Living in Finland in the EU, I am very confused as to why none of the vegan milk products contain added calcium. Children need a certain amount of calcium which they easily get through cows milk. But not so through vegan milk, because it does not naturally contain calcium.

Are there any laws that forbid adding calcium in your country? Is there any other reason as to why oat and soy based milk products don’t get added calcium?

7 points

My (US) experience is that most do add calcium and certain vitamins.

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9 points

In my EU country, most do contain calcium, as well as vitamin D and sometimes B12 and iode .

Although I have to say I get almost if not all of my calcium from water, vegetables and tofu as I rarely drink any plant based milk.

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2 points

I had no idea there was calcium in water until just now. I googled it and the amount of calcium is miniscule but still there.

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4 points

depends on where you live or where the water is from.

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3 points

Yeah, “hard water” can contain as high as 1/10 your daily calcium needs per liter. That’s wild to me.

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1 point

Not exactly.

In Germany, I think most plank milk brands are also Bio (organic) for some reason. And you can’t label something as bio in Germany if it contains additives, nd this includes supplements. And because of that, most plant milks sold do not contains added calcium, b12 or anything.

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30 points

The calcium from milk thing was a myth generated by the dairy industry to sell milk.

There is calcium in milk but there is also calcium in lots of things. I have heard the fat in cow milk makes it harder to absorb the calcium anyway. Regardless. The amount you need is easily obtained from many other sources in your diet naturally assuming you don’t take supplements.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/calcium-rich-foods

A lot of plant milks have more calcium than cow milk so adding more would be silly.

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3 points

I never knew that about milk, thanks for sharing

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2 points

Spoiler: it’s mostly grean leafy veggies. Eat your spinach and cauliflower greens!

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3 points

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36129610/#:~:text=Studies that examine vegetarians and,sites%2C especially at the hip.

Personally I supplement calcium to be on the safe side after breaking my collar bone. I healed fast enough but I did everything I could to make that happen and since then I’ve just kept going with the supplements

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1 point
*

I recommend a multivitamin that doesn’t just contain lots of calcium, but also the other minerals needed to increase its absorption.

I take Deva’s Cal-Mag Plus.

https://iherb.com/pr/deva-vegan-cal-mag-plus-90-tablets/39120

Its the only thing I take besides B12. Calcium is important, and the fact is that most people dont get enough from the food they eat (myself included)

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2 points

Yeah I take one with d and k vitamins,I also take b12 and d when it’s not sunny

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10 points

Up until about 2 years ago there were lots of plant milk producers that added calcium in Germany. Now there is none. I believe the reason is that if they add supplements now, they cannot put “organic” on their milk cartons anymore.

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1 point

Yeah, I’ve heard the same about vitamin B12. I know, Oatly continues to add those in.

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1 point

Yes, I remember a lot of organic milks were fortified with some calcium rich algae. Nowadays the only fortified soy milk I can find is Alpro (not organic, with calciumcarbonate).

It’s a real shame because I really liked Provamel and the Alnatura one.

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