Calcium for Performance

Calcium has an abundance of benefits. It is easily one of my favourite minerals.

It helps to:

·      Strengthen our bones to prevent fractures (or re-fractures)

·      Make sure our muscles flex/ contract properly

And so many other bodily functions which can support our strength training and general health.

In this weeks nutrition tip I’m going to go through how much calcium we need per day, what foods we can get these from, and what to look out for when shopping for milk!

So how much do we need and where do we get it from? Let’s start with our recommended daily requirements:

As we get older, our bones find it harder to absorb the calcium we eat so naturally our requirements increase. This happens faster for women.

Where do we get calcium from?

Usually we think of our ‘dairy’ foods e.g. cheese, yogurt and milk, and that’s because they are rich in calcium. Getting in 2-3 serves of these foods/ day is generally enough to meet our daily calcium requirements. A great benefit with our dairy foods is also the protein content we get which supports our muscle health (two-in-one!).

But for all of you who are lactose-intolerant or vegan – don’t worry, there are so many plant-based calcium rich foods such as tofu, almonds and spinach. But we need to eat larger portions of these to meet our daily requirements e.g. 150 almonds or 5 cups of spinach is equivalent to 2 slices cheese!

We can also get hit our calcium requirements through fortified foods. These include breads and cereals with added calcium, canned salmon with bones and of course our plant-based milks!

Plant based milks (e.g. soy milk, almond milk, oat milk) can be a great replacement for those who can’t or choose not to eat dairy.

But sadly, not all plant-based milks are the same.

If you’ve swapped from regular cows milk to a plant-based milk, you want to make sure you’re not missing out on all that calcium you used to be having, or at least looking at getting it from other sources. As a general guide, check the labels of your milks and look for those with >250mg calcium/100g for an easy and delicious way to meet your daily requirements.