Calcium...not in a Cup of Milk!

During our stay in China, we did not see a lot of dairy products. Milk was offered only at breakfast and mainly for cereals, and yogurts were also available during that meal too. The yogurts were different than the one in the U.S.; they actually were "drinkable", actually there were always little straws by the basket of yogurts. I never saw a piece of cheese either. So I was wondering how the Chinese people would get this important mineral, especially for us, growing up in a country were the food pyramid is an obsession, and were high school kid are taught about osteoporosis. ( disease of bones where the bone mineral density is reduced which may lead to an increased risk of fracture). I started to look into the food that we were actually eating everyday, and obviously found out that we were eating a ton of green leafy vegetables, and knew that they contained calcium but I thought that "they" could not be as good as good old dairy products...right? Well, I was wrong! Most Chinese do not consume dairy products but instead get all their calcium from vegetables, according to Dr. T. Colin Campbell nutritional biochemist from Cornell University. They also eat fish and usually eat the bones, we tried but were not successful...it must be an art...we almost choked! They have many different soups which are cooked for a long time, softening the little bones from meat which they also eat.

From the same article, I gathered that 40 to 60 % of the calcium in those leafy vegetable is absorbed by the body. Here is a list of calcium-rich vegetable, in no particular order; leaf and stem of daikon ( giant white radish),soy-bean, choy-sum ( little picure), watercress, spinach, kale, many lettuces, mustard & turnip green, and broccoli. Another source of calcium which is also available, are all the soy products like soy milk, tofu and Tempeh ( fermented soy bean). Now that we know that those beautiful veggies are a great source of calcium, I learned that "many green vegetable have calcium-absorption rates of over 50%, compared with about 32% for milk", I was very surprised, I did not know that. Everyone knows that cooking vegetable "to death" diminish the benefits of the minerals and vitamins. So, here is a quick way to cook any of the vegetables mentioned.

• Quick stir-fry: In a large pan add a little canola or olive oil, make sure it is hot bot not actually burning. Place the veggie in the pan, making sure to coat the vegetable entirely. This process take a maximum of 5 minutes. Then remove from pan, put in a plate and add few drops of soy sauce, or favorite herbs.
  
• Quick boiling: Boil water in a large pan, making big bubbles! Then place the whole veggie in the boiling water few minutes (3-5min.) depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables. Retrieve & drain from water. then cut up into sections that you can actually pick up with chop stick. Add soy or oyster sauce.

What an easy and fun way to add calcium in our diet! I hope you try!

from Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Choose Vegetable Calcium over Animal Calcium.