There's a lot more to vegan bone health than calcium. Here's the quick and dirty on eating for healthy vegan bones, plus recipes!
Vegan Bone Health: Calcium and Beyond!
When we talk about vegan calcium, what we're really worried about is bone health, right? The "Got Milk" ads hammered the calcium-bone health connection into our brains.
What they leave out, though, is that calcium is only one piece of the bone health puzzle. And cow's milk isn't the best place to turn for healthy bones.
Bone health is a lot more complicated than taking a calcium supplement. Though many vegans and omnivores alike should probably be taking one, if we aren't getting the recommended 1000 mg per day.
For healthy bones, you should get enough calcium, but you should also focus on:
- potassium
- vitamin C
- magnesium
- protein (source: Ginny Messina)
The good news is that you can get these bone health essentials easily from plant-based foods. Here are five foods to eat for healthy bones, plus recipe ideas for each one.
Beans
The musical fruit is a protein party! Beans also give you a healthy dose of much-needed magnesium for bone health. For example, ½ cup of cooked black beans provides 14 percent of your RDA for magnesium. Not too shabby!
Eat your beans with every meal: smoky black bean dip, Instant Pot 3-bean chili, no-soak Instant Pot pinto beans
Greens
Dark, leafy greens like kale and collards provide lots of calcium. Softer greens, like spinach and Swiss chard, are packed with potassium.
Tofu
Tofu prepared with calcium sulfate (most tofu is) gives you the ol' one-two punch: calcium and protein.
A quarter block of firm tofu has 250 to 750mg of calcium and 13 grams of protein. It's also got 12 percent of your magnesium needs, so really it's a 1-2-3 punch!
Tofu it up: air fryer tofu, crispy baked tofu, nutritional yeast tofu
Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds are easy to add to basically anything meal, and they give you a nice combo of magnesium and protein. Just grab a handful, and toss it into your bowl!
An ounce of roasted pumpkin seeds has 151mg of magnesium. An ounce of roasted almonds has 395mg of magnesium and 367mg of calcium.
Get nutty (or seedy!): dilly sunflower seed dip, buffalo almond dip, cashew queso
Potatoes
Fun fact: a medium-sized potato with the skin on has as more postassium than a banana! The skin is key, since a lot of the potato's nutrition is in that skin. That humble potato provides 12 percent of your daily potassium.
It also has 4 grams of protein. What!
Get your potato on: tofu shepherd's pie, crispy roasted potato slices, olive oil mashed potatoes
Sources
Navigating the research when it comes to vegan calcium is a little bit tricky. There is a lot of misinformation out there! The info above comes from three sources that I trust for vegan nutritional information:
Vivian
This article is the perfect response for anyone questioning the vegetarian or vegan diet's ability to provide essential protein and nutrients. I love it.
Becky Striepe
Thank you so much, Vivian!