The Importance of Bioavailability in Calcium

Bioavailability means the amount of a certain nutrient from the food that our body absorbs. So in this case, while a food may have a certain amount of calcium in it, our body may only absorb a percentage of it.

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Plant foods like kale have a higher bioavailability for calcium than dairy products. But, certain naturally occurring nutrients in plants, such as oxalates, prevent absorption. Nevertheless, if you don’t eat or drink dairy products, you can still focus on getting calcium from plant-based sources. How the food is eaten, cooked and not raw, can help reduce the oxalate amount in the food. Also, choosing a wide variety of calcium-rich plant food sources in your diet is important.

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*References available with PDF download