Hot Topic! Caclium from Milk Alternatives® Updated July 4, 2001 Back to the News Page Over to Still Great News Vegetarian Journal, in its January 2001 issue, checked out a huge range of soy, rice, nut and other milk alternatives. Since getting sufficient calcium is a major concern for people who have decided not to drink milk, or to cut back significantly on its use, it's interesting to hear what they have to say about getting calcium from milk alternatives. They note that a recent study (unnamed) "found that calcium in fortified soymilk is absorbed about 75% as well as is the calcium in cow's milk. This means that soymilk containing 500 milligrams of calcium per serving would supply approximately as much usable calcium as does a serving of cow's milk containing 300 milligrams of calcium." The next question, obviously is: are there any soymilks that contain 500 milligrams of calcium per serving? The answer is no: at least none of the brands in their survey did. Here's what they found: Dairy Alternative Calcium mg per cup   Better Than Rice (not light) Sun Soy 400 Better Than Milk powder Chocolate and Carob flavors; liquid Original 350 Cow's Milk 300 Natura-a Pacific Ultra and Enriched Rice Choice Rice Dream Enriched Rice-um (not fat-free) Silk So Nice Soyganic Soy Dream Enriched Vita Soy Enriched Vita Soy Refrigerated Low-fat Vanilla Better Than Milk powder light and Vanilla flavor Westbrae Natural Rice and Oat Plus West Soy Plus and Lunchbox Plus 300 Better Than Milk Vanilla and Lite Geni-Soy Westbrae Rice Beverage Whyte's DariFree 250 Almond Breeze EdenSoy Extra Pacific Fat-free Soy Soy-Um Fat-free West Soy Nonfat and Lowfat 200 Pacific Enriched Rice and Lowfat Rice Rice-Um Fat-free 150 These are all good sources of calcium, even so. It's just that they don't measure up to milk. But as part of an overall balanced diet with plenty of other calcium sources, and possibly calcium supplement pills as well, they should do just fine. You should also remember to shake the cartons well. If you don't, sediment that probably contains a lot of the calcium may build up at the bottom. This appears to be less of a problem with refregerated drinks and more of one in boxed drinks. And of course do not substitute any of these for true infant formula. Return to top