Calcium line

lucinda8894
lucinda8894 Posts: 1 Member
in MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions

I recently was told to monitor my calcium intake each day. I noticed that the nutrition line for calcium is a percentage vs milligrams. What is that percentage based off of? Recommended 1200 mg per day? Or what?
Thank you so much for your help

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Answers

  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,825 Member

    That's rather a punt on MFPs part. I assume it's 1000mg per day. (Making each 1% = 10mg.

    You are reminding me that I need to add calcium to my daily vitamins. It's pretty darned simple to take a couple of tums at bedtime. I've heard that it's good to add a little magnesium citrate to promote digestion.

    Due to the crowdsourced MFP database, I don't trust the numbers completely, particularly for the vitamins. Check any entries that you frequently use (compare to the label, where possible).

  • Jean
    Jean Posts: 991 MFP Staff

    For foods labeled in the United States, your Daily Value percentages have been based on a "2,000 calorie diet for a healthy adult." These percentages were recommended by the USDA, and were not that easy to understand actual numbers.

    However, the USDA is currently changing the percent value to be an actual number and they have a great resource page which explains the breakdown. You can find that information here:

    https://dsld.od.nih.gov/daily-values

    https://www.fda.gov/media/99069/download (nutrients by g/mg/mcg)

    If you'd like to read more about the percentage breakdowns, please see: http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm#see6

    Currently, the 100% value from the USDA Food Labels translates as follows in MyFitnessPal:

    Vitamin A: 5,000 IU

    Vitamin C: 60mg

    Calcium: 1000mg

    Iron: 18mg

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