Anyone else tracking calcium

SuffolkSally
SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
in Food and Nutrition
One the macros I track is calcium - my diet tends to be low in it as I don't consume much dairy. I'm quite aware of the risks of osteoporosis in later life, and I'm taking what preventative action I can. I'm finding though that an awful lot of foods in the database don't give vitamin information. I don't want to majorly overconsume calcium. I take supplements, but I'm a bit concerned that my actual consumption may be way higher.

Has anyone figured out a way to tackle this?

Replies

  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
    I can't say that I've run across very many database entries that don't list calcium. Are you sure that what you are eating actually contains it?

    Women in my family do tend to get osteoporosis, so I shoot for 1,500-2,000mg per day on the advice of my doctor. I'm not a huge dairy eater, aside from the occasional yogurt or splash of milk on my cereal, so I supplement with a calcium citrate + D tablet (citrate absorbs better than caltrate and is easier on the stomach)
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,272 Member
    Enter your supplements and make you own food entries or edit the existing ones if the info is missing.
    You can check most foods here:
    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

    Then, in case you aren't aware, the report function at the top will give you a good readout of your mineral intake:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/reports
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    I enter the calcium intake from supplements of course. Some food entries include calcium etc, but most don't. Given that I eat a varied diet, and foods that are made up of a lot of ingredients, it wuld be a pretty onerous task to research the calcium content of any given meal. And the report function, of course relies on the data in the database, so not much help really!

    There isn't an obvious solution, other than that - but I just wondered what other people did... I assume the same applies to most vitamins/minerals MFP-ers might be trying to track, too.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,272 Member
    I enter the calcium intake from supplements of course. Some food entries include calcium etc, but most don't. Given that I eat a varied diet, and foods that are made up of a lot of ingredients, it wuld be a pretty onerous task to research the calcium content of any given meal. And the report function, of course relies on the data in the database, so not much help really!

    There isn't an obvious solution, other than that - but I just wondered what other people did... I assume the same applies to most vitamins/minerals MFP-ers might be trying to track, too.

    I've entered potassium for every food I've put in my diary for over a year. Not that onerous. The report function doesn't rely on the database per se, it reports from your diary.

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