How to do a Calcium Audit for Better Health

Today I will share benefits of calcium and then walk you through performing a calcium "audit." This will help you see where you get your calcium from and help you to know if you are getting enough calcium regularly.  You will also hear ways to increase your intake of calcium. 

To follow along with the video version on YouTube, click here. 

Take Aways

• Calcium benefits us by helping us to have strong bones, good cardiovascular health, plays a role in nerve signaling, affects muscle contractions, and aids in blood clotting. https://ancientnutrition.com/blogs/all/calcium-benefits-for-women
• We need 1000-1200 mg of calcium/day.
•  Sometimes our brain is just too hard on us and it fools us into thinking things that aren't true. 
•  But sometimes we need to look at the facts. We actually need to step back and actually see, "Is it true? Is it true that I'm not getting enough exercise?"
• Let's see if we are getting enough calcium.
• This calcium audit has two parts: What do I usually eat? What's a good mix of what I usually eat that will get me 1000 mg daily? 
• On a piece of paper, write down the foods you usually eat. Feel free to look around your kitchen.
• Next, while looking at a food, write down the amount of calcium it has. Write the amount based on how much of it you will eat. (If a serving size is a cup, but you'll only have 1/2 cup then write how much calcium is in a 1/2 cup.)
• While looking at the foods you eat, identify 3-4 foods that you have daily that will get you 700-800 mg of calcium every day. These are your calcium foundation. 
• What other foods will you eat? Nuts? Fruits? Vegetables? Yogurt? Based on what is written on your paper, will you get to 1000 mg with these additional foods? 
• If yes, YAY! You're getting enough calcium. Keep going!
• If not, tweak what you are going to eat so you that you ca

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, this is the Living Well with PMDD podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Bradford, certified life coach, mom of five and PMDD Survivor. Happy to have you here. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered health advice.

Welcome to today's show. I am so looking forward to talking about calcium today and how you can do a calcium audit. Are you getting enough calcium? And where are you getting it from and how can you get more if you need more? And even just what is like the daily recommended? Before I do that though, I just have to say, um, last week I revisited PMDD on the podcast and gave lessons learned from living with PMDD for five [00:01:00] years. And that same week.

I got a Facebook message from Mary Beth Bone whose name you, I don't know you, you shouldn't know it necessarily, but maybe you do. But it was her daughter that led me to know about PMDD.

Mary Beth Bone through her daughter's death, um, was how I learned about premenstrual dysphoric disorder. She wrote to me and said, I just found your podcast and I appreciate the kind words you spoke about my daughter.

I just had to share that with you because life just sometimes gives you little good, good things. That was one of those things for me. Oh, my, okay. Yes. I'm recording. Sorry, I wondered if I was recording or not. I, [00:02:00] anyway, she wrote in that message, I would love to talk. So I called her the next day, set up a time, and we talked for two hours.

Mary Beth ever since her daughter passed away, she's been doing PMDD awareness, left her job, well retired I should say. I think as a nurse, um, or at least working at a hospital. It was just one of those tender mercies from God where you're like, I'm connecting with this person that helped bring me into this new understanding of myself that's helped me be, um, a better person, helped me deal with my health challenges. She's still doing PMDD awareness. And she said she's gonna come on the podcast sometime. So hopefully, in about a month we'll do, um, an episode on PMDD awareness.

But today I wanna talk [00:03:00] about calcium. Uh, this was something that just came to mind because as we age, it's one of those nutrients that we might not get enough of and that we end up needing more than our body used to need. So there's that aspect of it. But the other aspect of it is it's one of those things that you can feel like you're failing at. Like, oh my gosh, I'm not getting this and I'm not getting enough this and I'm not exercising enough.

Calcium falls into that area. And I kind of had a moment a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I was like, ah, I don't know if I'm getting enough calcium and I should do something about that. And instead of staying in that place, I found myself one day deciding I'm just gonna do a calcium audit. It worked really well for me and it especially helped to calm down my brain and all of the the chatter about "you're not doing enough, you don't get [00:04:00] enough calcium."

That's what I want to give to you today is to quiet down the chatter because you will have taken 15 to 20 minutes to do a calcium audit. And anytime your brain's like, "ah, what about this?" Then you can say, "wait, wait, I'm getting enough calcium.

I know because I took time to do this audit." You could do this with other things that come up in your life, other nutrients, or with exercise. Sometimes our brain is just too hard on us and it fools us into thinking things that aren't true. But sometimes we need to look at the facts. We actually need to step back and actually see, " is it true? Is it true that I'm not getting enough exercise or am I not getting enough sleep?" I like the natural ways of [00:05:00] measuring where we do it ourselves. We're not just looking at what this website says I should be doing. And these are the things that are high calcium. I want you to actually get into your cupboards.

So why, why should we do this? Calcium, benefits our body in multiple ways. Most of us think initially of bone health, right, of our teeth. Maybe that's what we were taught when we were young. We need to get our calcium for our, um, teeth and our bones right to be strong. And that is true. As we grow. Grow, like getting older, you know, I'm in my forties. Bone density becomes a big issue. We don't wanna get osteoporosis or osteoarthritis. So we do need to do some, um, resistance training, just some weights and it doesn't have to be a ton. And it doesn't even have to necessarily be every day, but we [00:06:00] need to do some. Calcium can also help with that.

Strong bones, that's a benefit of calcium. Our cardiovascular health, so our heart health that is benefited by calcium and getting enough. It plays a role in nerve signaling. It also plays a role in muscle contractions. It also can help with blood clotting. I didn't know that. I didn't know about the muscle contractions, the blood clotting, or the nerve signaling.

I think I'd heard about cardiovascular health, but I didn't know for sure that calcium would help with that until I researched this for you guys. All of those benefits of calcium, I pulled those from an ancient nutrition article that I will put in here as a resource.

As we age, we really do need to focus on healthy bones and some bone [00:07:00] density. If you're a woman we also have normal changes in our hormone production, which naturally affects our bones as well. So we need to integrate weight bearing exercise and maybe not increasing your calcium, but you gotta know are you getting enough?

If you aren't, then you need to be getting enough. 1000 milligrams is what is recommended for a 19 to 50-year-old person.

Okay? If you're over 50, the recommended amount of calcium is 1200 milligrams per day. That's the RDA or the recommended daily allowance. I wanna add in here, because some of you, as you're getting older, you might also be working on weight management and calcium along with vitamin D is really good for that. There's some evidence that vitamin D helps your calcium absorption. So include that [00:08:00] either in a vitamin or in the foods that you're eating as well.

Alright, so the first part. There's two parts to a calcium audit. The first part is, " what I usually eat." You're actually going to write them down and write the amount of milligrams they have.

And the second part is "what's a good mix for me to get to 1000 milligrams?", You're gonna have your base foods, what you eat daily. And then you're just gonna know and be reassured that you're gonna get enough to get up to 1000 with the other food that you're going to eat. So I'm gonna illustrate this so no worries.

If you wanna watch this video, I am putting it up on YouTube. Sometimes that's fun. I sometimes listen, I sometimes watch podcasts. For 2026 I did a business planning workshop [00:09:00] and it was much more enjoyable sitting and watching it, having my notebook and taking notes along with this person face to face kind of right.

So first part, what I usually eat. We just hear about foods that are high in calcium, right? Milk, yogurt, fortified cereal that's probably what comes to your mind and that's fine. But some of us don't like a certain kind of food or the foods that are actually in our fridge and in our cupboards right now. We just don't know what amount of calcium is there. So let's actually find out.

For this exercise, you can pause this and go look at stuff, or you can listen to me, go through the whole thing and then do it on your own time.

" What I usually eat." I listed these : pistachios almonds, chocolate [00:10:00] chips. Collagen powder. Protein powder for when I exercise, an actual hard workout. Bananas, apples, oranges bread, a Flintstone vitamin, A vitamin C chewable, Cheerios or another non sugary, um, breakfast cereal, a two milk potato chips, ham, sliced cheese, chicken, beef, stir fry.

Yak Colt drink, a yogurt drink, beef stick, baby carrots, broccoli, orange juice, corn, mixed vegetables, romaine lettuce, spinach, pasta, oatmeal, eggs, peanut butter, uh, bacon. And then my supplements that I usually have, coq 10 fish oil, magnesium [00:11:00] glycinate.

I wanna give you some of these amounts, but again, look at your own. So pistachios, there's 129 milligrams of calcium in a cup. I'm not gonna have a cup of pistachios in one sitting. I might have a fourth of a cup. So I'm going to get what is a fourth of that? About 30 milligrams. Almonds, 80 milligrams, that's about 28 nuts. Again, I'm probably not gonna have 28, but I'm gonna have about 14. So I'm gonna get about 40 milligrams from nuts from the almonds, chocolate chips:

it's not significant. About 10 milligrams of calcium. My collagen protein powder. Zero. My protein powder, it's Jocko protein powder. That's for when I physically exercise, i'm sweating that has 190 milligrams of calcium, almost 200 milligrams. So I know on a day that I'm exercising, I'm gonna get that boost of [00:12:00] calcium. Bananas six milligrams. Apples 11 milligrams. Oranges 40 milligrams. Well, that's more than apples and bananas, right?

Bread, 50 milligrams per slice. I have a sandwich. I get 100 milligrams of calcium. My Flintstone vitamins. I have gone back to those chewable ones. I really like going back to basics. I get 140 milligrams per tablet. My vitamin C chewable none.

Cheerios 130 milligrams. Then you add the milk to it, 300 milligrams. Potato chips, 10 milligrams, not significant. Ham, three milligrams, not significant. Sliced cheese, 130 milligrams. That's significant. Uh, chicken, chicken breasts, 21 milligrams thigh 12 milligrams. Beef, ground beef, anywhere from eight milligrams of calcium to [00:13:00] 109 milligrams of calcium. It ranges. This one surprised me. Grass fed beef, which that's what we usually buy a lot less. You're gonna get like maybe 10 milligrams of calcium. So just know that, right? It's good to know. Steak, you're gonna get about 30 milligrams again, I think that's not grass fed. Stir fry. I looked at the one in our freezer. The one I normally buy. We're gonna get 50 milligrams from, I think it's a half cup.

Yeah. Colt, that's a yogurt probiotic drink. 40 milligrams. A small beef stick, the chomps like small ones, 20 milligrams.

Baby carrots, 30 milligrams. Orange juice, 250 milligrams. Broccoli, 70 milligrams. A Chobani flip, which is a type of Greek yogurt, 150 milligrams. Again, if you use yo play yogurt or, [00:14:00] um, it's the D one then, oh, I can't remember the name of it, but look at the yogurt you use. How much calcium does it have? It will depend on the brand and the type of yogurt. Corn, three mil measly milligrams. Mixed vegetables, though.

Like a broccoli, cauliflower, a carrot mix, 20 milligrams. Romaine lettuce, 28 milligrams, spinach, a cup of spinach, 30 milligrams. Pasta 26 milligrams. Oatmeal 20 milligrams. An egg 30 milligrams of calcium. Peanut butter 18 milligrams. Cashews are 10 milligrams. Bacon has zero.

We wanna have some meat, some proteins in our life, right?

We wanna have, uh, chicken, beef, bacon. We wanna have, spinach, lettuce, carrots, but they're [00:15:00] not gonna be where we're turning to for calcium. We're gonna get other benefits from those things, and that's fine, but just know where you're getting your calcium from.

That was part one. What I usually eat and how much calcium does it have? The stuff I actually have in my fridge, in my cupboards, in my pantry. Let's actually look at it. Let's not base it off of what the internet says it has because your brand might be different.

Second part, what's a good mix for me to get to 1000 milligrams? I don't wanna stress about it. I wanna know I'm getting enough calcium. How am I gonna do it?

It doesn't have to be heavy, right? We're gonna keep this light. I can get enough calcium. Let's, let's do it.

Daily, um, I have my Flintstone vitamin that's 140 milligrams. I have a bowl of Cheerios and milk. Um, [00:16:00] when I have Cheerios and milk, that's 430 milligrams. I'm already at 570 milligrams.

I'm more than halfway to what I need daily. Yay. Like, let's celebrate. That's wonderful. That's great. Go me right.

If I don't have Cheerios, I have to consider, uh, what other cereal I have or just know I didn't get as much calcium. I will eat, um, oatmeal. Oh, what are the, what's it called Quaker oatmeal. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I can't remember the name. Um, but that cereal has zero calcium. So my go-to for cereal is Cheerios for that reason. It gets me more than having a bowl of oatmeal because the bowl of oatmeal, I only add a splash of milk. That's not a good source of calcium for me. I'm gonna have oatmeal. I probably wanna [00:17:00] have an orange or some orange juice.

Sorry, I digress. Daily, I'm gonna have my small bowl of Cheerios with milk. I'm gonna have my Flintstone vitamin that gets me to 570 milligrams and I'm gonna have a sandwich. And if I don't have an open face sandwich, if I have a regular sandwich, that's 100 milligrams more of calcium. That gets me to 670. That's actually my foundation. I have a sandwich. I have a bowl of cereal and I Flintstone vitamins. Choose three to four things that can get you your foundation. You wanna get to close to 700 with that, and then. You look at all the other foods, and if you're eating enough and eating a variety or you're eating some fortified things, you're gonna get enough calcium.[00:18:00] 

Doesn't that just take a weight off of you? Three to four things that you eat will get you enough calcium along with whatever else you're going to eat.

For me then I have just thought through this. I know on days that I exercise, I have the Jocko protein that's taking me up to 870.

I know every day I'm gonna have some fruits and vegetables that's gonna get me at least 100 milligrams.

So if I've exercised that day, I've had my foundational foods and fruits and vegetables, I'm at 970. I'm only 30 milligrams away from a thousand. And with anything else I eat, I'm probably going to get to a thousand that day.

Let's say I didn't exercise, then I know, "okay, I wanna have a, yeah, Colt, a yogurt drink that's 40 milligrams. I want to have a, glass of milk with dinner because [00:19:00] that's gonna get me between 250 to 300 milligrams. Really for me, I think if I didn't exercise today. I wanna have a glass of milk with dinner. You can also have orange juice. I'm not gonna have a full cup of orange juice when I have it.

I might have a third to a half a cup of orange juice that's still gonna get me a hundred milligrams of calcium, like, awesome.

Something else, some nuts. Nuts are gonna get me , they're gonna get me about 40 milligrams of calcium and then meat, cheese and eggs. They're gonna get me about 30.

Hopefully you can come up with your foundational foods that get you enough calcium or get you close enough, right?

We wanna get to about 700 every day for sure. Like these are foods you're gonna eat every day or drink. And then, the other food you eat will get you enough. You're gonna get to a thousand.[00:20:00] 

I do think it's important to do this calcium audit. Maybe you find out that the protein powder that you have after you exercise has zero calcium. Good to know. You gotta find it in another way. You need to add it into your life. If you are 50 this is really important for you, so take the time. You might find out that you are not getting enough calcium and you need to make a change.

I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you do a calcium audit. Literally, I did mine like this. Right? Um, well this page is more, can you see that? Ah, trying to have it focus on it, but, and then I put a star by the ones that are my, like superstars. They're the ones that can just boost me up over it. Right? A glass of milk. A glass of orange juice, some cheese, some broccoli, like those mixed vegetables. Those [00:21:00] things can really make a difference.

I believe in you. You can be healthier. You've got this. Don't, don't overthink it. I would love to help you too. Check out my website for what offers I am running right now. I'll talk to you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the Living Well with PMDD podcast. To learn more about life coaching with me, visit my website Heidi, H-E-I-D-I, bradford coaching.com. Until next time, keep hoping, keep loving, and remember that you are not alone.