Calcium and vitamin D are essential in our diet and not so easy to get unless you eat and drink a lot of dairy products.  So have a look at the information provided by the source below, and re-think your shopping list.  If you have difficulties getting enough vitamin D and calcium via foods, especially in the winter time, you might want to consider Nature Made Calcium Tablets with Vitamin D, 500 mg, 300-Count Bottles (Pack of 2) as a supplement to your diet.

Via: BC HealthFile

What is calcium and vitamin D?

Calcium is one of the many minerals that you need to be healthy. Calcium is very important to ensure strong, healthy bones and teeth. It also helps muscles and nerves to work properly. In addition, calcium may help you to manage your weight and blood pressure, and play a role in preventing colon cancer. Vitamin D helps you to absorb and use calcium and has other health benefits.

How much calcium and vitamin D do I need?

Recommended Calcium Intake
Age (Male and Female)
0-6 months 210 mg/day
7-12 months 270 mg/day
1-3 years 500 mg/day
4-8 years 800 mg/day
9-18 years 1300 mg/day
19-50 years 1000 mg/day
Over 50 years 1200 mg/day

Recommended Vitamin D Intake

Age (Male and Female)
0-1 year 400 IU/day
1-50 years 200 IU/day
51-70 years 400 IU/day
Over 70 years 600 IU/day

People with osteoporosis may need more calcium and vitamin D. Check with your doctor.

What foods contain calcium?

Breastfeeding is the best way to meet your baby’s calcium needs. Infant formula provides calcium for babies who cannot be breastfed.

Dairy foods are very high in calcium, especially milk, yogurt and cheese. Other good sources include calcium-enriched orange juice, rice beverages, and soy beverages. For more information, see Food Sources of Calcium below.

What foods contain vitamin D?

There are only a few food sources of vitamin D. Good sources of vitamin D are fortified foods and beverages like milk, soy drinks, and margarine. Check the labels on these foods. Fish, liver, and egg yolk are the only foods that naturally contain vitamin D.

If you do not eat vitamin D rich foods often, you may want to consider taking a vitamin D supplement. Most multiple vitamin supplements contain vitamin D. Breastfed babies under 1 year of age need 400 IU of vitamin D from a supplement each day. People over 50 need extra vitamin D and should take 400 IU from a supplement each day.

More Information and Lists of Calcium and Vitamin D Sources

Many women feel dizzy during pregnancy. Avoid herbal remedies as well as herb teas while you are pregnant or nursing, as the effect of many herbs on your baby are not sufficiently researched.

If you feel dizzy during pregnancy, lie down immediately and turn onto your left side. Lying on your left side maximizes the blood flow to your heart and from there to your baby and your brain. This also works as a remedy against dizziness when you are not pregnant, of course.

apple, banana, blackberries, carob powder

• An apple a day prevents both constipation and diarrhea. In case of acute diarrhea, grate one ripe apple and let the pulp stand at room temperature for several hours and don’t eat it until it has darkened considerably. The oxidized pectin that is found in the fruit is the basic ingredient of brand name diarrheal medication.
• Cooked mashed banana is another simple remedy for diarrhea.
• Grandma’s old time blackberry juice recipe works well to cure even small children’s diarrhea (6 month and older): Put 1 tsp of all spice in a cheesecloth bag and simmer in unsweetened blackberry juice for a few minutes. For babies, give a teaspoon of the cooled juice every 4 hours. Within 24 hours, the diarrhea should have diminished significantly, and within 48 hours the problem should have disappeared. For older children and adults, increase the doses.
• Carob pods are rich in one class of tannins and therefore carob powder has strong anti-viral properties. Against bacterial-induced diarrhea even in infants who do not eat solid food yet (younger than 4 months), add carob powder to pumped breast milk or formula drink to correct this life-threatening condition. If your child eats solid foods already, add 25 of carob powder to carrot soup to successfully block even E. coli.

anise, ginger, walnut

• Anise tea serves many purposes: It relieves coughs and strengthens the memory, it eliminates oily skin problems, stimulates milk flow in nursing mothers and helps with heartburn and indigestion. This Multi-Purpose Healing Tea can be brewed from about 7 tsp of anise seed, added to a quart of boiling water. Then let the tea simmer down to 1.5 pints. Strain. If used to relieve hacking coughs and to strengthen the memory, add 4 tsp of honey and glycerin (to preserve syrup tea, can be obtained in drugstores) while still warm, and take 2 tsp every few hours against the cough, and 2 tbsps three times a day to strengthen the memory. If used to get rid of oily skin, enhance milk flow in nursing mothers or relieve stomach problems, drink 2 cups of the strained tea once or twice daily.
• Ginger tea rids sinuses, throat and lungs of mucus buildup and breaks high fever to boot: Grate enough ginger to equal about 2 level tbsps, the add them to 2 cups of boiling water and cover. Let steep for 30 minutes, drink 1 cup while still warm every 2.5 hrs.
• To get rid of persistent coughing in the throat and excessive accumulation of phlegm in the lungs, add 3 finely ground walnuts and 3 slices of fresh finely grated ginger to any kind of warm liquid or hot broth and swallow slowly before retiring. By the next morning all symptoms of coughing and phlegm will have disappeared for good.

Fennel seed

Tea from fennel seed and barley will not only stimulate appetite, but also milk flow in nursing mothers.
Cook some barley in plenty of water, strain. Bring 1 pint of barley water to a boil, add 1.5 tsp fennel seed. Let simmer for 5 minutes, the steep for exactly 20 minutes.
A cup taken by nursing mothers will stimulate milk flow, half a cup before meals stimulates appetite.