawn to)
- Honourable mentions: Natto, kelp & oats
A place at every meal
With that, aim to have calcium-rich foods with every meal!
Because it is the most abundant mineral in the body, plays such a big role in our health, and is essential, we really can’t get around the need to consume something that is calcium-rich in every meal.
Again, don’t overthink it – just keep it simple. It could mean having a leafy greens as the base of your lunch and dinner (perhaps as a salad, stir fry, or in a soup), topped with nuts or dairy for dessert (as I love to do).
Or, it could mean having dairy, nuts and seeds, and oats for breakfast.
Or, it could mean having leafy greens as the base of all your meals and top with nuts, or one of the honourable mention foods (attending to all other aspects of macronutrient balancing of your meal, of course!)
Change it up and include some variety and work with what your body jives well with – and this includes your digestion.
I hope this perspective and this tip has been helpful!
