We all know that we need to consume enough calcium everyday in order to protect our bones and keep our bodies healthy. Calcium is a vital nutrient that helps our skeletal systems stay strong, and can help prevent heart attacks, high blood pressure and certain kinds of cancer. We typically tend to associate calcium with dairy products, and for good reason. Dairy products are still one of the best and plentiful sources of calcium available.

For some people, consuming dairy products is not an option because they are lactose intolerant and cannot properly digest the products and therefore are not able to absorb the nutrients and calcium. For others, they simply do not like the taste of milk or dairy products. A percentage of people follow a vegan diet and will not consume any dairy products as they are all derivative of animals.

Whatever the reason may be for not eating dairy products, the need for calcium is still prevalent and it needs to be consumed. So where do you go for calcium besides milk, cheese and yogurt? There are actually a lot of foods that naturally contain calcium such as oatmeal, some whole grain products, cereals, orange juice and certain other foods.

There are also the above foods and others that are fortified with calcium, so that you can take in the proper amount of calcium without losing the benefit of any other nutrient. In addition to food sources of calcium, there are also supplements on the market that are a great way for anyone to take in the daily recommended calcium requirements. Supplements come in varieties of pills and chewable, and are available for different age ranges and different caloric needs. Women and the elderly are especially prone to developing osteoporosis and other bone density diseases as they age and need to take additional calcium above the recommended daily allowance.

Whatever you choose for your source to get your daily intake of calcium, make sure that you are getting at least the daily recommended allowance and more if you are at risk for any bone diseases or problems later in life.