About 80% of Israelis, including adults and children, do not consume the recommended daily amount of calcium, according to Ministry of Health nutrition surveys. The problem is especially acute among women, with 89.7% of women aged 45 to 65 falling below the recommended 1,000 mg per day. Calcium needs also rise again during pregnancy, breastfeeding and older age, says Gali Shnir, a clinical dietitian and consultant to Tnuva.
Shnir stresses that calcium is essential throughout life, because the body cannot produce it on its own and stores most of it in bones and teeth. The Health Ministry recommends about 1,000 mg a day for children ages 4 to 8, and about 1,300 mg a day for children and teens from age 9 onward, when growth accelerates and peak bone mass is built. She says the same importance applies to toddlers, pregnant and nursing women, people in their 40s and 50s, and seniors.
Milk products are the best-known source of calcium, but not the only one. Other sources include small fish eaten with bones, sesame tahini, almonds, legumes such as white beans and chickpeas, and green vegetables. Still, Shnir says reaching the target through food alone can be hard, noting that matching the calcium in one Tnuva yogurt cup would require about 200 grams of almonds or five to six cups of cooked broccoli, amounts she calls unrealistic for most people, especially children.
Tnuva recently increased the calcium content of its yogurt. The updated product contains 250 mg of calcium per 100 grams, so a 200-gram cup provides 500 mg, or half an adult’s daily recommended intake. For comparison, a glass of milk and a slice of yellow cheese each provide about 200 mg. Shnir says yogurt is easy to serve plain or with toppings, can be used in pasta sauces, tzatziki, cooking and baking without losing calcium in the heat, and can help make calcium intake a daily habit. The article also includes a recipe for homemade frozen yogurt with berries.
