Foods richer in calcium than milk

Have you ever stopped to think that we’re the only species that continues to drink milk after breastfeeding? And on top of that, that the milk we drink isn’t even our own, but from another animal with a different constitution and digestive system? The majority of humans stop producing lactase, the enzyme that digests lactose, after breastfeeding from their mother. That’s why, so many people suffer from bloating, gas and digestive issues when consuming dairy. It is estimated that 75% of people end up developing intolerance to lactose, which as a result, causes our body to convert lactose to an antigen, affecting our health negatively.

Why do we consume dairy products then? There is a social consensus that milk is the only source of calcium and you need it for strong bones. However, milk isn’t the only source of calcium, in fact, there are many plant-based foods which are equally or increasingly rich in calcium and are absorbed much better by the body. As they come from plants, our digestive system digests them much easier and is able to absorb their nutrients much more effectively, without the unwanted symptoms that dairy can cause.

Fun fact!

An interesting fact is that the countries that consume most dairy products are those who have higher rates of osteoporosis, and those who rarely consume it, like countries in Africa and Asia, have lower rates.

When we think of calcium, we immediately think of milk, however, we’re going to look at other plant-based foods that are surprisingly richer in calcium. Let’s compare how much calcium there is in 100g of different foods. To start off, milk has 125mg of calcium. Now let’s compare that to other foods:

These are just some of the foods that are rich in calcium. As you can see, they are all richer in calcium than milk is and are easy to include in your day-to day diet. Make sure to include them in your diet!