photo from Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for calcium for adults age 19-50 years and men 51-70 years is 1,000 milligrams per day. The RDA for women over 51 years and for men over 70 is 1,200 milligrams per day. Did you ever wonder if you’re getting enough calcium?

You could look up the amount of calcium in all the foods you eat and add it up every day. There is an easier way – the list of vegan foods below all have about 100 milligrams of calcium in a serving.

By choosing 8 servings a day if you’re a 19-70 year old man or a 19-50 year old woman), you’ll be getting about 800 milligrams of calcium. It’s likely that you’ll get the remaining 200 milligrams from foods not on the list that have lower amounts of calcium.

If you’re a man over age 70 or a woman over 51 years, you’ll choose 10 servings of foods from the list. This equals about 1000 milligrams of calcium. Again, it’s likely that you’ll get the remaining 200 milligrams from foods not on the list that have lower amounts of calcium.

Eight or ten servings may sound like a lot of food but there are many instances where you’ll eat several servings at a time. For example, if you eat a cup of cooked collards, that’s 3 calcium servings. Same with a cup of calcium-fortified plant milk.

If you consistently struggle with getting the recommended amount of calcium from foods, consider a low-dose calcium supplement in addition to calcium-rich foods.

Choose 8 (for 19-70 year old men or a 19-50 year old women) or 10 servings (for men over 70 and women over 51 years) a day of any combination of these foods:

• ½ cup of cooked bok choy or napa cabbage
• 1½ cups of cooked broccoli
• 1½ cups of cooked Brussels sprouts
• 1 cup of cooked Chinese broccoli
• 1/3 cup of cooked collards
• 1/3 cup of cooked kale
• 1½ cups of raw kale
• Rounded ½ cup of cooked mustard greens
• ¾ cup of cooked okra
• 8 dried figs
• 6 fresh figs
• 1½ medium oranges
• ¾ cup of cooked or canned great northern beans
• ¾ cup of cooked or canned navy beans
• 1 cup of cooked or canned black beans
• 1 cup of cooked edamame
• 1 cup of hummus made with tahini
• 1½ Tablespoons of tahini
• 2 rounded Tablespoons of almond butter
• ¼ cup of almonds
• ½ cup of tempeh
• 1-3 ounces of tofu processed with calcium sulfate (see note)
• 5 or more ounces of tofu processed with nigari (see note)
• 1/3 cup of calcium-fortified plant milk
• ½ cup of calcium-fortified plant yogurt
• 1 rounded Tablespoon of calcium-fortified plant cheese shreds
• 1 slice of calcium-fortified plant-cheese slices
• 4 corn tortillas
• 1 English muffin
• 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds
• 1½ teaspoons blackstrap molasses

Note: To calculate how much calcium is in the tofu you buy, look at the label. Calcium content will be listed as percent of the Daily Value. Since the current Daily Value for calcium is 1,000 milligrams, multiply the percent Daily Value by 10 to get the amount of calcium (in milligrams) in one serving. For example, tofu with 10% Daily Value for calcium would have 100 milligrams of calcium in one serving.

As an example, here’s one way to get 10 servings of calcium-rich foods:

Breakfast (4 servings of calcium-rich foods):

Oatmeal with 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds and 1½ Tablespoons of almond butter

2/3 cup of calcium-fortified plant milk

Lunch (3 servings of calcium-rich foods):

2 corn tortillas with ½ cup of black beans

1/3 cup of steamed kale

1½ oranges

Dinner (3 servings of calcium-rich foods):

3 ounces of tofu processed with calcium sulfate (package indicates 10% of the DV for calcium per 3 ounce serving)

1 cup of cooked bok choy

To read more about calcium for vegans see:

Calcium in the Vegan Diet

Latin American Foods High in Calcium

Calcium Content of Popular Indian Vegetarian Dishes and Ingredients

Calcium Supplements

Lower Risk of Hip Fractures in Vegan Women Using Calcium and Vitamin D Supplements

Freepik photo

Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD, says you can use spinach anywhere you normally use lettuce — on sandwiches, chopped in wraps or tacos, or in salads. Fresh spinach is a hearty base for entrée salads. Toss fresh spinach with finely diced pineapple, sliced strawberries, chopped pistachios, sunflower seeds or soy nuts, and nutritional yeast. Create a dressing with balsamic vinegar, pineapple juice, and touch of mustard.

To quickly (and we mean quickly) cook spinach, spray a frying pan with vegetable oil, sprinkle in some chopped fresh or dried garlic, and get the pan hot. Toss in the spinach and flash sauté, turning constantly. This should take one or two minutes, tops.

Use your stove-sautéed spinach as a hot or cold vegetable with your entrée, as part of a sandwich filling, to top pizza, or added to a tofu scramble. If you would like to make “creamed” spinach, whisk crumbled silken tofu or vegan sour cream into the sautéed greens, just as you are removing them from the stove. If you have leftover cooked spinach, you can purée it and add it to hummus, salad dressings, or soups.

To learn more interesting spinach facts, see: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2020issue2/2020_issue2_cooking_tips.php

Subscribe to Vegan Journal: www.vrg.org/member

The PawsandPlants.org Summit will be a five‑hour virtual event featuring four veterinary researchers—two from the UK followed by two from the US. These scientists are conducting ongoing clinical research demonstrating improved health and welfare outcomes for companion animals on fully plant‑based diets, while also showing that guardians can reduce their environmental footprint by an average of 25-30%. This summit aims to ground the conversation in emerging veterinary science and give attendees the opportunity to hear directly from the researchers leading this work. For more information, see: http://pawsandplants.org

Be sure to follow The Vegetarian Resource Group on Instagram: @vegetarianresourcegroup

photo by Audrey Fox

Livia said, “Realizing my school’s cafeteria had no food that I, as a vegan, could eat, I met with my district nutrition manager, who stated that adding plant-based options to the menu wasn’t possible. Still, I worked tirelessly for over two years to address her concerns, organizing and presenting at events, distributing hundreds of vegan donut holes and wristbands, collecting over 350 signatures, meeting countless times with school administrators, and working closely with Balanced, who assisted with the intricacies of vendors and regulations. Plant-based options are now offered daily at all five high schools in my district since the first day of my senior year.”

Livia worked with Planted Society and talked to over 40 restaurant owners to promote the adoption of plant-based meals. In Livia’s 9^th grade biology class they were required to seal fish without adequate food or filtration within bottles containing small amounts of water. She sent a proposal outlining how they could meet the learning objectives without using fish. The original assignment was eventually removed from the curriculum. She also spent a year and a half to bring a SYNTHETIC fetal pig pilot to her school’s freshman dissection program. Livia participated in Farm Sanctuary’s Youth Leadership Council as well as Peta2’s Youth Advisory board.

The deadline for the VRG scholarship contest for high school seniors is February 20^th of each year. For details, and to see other winners, go to  https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

To support VRG’s outreach to young people, donate at vrg.org/donate.

Join at https://www.vrg.org/member/

Have you ever wondered if an ingredient listed on a food label is vegan or not? The Vegetarian Resource Group has an online guide to food ingredients that lets you now whether a specific food ingredient is vegan, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, typically vegan, typically vegetarian, may be non-vegetarian, or typically non-vegetarian.

You can search through this guide here: https://www.vrg.org/ingredients/index.php

To support this type of difficult research, please consider making a donation to The Vegetarian Resource Group: vrg.org/donate

Image by Valeria Aksakova on Freepik

Here are some radish cooking tips from Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD:

• Microwaving: Place 1/2 pound (about 3/4 cup) sliced radishes in a microwaveable dish with 1 Tablespoon of water or broth. Cover and cook until tender. Cooking time: four minutes on HIGH.
• Steaming: People who find raw radishes too spicy may enjoy the milder taste of steamed radishes. Cooked radishes will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, so prepare extra. Steamed red radishes will turn pink. Place whole radishes in a vegetable steamer and cook over boiling water until barely tender. Shredded daikon can also be steamed, cooled, and added to salads. Cooking times: for whole radishes in a steamer, 8-12 minutes; for shredded daikon, five minutes.
• Stir-frying: Sliced radishes or thin strips of daikon combine well with other vegetables, tofu, or vegan “meat” alternative in stir-fries. Be careful not to overcook the radishes so that they retain most of their crispness. Cooking time: 3-5 minutes.
• Roasting: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Scrub radishes and remove greens. Place on an oiled baking sheet and allow to roast until just soft. This helps to sweeten radish “heat;” and makes a wonderful side vegetable. If your barbecue or grill is already hot, make a foil packet of radishes and allow to roast over the coals.
• Quick Pickle: When all the pickles are gone from your store-bought pickle jars, cut cleaned and de-greened fresh radishes in quarters, and place in the remaining pickle brine. Refrigerate and enjoy your radish pickles!

Do you know exactly what nutritional yeast is? An article by Reed Mangels PhD, RD, and Debra Wasserman in a previous issue of Vegan Journal answers this question and also provides the following vegan recipes containing nutritional yeast:
Lemon Rice Soup
Tempeh Mushroom Casserole
Mushroom Gravy
Tofu Pimento Spread
Spicy Nacho “Cheese” Dip
Tofu Dip
Baked Lima Beans

Read the article here:
http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2017issue3/2017_issue3_nutritional_yeast.php

Subscribe to Vegan Journal by visiting:
http://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

After watching a video in seventh grade, Tomer told his parents he would no longer consume animal products. He said, “I later learned that veganism is actually a decision about what kind of person you want to be when nobody is watching.” In high school, his club successfully lobbied the Las Virgenes Unified School District to include daily vegan meals five days a week across all LVUSD schools. Tomer is also a co-founder of Peta2 Los Angeles. With Noelle (another scholarship winner), they hosted giveaways of Tofurky, vegan ice cream, vegan meats, and vegan milkshakes. The summer before his senior year, Tomer interned with the Animal-Cruelty Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Tomer’s future goal in life is to major in political science and then attend law school, building a niche in animal rights law.

The deadline for the VRG scholarship contest for high school seniors is February 20^th of each. For details, and to see other winners, go to  https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

To support VRG’s outreach to young people, donate at vrg.org/donate.

Join at https://www.vrg.org/member/

Augustus said, “Because I live in a rural area, most of my school is connected to the animal agricultural industry – many students and faculty members are a part of FHA, 4-H, fifth-generation animal farmers, and oftentimes all three. I, too, come from a family that used to raise animals as livestock. Despite these circumstances, I still chose to be vegan. Right now, the morality discussions are in full swing at my school because I just recently had a paper about speciesism that was published in a Harvard undergraduate journal, The Harvard Brain. My paper, “From Pig to Pork: How Society Rewires Our Empathy” explores biological and social themes amongst the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, and many more … Additionally, I write for a student newspaper for the St. Louis metropolitan area, and I have written articles specifically about veganism … I would say the social isolation caused by this large portion of America that knows next to nothing about both vegans and the animal agriculture industry is the hardest challenge I face. When I have a discussion with my German teacher who has lots of experience working in slaughterhouses, we have common ground because we know the reality … Why is it that the vegan and the slaughterhouse worker have the most common ground? … Because veganism also applies to other humans, I hope to become an ophthalmologist, which would allow me to provide life-and vision- saving services to those suffering from extreme poverty.  

The deadline for the VRG scholarship contest for high school seniors is February 20^th of each year. For details, and to see other winners, go to  https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

To support VRG’s outreach to young people, donate at vrg.org/donate.

Join VRG at https://www.vrg.org/member/