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Getting enough calcium on Paleo may not be a sure thing. I eat really well and struggle with paleo calcium deficiency. Even with lots of leafy greens and canned salmon…
What are the best sources of calcium on a Paleo Diet? Should I be taking a supplement? There’s a list of calcium food sources below. We’ll get there in a minute. But first…
Calcium alone will not build bones and teeth
You need a lot more than calcium for bones, muscles, teeth and nerves. There are cofactors in food that a calcium pill will not provide.
If you don’t take adequate Vitamins D3 and K2 with your calcium,
you could be doing more harm than good.
See this article and this one for more on K2 and calcium. Here’s a podcast also.
How much calcium do we need on a Paleo Diet?
Standard medical sources say 800 – 1100 mg. of calcium per day. (The TYPE of Calcium is not specified but most people buy cheap calcium carbonate). You can get calcium from food, but if you don’t tolerate dairy or eat enough of the right foods frequently enough, you may be caught short.
An important point is usability: 300 mg. of usable calcium from food is worth more than 1000 mg. of calcium carbonate (limestone) in a bottle… That’s the most common supplemental calcium sold. Avoid it as it is basically rock and not absorbable. Check the labels on your calcium!
Advice to take “800 – 1100 mg. calcium daily” does not reflect the TYPE of calcium. You need less calcium with Citrate, MCHA, Coral Calcium or other chelated calciums. For absorbability, never take calcium without D and K2 – it can cause bone spurs, kidney stones, hardening in the arteries and more.
Calcium is especially important for children, teens, athletes and menopausal women. My own bone density plummeted after menopause so I made changes in my exercise (more weights, more walking, less sitting at work) and in my foods and supplements to get the collagen, minerals and vitamins I need. Bio-Identical Progesterone and the lesser-known Estrogen “Estriol” help build bone too.
Don’t we get Calcium from Bone Broth?
Nope. Bone Broth does NOT have significant mineral levels. Kaayla Daniel and Sally Fallon Morrell researched this.
There are good reasons to consume Bone Broth but calcium is not one of them. My hunch is that the broth has to be cooked until the bones themselves actually break up and start to dissolve into the broth. Making a paste of the super-soft bone remnants is one good source of calcium and other bone substrates.
Collagen (from gelatin) provides the matrix that bone is grown on. That’s a major benefit of bone broth or gelatin powder. I prefer this one from Vital Proteins as it dissolves in cold water and doesn’t gel up. You may also consider the JOT Joint, Disc, and Cartilage Support supplement in my online store.
Will Dairy help a Paleo Calcium Deficiency?
Dairy has calcium but it’s not very bio-available. Raw milk products have more bio-available calcium than pasteurized. And most people don’t tolerate Dairy well (except butter and ghee as a rule).
Most Americans get their calcium from dairy and “fortified” orange juice, cereals, bread, soy or almond milk. We don’t eat those on The Diet For Human Beings (my version of Paleo, sold on my excellent DVD here). Cupfuls of leafy veggies, broccoli and canned salmon are not everyday foods for most people. And maybe not all Paleo eaters either!
For digestive support, I recommend my clients and Primal Diet – Modern Health podcast listeners stop dairy except grass-fed ghee, and wait to try adding it back as a separate food challenge once you’ve realized benefits from Paleo and are ready to experiment further. A dairy elimination experiment will let you know if you tolerate cheese or not. Here’s an article on Paleo Elimination Diets.
(The correct order to re-add dairy is this: ghee; then butter and heavy cream; then if tolerated try hard cheese such as Cheddar and Gouda. I find no one really tolerates soft dairy such as milk, yogurt, Feta, Mozzarella or cottage cheese).
Where do we get calcium on a Paleo Diet?
- Leafy greens and canned fish with bones. (Especially collards).
- But do we get enough of these every day?
Many who claim they eat Paleo are still heavily into meat, salads and tubers, and don’t get enough green vegetables. Since we should not eat excess nuts and seeds, we may not be getting their calcium either.
Phytic Acid in Grains binds up minerals – calcium, zinc, magnesium & more
- One big thing in the Paleo Diet favor. Grains and legumes contain phytic acid which binds up and excretes minerals. Paleo eliminates grains and legumes so we’re ahead just by not excreting as much of the calcium and other minerals we do get.
Paleo Calcium sources – What’s your daily total?
I’ve summarized this list from a handful of sources. References differ widely but here’s my best shot! Note that leafy greens cook down in volume, so 3 cups cooked is different than 3 cups raw. A raw spinach salad will yield almost no calcium, for example.
Can you get a minimum 300 mg. Calcium every day? 
- Sardines w. bones (canned, wild) – 350 to 400 mg. per 3.75 ounce can
- Salmon w. bones (canned, wild) – 190 mg. per 3.75 ounce can
- Collards – 250 to 350 mg. per cooked cup
- Cheese – 200 mg. per one ounce slice
- Turnip, Mustard, Kale & Beet Greens – 175 mg. per cooked cup
- Chard & Spinach – 100 – 175 mg. per cooked cup
- Almonds – 60 mg. per 1/4 cup almonds (amounts vary if the nuts are soaked and drained)
- Cabbage, Broccoli, Green Beans & Brussel Sprouts – 60 mg. per cup
- Sesame Seed Tahini Butter – 60 mg. per Tablespoon
- Shrimp – 50 mg for 4 ounces
- Orange – 50 mg. for 1 medium
- San Pellegrino Mineral Water – 200 mg. per liter
So, you’re fine if you actually eat all these veggies. But if not, you want to add a supplement (see below). I get loose stool from more than 1 cup of collards or kale a day. I can handle cooked spinach much better but have to eat more of it to get the same calcium as collards.
And I can only eat so much canned salmon and sardines.
Don’t Tahini and almonds have phytic acid and Omega 6’s?
Yes, they do. But if your overall diet is clean Paleo, you can tolerate a little of these. I’m loving Tahini right now. It’s delicious just poured on vegetables! I don’t eat any other nuts or seeds, and I do take a Lysine to avoid flaring up Shingles or Herpes when I eat Tahini.
Maybe eat some bones?
This article from Paleo Leap suggests nibbling the ends of your cooked chicken bones for a calcium boost. My version is grinding a pate from the soft bone remnants from bone broth. I freeze it by the tablespoon, and add several to my crock pot foods or just eat one with a meal.
Take a Calcium supplement for better bones 
If your daily food sources fall short of 500 mg., why not take a calcium pill a day? The type I prefer, especially for bone health, is MCHA Calcium. Here’s the high quality one I sell in my online store. (Quality matters in supplements. Don’t buy cheaper brands!).
Microcrystalline hydroxyapatite concentrate (MCHA) is a highly absorbable compound made from bones. It contains naturally occurring calcium, phosphorus, and trace amounts of other minerals, bone growth factors, collagen and other vital bone proteins.
Since most of us need a magnesium boost too, another option is this really well made multi from Pure Encapsulations. It has the 5MTHF form of Folate, and has no Stearates or fillers. They suggest 6 daily, but 2 daily is fine if you’re eating well.
Here is the highly absorbable Magnesium Bisglycinate in my Online Store. Very unusual, affordable and absorbable.
Don’t forget Vitamins K2 and D3!
No matter how much calcium you get, if you don’t have adequate K2 and D to transport and absorb it, you’ve wasted the calcium. Or worse, it deposits into your artery walls, your joints, or in your kidneys or gall bladder. Read up on Vitamin K2 in this article and in this one. I sell two great combo products with A, D and K2 in them together. You can get Vitamin D3 Complete and Systemic Formulas DV3 in my online store. I also have OrthoMolecular’s patented MK-7 K2 available as well.
I alo carry Zycal D3 + K2 + Beta Coxatene which drives calcium into the bones. Very unique.
