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?

  • @[email protected]
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    309 months ago

    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.

    • Solivine
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      39 months ago

      I never knew that about milk, thanks for sharing

  • @[email protected]
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    109 months ago

    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.

    • Ephera
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      19 months ago

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

    • pinchcramp
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      19 months ago

      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.

  • @tekila
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    99 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      29 months ago

      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.

        • @[email protected]
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          39 months ago

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

          • @tekila
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            19 months ago

            Yeah the water where I live is at 36+ °f making it a not insignifiant part of my daily calcium

    • @[email protected]
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      14 months ago

      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.

  • lettruthout
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    79 months ago

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

  • aname
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    69 months ago

    I live in Finland and every oat drink that I have ever drank have had calcium added.