Need more calcium: Homemade granola bars?

[EmL08]

Hi all,

I've recently gone dairy-free because I have IBS (and I'm on an anti-cancer diet as a means of being proactive; I had a lot of x-rays and a few CT scans as a kid). I feel so much better.

However, I'm concerned now that I won't get enough calcium in my diet. I can't have soy due to hypothyroidism, and I haven't found an almond milk that doesn't contain carrageenan. Until then, I was thinking of making some homemade granola bars (healthy, reasonable in terms of unhealthy fats/calories, etc.) that include many calcium-rich foods -- oatmeal, blackstrap molasses, figs, raisins, sesame seeds, almonds, etc. I'd like to get at least 200mg of calcium per bar. I'll get the rest of my calcium from fortified orange juice and spinach, salmon, beans/soups and the like.

[Paxiled]

Oh, I should add, soy and almond milk aren't calcium sources unless they're fortified, and again, the fortification is usually the least well absorbed forms of calcium.

[Paxiled]

Just want to say, I believe our ancestors, at least our fully human ones, were actually shorter than we are now, but that's beside the point -- height has nothing to do with calcium.  Dairy isn't a good form of calcium, and personally I'd forgo the fortified orange juice since the form of calcium in that isn't very well absorbed (although the acid in the orange juice helps, an orange is way better than store bought orange juice for any nutrient value, or juice it yourself).  The reason is twofold:  no adult mammal uses dairy except humans, and only a few humans have the enzyme that digests dairy.  Yogurt is tolerated better because it's cultured, as is kefir, but that doesn't solve the second problem, which is that milk is very high in calcium but devoid of magnesium, and the two have to be in balance for bones to be strong.  What too much calcium intake does is leach out the magnesium, which is why although we've been told to drink tons of milk since the gov't started this program to support dairy farmers (yes, that's right -- nobody drank much milk until marketing told people to) in the early 1900;s, we still developed an epidemic of osteoporosis.  So obviously milk didn't solve this problem -- it exacerbated it.  Green vegetables such as parsley, dandelion greens, kale, broccoli, collards, etc. are loaded with both calcium and magnesium and in a form that is well absorbed, but make sure to eat the stems -- the hard parts have the most calcium.  A vegetarian diet has nothing to do with calcium.  What you might be short of are methionine and B12, as they're not found in vegetable foods as a rule.  As to your IBS, a vegetarian diet will only help if you're suited to it -- some are, some aren't.  You'll find out.  

[shaggy5552]

Don't worry about the calcium, heres why. From dairy, because it is animal protein which is very acidic, you use more calcium to break it down. You get calcium back though right? Wrong, it isn't enough to replenish what was lost. You actually get enough calcium from vegetables. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were six inches taller, as strong as your average professional athelete, and were virtually free of the MANY diseases we have today. And they didn't take one drop of milk or calcium supplements. The "daily amount" is just BS because who advises you to drink milk? the government when alot of our profit comes from dairy companies. Check who does the studies and finds milk is better, it is usually the dairy companies. So just make sure you eat alot of green vegetables that contain the many metals we need in small enough doses to be efficiently absorbed and you will be fine. eggs have 10% (USDA), and mushrooms I believe are at like 40%, fish is about 90% for an ounce, so yes fish is a great option and the spinach too. Haven't looked into the beans though. Good luck!