A young orthopedic surgeon told me to just up my vitamin d and most likely would never be low on calcium. That was over 6+ years ago and sure enough it's been true. However, prior every year before I was low on Vitamin D and calcium! Now neither is an issue and I usually eat ONCE a day!
For sure! I even had another after pushing me to take calcium. I said vitamin d3 is working and my calcium and vit d3 results are always very good thank you! I don't know if calcium supplements are different from calcium in Tums, but Tums can cause kidney stones!
Thank you! I've always wondered that! I could have probably goo goo'd it, but 1 I rarely use Tums and 2 I don't take calcium. It's hard to take anything when everything has high fructose corn syrup or Maltodextrin in it and I can't do either! A pharmacist told me a while back I'd be surprised if I knew just how many people were sensitive to Maltodextrin!
Thanks very much for such a detailed post on a subject that has recently filtered into my attention. May I ask your source on the calcium level for sardines? I have seen similar figures on various sites I’ve visited recently in seeking to better understand how much calcium I’m consuming. Yet the sardines I buy from Costco (Season brand) merely state 7% leaving one to guess the RDA figure they are basing this on (1000mg, 1200 mg, ?) in order to back out the actual amount of calcium in a serving. It was only upon reading your post where you emphasized “with bones” that I realized the ones I am eating are skinless and boneless. However, looking at the choices for the site of the brand you mention, Wild Planet, one finds 15% on the choices there:
thus my original query on the source for the 382 mg amount you shared.
On another note, my wife has followed a minimal diet at a doctor’s suggestion for a couple of years now to address digestive issues. There is no meaningful amount of calcium in anything she consumes yet she works out with a trainer and swims several days a week. I must confess I don’t see how this is possible. Does the body simply not excrete calcium for those that do not consume it? Thanks again for your SS.
However, I just checked that information, and it was sourced from 1987! Current sources indicate calcium is slightly less at 325 mg for three ounces of canned sardines with the bone.
The link provides a nice list of calcium content in various foods.
As for your wife, it is difficult for me to comment. I do not know what a minimal diet is and, if it is very restrictive, why she is on it long-term, even if it is for digestive reasons. Therefore, I do not know if she is consuming foods with calcium and if she is absorbing the calcium.
In my early years of nutrition education, I learned that, first and foremost, the body's goal is survival (not thriving). If the body is not getting what it needs from exogenous sources (food), it will start looking inward to endogenous sources. The bones are among the first places it may pull necessary nutrients for survival.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I suspect the only difference between the two sources is the portion size. The older source used 100g (3.527 oz) while the more recent, 3 oz (85g) and these exactly explain the calcium difference 325mg vs. 382mg. What is striking is the vast difference between the reported values by brand. In seeking to convert the % of DV, I found this site which establishes the DV for ages 4+ at 1300mg of calcium per day:
which is presumably the largest value in the table, itself varying by age and sex between 1000mg and 1300mg for ages 4+. Next, in comparing the products across the two sites already mentioned (Wild Planet and Season brands) and adding King Oscar we can use the 1300 DV and the percentages reported for "Sardines" as opposed to "Sardines, Skinless and Boneless." I can find no listing for "Sardines, with Bones" on any of the brand sites, which I guess makes sense from a marketing perspective. I went with the versions packed in olive oil, which is most similar to the source you shared (packed in oil):
Season Lightly Smoked in Ext Virg Olive Oil 3 oz. 35% * 1300 = 455mg
King Oscar Lightly Smoked in Ext Virg Olive Oil 3 oz. 20% * 1300 = 260 mg
The only other differences I could find were that the Season brand states Atlantic ocean, similar to the source you shared, while Wild Planet says Pacific ocean and mentions Japanese fisheries (inconsistent with wild caught?) and King Oscar mentions Norway fjords and coastal waters. Oddly, the same King Oscar product 3oz. lightly smoked, packed in water has a 25% DV which is 65mg higher and equivalent to the source you shared, 325 mg.
I am not sure what to conclude with such drastic differences for the same thing. I also was surprised to learn that Sardines are merely young Herring, not a distinct species of fish:
As regards my wife's diet I believe the doctor was thinking IBS (seems such diagnoses are not exactly clear cut) so very boring limited diet. Basically, all she has is diet cranberry juice and Quaker quick oats (20 mg Calcium per serving) for breakfast while lunch and dinner are identical, a single serving package of Bibigo sticky white rice, a prepared pre-cooked breaded skinless chicken breast ordered in bulk from Whole Foods (25 mg Calcium per 3 oz.) and a bottle of Pure Leaf unsweetened iced tea. She typically supplements this with either a Chips A Hoy chocolate chip cookie (5 mg Calcium) or an Utz hard pretzel. I won't speak to the high processed food content. So while the total Calcium is not zero, it's certainly not much more than a 100 mg!
Thanks again for your original post as it motivated me to dive into this pretty deep! Have a good week.
Thank you for that deep dive into sardines (young herring). That is a not a small gap with ranges from just under 200 to over 400 mg. I have not eaten sardines in quite some time but my son loves them so I always have them in the house when he's here but I think they all were boneless. When I was younger my father ate sardines daily and back then they had the bones and the head ( now, at least ones I bought had the head removed). I wonder why such a gap in calcium amounts and how accurate are the packages? I do not know if sardines have the same issues as salmon such as farm raised and fed GMO feed so I will have to look into that since sardines are a source of omega3’s and vitamin D too. So thank you for bringing this to my attention
As for your wife-IBS is just a label they attach to a bunch of symptoms meaning the doctor has no clue what is causing it. There could be numerous underlying root causes such as dysbiosis, increased intestinal permeability, food sensitivities, SIBO, candida, h-pylori and more. That's not a diet I could ever recommend long-term for numerous reasons.
Great summary! Thank you. I think your Bottom Line recommendations are right on target for most people.
A young orthopedic surgeon told me to just up my vitamin d and most likely would never be low on calcium. That was over 6+ years ago and sure enough it's been true. However, prior every year before I was low on Vitamin D and calcium! Now neither is an issue and I usually eat ONCE a day!
That's wonderful but I'm even more impressed that information came from a medical doctor! Kudos to that doctor. The body never ceases to amaze me.
For sure! I even had another after pushing me to take calcium. I said vitamin d3 is working and my calcium and vit d3 results are always very good thank you! I don't know if calcium supplements are different from calcium in Tums, but Tums can cause kidney stones!
Tums has calcium as calcium carbonate, not a form you want to take!
Thank you! I've always wondered that! I could have probably goo goo'd it, but 1 I rarely use Tums and 2 I don't take calcium. It's hard to take anything when everything has high fructose corn syrup or Maltodextrin in it and I can't do either! A pharmacist told me a while back I'd be surprised if I knew just how many people were sensitive to Maltodextrin!
You may want to look at Hammer Nutrition products. I'm not certain but I believe they avoid maltodextrin.
Thanks very much for such a detailed post on a subject that has recently filtered into my attention. May I ask your source on the calcium level for sardines? I have seen similar figures on various sites I’ve visited recently in seeking to better understand how much calcium I’m consuming. Yet the sardines I buy from Costco (Season brand) merely state 7% leaving one to guess the RDA figure they are basing this on (1000mg, 1200 mg, ?) in order to back out the actual amount of calcium in a serving. It was only upon reading your post where you emphasized “with bones” that I realized the ones I am eating are skinless and boneless. However, looking at the choices for the site of the brand you mention, Wild Planet, one finds 15% on the choices there:
https://wildplanetfoods.com/collections/sardines
thus my original query on the source for the 382 mg amount you shared.
On another note, my wife has followed a minimal diet at a doctor’s suggestion for a couple of years now to address digestive issues. There is no meaningful amount of calcium in anything she consumes yet she works out with a trainer and swims several days a week. I must confess I don’t see how this is possible. Does the body simply not excrete calcium for those that do not consume it? Thanks again for your SS.
Hello Thomas,
Sorry that I did not put in my source!
The calcium content in bone-in sardines was sourced from
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/175139/nutrients
However, I just checked that information, and it was sourced from 1987! Current sources indicate calcium is slightly less at 325 mg for three ounces of canned sardines with the bone.
The link provides a nice list of calcium content in various foods.
http://www.bonehealthandosteoporosis.org/patients/treatment/calciumvitamin-d/a-guide-to-calcium-rich-foods/
As for your wife, it is difficult for me to comment. I do not know what a minimal diet is and, if it is very restrictive, why she is on it long-term, even if it is for digestive reasons. Therefore, I do not know if she is consuming foods with calcium and if she is absorbing the calcium.
In my early years of nutrition education, I learned that, first and foremost, the body's goal is survival (not thriving). If the body is not getting what it needs from exogenous sources (food), it will start looking inward to endogenous sources. The bones are among the first places it may pull necessary nutrients for survival.
Karen,
Thanks for the detailed reply. I suspect the only difference between the two sources is the portion size. The older source used 100g (3.527 oz) while the more recent, 3 oz (85g) and these exactly explain the calcium difference 325mg vs. 382mg. What is striking is the vast difference between the reported values by brand. In seeking to convert the % of DV, I found this site which establishes the DV for ages 4+ at 1300mg of calcium per day:
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/calcium-HealthProfessional/
which is presumably the largest value in the table, itself varying by age and sex between 1000mg and 1300mg for ages 4+. Next, in comparing the products across the two sites already mentioned (Wild Planet and Season brands) and adding King Oscar we can use the 1300 DV and the percentages reported for "Sardines" as opposed to "Sardines, Skinless and Boneless." I can find no listing for "Sardines, with Bones" on any of the brand sites, which I guess makes sense from a marketing perspective. I went with the versions packed in olive oil, which is most similar to the source you shared (packed in oil):
Wild Planet Ext Virg Olive Oil 3oz. 15% * 1300 = 195mg
Season Ext Virg Olive Oil 3oz. 28% * 1300 = 364mg
Season Lightly Smoked in Ext Virg Olive Oil 3 oz. 35% * 1300 = 455mg
King Oscar Lightly Smoked in Ext Virg Olive Oil 3 oz. 20% * 1300 = 260 mg
The only other differences I could find were that the Season brand states Atlantic ocean, similar to the source you shared, while Wild Planet says Pacific ocean and mentions Japanese fisheries (inconsistent with wild caught?) and King Oscar mentions Norway fjords and coastal waters. Oddly, the same King Oscar product 3oz. lightly smoked, packed in water has a 25% DV which is 65mg higher and equivalent to the source you shared, 325 mg.
I am not sure what to conclude with such drastic differences for the same thing. I also was surprised to learn that Sardines are merely young Herring, not a distinct species of fish:
https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/nutrition/herring-or-sardines/
As regards my wife's diet I believe the doctor was thinking IBS (seems such diagnoses are not exactly clear cut) so very boring limited diet. Basically, all she has is diet cranberry juice and Quaker quick oats (20 mg Calcium per serving) for breakfast while lunch and dinner are identical, a single serving package of Bibigo sticky white rice, a prepared pre-cooked breaded skinless chicken breast ordered in bulk from Whole Foods (25 mg Calcium per 3 oz.) and a bottle of Pure Leaf unsweetened iced tea. She typically supplements this with either a Chips A Hoy chocolate chip cookie (5 mg Calcium) or an Utz hard pretzel. I won't speak to the high processed food content. So while the total Calcium is not zero, it's certainly not much more than a 100 mg!
Thanks again for your original post as it motivated me to dive into this pretty deep! Have a good week.
Thank you for that deep dive into sardines (young herring). That is a not a small gap with ranges from just under 200 to over 400 mg. I have not eaten sardines in quite some time but my son loves them so I always have them in the house when he's here but I think they all were boneless. When I was younger my father ate sardines daily and back then they had the bones and the head ( now, at least ones I bought had the head removed). I wonder why such a gap in calcium amounts and how accurate are the packages? I do not know if sardines have the same issues as salmon such as farm raised and fed GMO feed so I will have to look into that since sardines are a source of omega3’s and vitamin D too. So thank you for bringing this to my attention
As for your wife-IBS is just a label they attach to a bunch of symptoms meaning the doctor has no clue what is causing it. There could be numerous underlying root causes such as dysbiosis, increased intestinal permeability, food sensitivities, SIBO, candida, h-pylori and more. That's not a diet I could ever recommend long-term for numerous reasons.