They pour about 350 mg of calcium into your eight-ounce glass every morning. If you drink another cup of OJ with dinner, you'll have drunk more than half of the amount recommended daily for adults. Dark green vegetables such as chopped turnip greens will provide about 200 mg calcium for a one-cup cooked serving. A cup of cooked, chopped broccoli rakes in around 70 mg. While Popeye ate spinach for extra strength, it didn't do a bit of good for his bones.
Spinach has oxalates, which bind most of the calcium and make it largely unusable.
A cup of the firm stuff can provide a whopping 516 mg. That can work to your advantage, though, because it will soak up the flavor of whatever else you're cooking. For an Asian flavor, toss strips of tofu into a stir-fry. If it's Italian you're after, add it to pasta sauce. A tablespoon of dried sesame seeds add slightly over 85 mg of calcium to your salad.