Calcium

[Guest guest]

Many brands of tofu are set in calcium, making this a great source of

calcium if you can get your toddler to eat it! My 24 month old will eat

silken tofu plain, or in smoothies or dips. My daughter is really into

popsicles made with silken tofu, fresh strawberries, and vanilla soy milk.

Many soy yogerts are also calcium fortified, like Silk has 70% of the RDA.

It tastes aa little funky at first, but we've gotten used to it and it's

great in smoothies. The way I got my daughter to eat her greens is to steam

them and blend them into a silken tofu based dip. I use garlic, tahini,

onion, and lemon juice and it comes out great. I hope some of these

suggestions help! Try to stay committed to veganism, I know it can be

tough, especially if you don't have a lot of supportive people around you.

Also, I just read that the US RDA for calcium is set extra high because of

American's high comsumption of protein causes the body to become acidic, so

calcium (which is alkaline)is released from the bones in order to regulate

the pH of the body. So a vegan, who probably does not consume excessive

amounts of protein, does not need to meet the US's RDA for calcium, which is

800 mg for adults. The World Health Organization's adult daily requirement

for calcium is 400-500 mg. Here's an article on this

http://www.earthsave.org/news/whatdary.htm

 

Personally, I would resort to a calcium supplement before I would introduce

dairy. Calcium fortified OJ is another great option. Try using soy milk in

cereal, cooking, and puddings. Good luck and let us know how things are

going.

Warmly, Linda

 

Pround vegan AP breastfeeding single mama to Analea 7/18/99

 

 

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> Digest Number 209

>17 Jul 2001 08:28:34 -0000

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>For more information about vegetarianism, please visit the VRG website at

>http://www.vrg.org and for materials especially useful for families go to

>http://www.vrg.org/family.

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[Guest guest]

The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine has a good web

site for vegetarians and vegans about issues such as calcium, etc. My

brother has done research toward a vegetarian book, and he found that

the main isseue with calcium is the ratio betwen it and protein in

the diet. When protein is digested by hydrochloric acid in the

stomach, it has an acid balance when it goes into the intestines. The

body has to neutralize it so it usually takes calcium from the blood

stream. If not enough calcium is in the diet, more and more calcium

is drawn from the blood and not replaced.

There are good books put out by Dr. Klapper, who is vegan, and wrote

a book specifically about pregnancy, children and the vegan diet.

I am a mother of a five-year-old vegan girl, and she is luckily very

healthy and happy. We drink calcium-fortified rice milk, make gomazio

with brown sesame seeds and sea salt, broccoli " trees " and try to eat

some leafy greens like kale. I am not particularly concerned about

her diet as long as she is eating enough calories, for I have heard

from a dietician that everyone should be fine on a vegan diet, as

long as they have a good variety of foods. Some oil suppling omega

3's, 6's is good, and B12 in soy-yoghurt, supplements, yeast, etc.

Good luck--keep going on the vegan diet--in the end you will be

happier, and so will your child!

Victoria

 

 

 

 

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