Bread has up to 211 mg of calcium per 100g. A slice provides up to 10% of the recommended daily intake. Eat bread with other calcium-rich foods to help meet your daily needs.
Which bread has more calcium?
Potato bread is the richest bread in calcium. It has 188 mg of calcium per 100g. A large slice provides 9% of the recommended daily intake.
The second-richest bread in calcium is wheat bread. Whole wheat bread has about 163 mg of calcium per 100g. A large slice provides 8% of the Daily Value. Whole wheat bread has about 13% less calcium than potato bread.
How much calcium in bread?
More common types of bread have between 20 and 210 mg of calcium per 100g. The calcium content depends on flour type, processing methods, as well as cooking methods.
Rice bread is one of the richest bread in calcium. It has 138 mg of calcium per 100g. A large slice of rice bread provides 6.6% of the Daily Value.
Barley bread is also high in calcium. It has 125 mg of calcium per 100g. A slice provides 6% of the DV.
Rye and oat bread have significantly less calcium. A slice provides less than 4% of the DV.
Banana bread has the lowest calcium content among other favorite breads. A large slice of banana bread provides only 1% of the DV. After all, banana isn’t a good dietary source of calcium.
| calcium (mg per 100g) | calcium (mg per small slice) | % DV | calcium (mg per large slice) | % DV | |
| potato | 188 | 51 | 5% | 90 | 9% |
| wheat | 163 | 44 | 4.4% | 78 | 7.8% |
| rice | 138 | 37 | 3.7% | 66 | 6.6% |
| barley | 125 | 34 | 3.4% | 60 | 6% |
| rye | 73 | 20 | 2% | 35 | 3.5% |
| oat | 66 | 18 | 1.8% | 32 | 3.2% |
| raisin | 66 | 18 | 1.8% | 32 | 3.2% |
| banana | 21 | 6 | 0.6% | 10 | 1% |
White or brown bread has more calcium?
Whole wheat and white bread have a similar calcium content:
- brown bread has up to 185 mg of calcium per 100g
- white bread has naturally up to 177 mg of calcium per 100g
However, white and brown flour is usually fortified with calcium.[2]
In fact, white bread may be a better vegan calcium source than brown bread because:
- many white breads are enriched with high amounts of calcium. There are white breads with up to 211 mg of calcium per 100g. A large slice provides 100 mg of calcium, which is 10% of the recommended daily intake.
- white breads have a lower phytate content than whole grain breads. Phytates in whole grains are compounds that inhibit calcium absorption.[3]
But, you should always check the nutrition facts label of flour or bread. There are unfortified, low-quality white breads with less than 20 mg of calcium per 100g!
Do we absorb calcium of tahini?
Calcium absorption varies by food type. Dairy and fortified foods have the highest absorption rate. It’s almost 30%.
Plant-based foods have a lower calcium bioavailability because they contain certain compounds that bind to calcium, inhibiting its absorption.
Besides phytic acid, whole grain bread contains oxalate. Oxalate has the highest impact on calcium absorption. Oxalic acid forms indigestible salts with calcium, substantially decreasing its absorption!
Only a few wheat varieties have a high total oxalate content, though. More whole grain breads have less than 50 mg of oxalate per 100g.[4]
White bread has the lowest oxalate content.
On the contrary, the highest oxalate content is found in wheat bran. The bran has more than 450 mg of oxalate per 100g!
Whole grain seed breads, like sesame bread, have increased phytic acid and oxalate content as well.
Does a slice of bread help meet our daily needs?
In any case, healthy people who follow a well-balanced diet shouldn’t worry about oxalic acid and phytate content of food. They don’t affect calcium status of the body.
In fact, fortified bread can help meet our daily needs of calcium:
- enriched foods have a high calcium bioavailability. We absorb calcium from enriched bread at a similar rate as milk!
- a slice provides up to 10% of the Daily Value.
How to eat bread to increase calcium intake?
Eat bread with tahini, orange jam, salad, or beans to boost your daily calcium intake.
Spreads
Firstly, you can eat a slice of bread with a calcium-rich spread, like tahini, almond butter, or peanut butter.
Nut and seed spreads are excellent vegan sources of calcium, as well as many other minerals.
In fact, tahini, which is made of sesame seeds, is the vegan food with the highest calcium content per 100g!
Also, you could add walnuts to your favorite toast. They have some calcium as well. Most noteworthy, walnuts are one of the richest vegan foods in omega-3s!
Furthermore, you could eat bread with a high-quality orange marmalade. Organic acids in orange are natural mineral enhancers! They increase calcium bio-accessibility.[5]
Salads & beans
In addition, we could consume reasonable amounts of bread with salad or beans.
Beans are among the richest vegan foods in calcium!
You can also boost your daily calcium intake by eating salads. Prefer consuming calcium-rich greens, which are low in oxalates, such as kale or cabbage.
Avoid consuming greens high in oxalate, such as spinach, and collard greens. Especially, with other calcium-rich foods, like cheese. Due to its high oxalate content, we absorb only 5% of calcium of spinach!
Moreover, we should eat bread and other calcium-rich foods with foods high in vitamin D. Vitamin D is required for calcium absorption and maintaining adequate calcium levels in blood.[6]
Don’t drink coffee
On the other hand, too much caffeine and phosphorus may affect calcium absorption. Hence, you should avoid drinking coffee or taking supplements with phosphorus, while consuming foods high in calcium.
