Which foods are highest in calcium?
1 cup of Sesame seeds, whole, dried gives 1404 mg of calcium. That is 108% of the Daily Value, and it is the highest of the 1000 foods on this site that has not been fortified.
Share of the Daily Value (1300 mg) in one portion.
| Food | Portion | Amount | % DV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sesame seeds, whole, dried | 1 cup (144 g) | 1404 mg | 108% |
| Parmesan cheese, dry grated, reduced fat | 1 cup (100 g) | 1109 mg | 85% |
| Mozzarella cheese, nonfat | 1 cup, shredded (113 g) | 1085.9 mg | 84% |
| Monterey cheese | 1 cup, diced (132 g) | 984.7 mg | 76% |
| Mozzarella cheese, low sodium | 1 cup, diced (132 g) | 964.9 mg | 74% |
| Pasteurized process cheese, American, low fat | 1 cup, diced (140 g) | 957.6 mg | 74% |
| Muenster cheese | 1 cup, diced (132 g) | 946.4 mg | 73% |
| Monterey cheese, low fat | 1 cup, diced (132 g) | 930.6 mg | 72% |
| Low-sodium cheese, cheddar or colby | 1 cup, diced (132 g) | 928 mg | 71% |
| Colby cheese | 1 cup, diced (132 g) | 904.2 mg | 70% |
This ranking is per typical portion rather than per 100 g. Lists built per 100 g end up full of dried herbs and fortified bars, which is technically correct and practically useless, because nobody sits down to 100 g of thyme. Items marked fortified rank where they do because nutrients were added during manufacture, not because the food itself is rich in them.
How to read this list
This table is cheese with a bowl of sesame seeds on top, and both entries need a word of caution.
The sesame figure is for a whole cup, which nobody eats. A tablespoon is the real unit, and it is a fifteenth of the number shown. The cheeses are measured by the cup as well, which is a much larger serving than most people cut for themselves.
The second thing worth knowing is that milligrams on a label and calcium in your body are not the same quantity. About 27 per cent of the calcium in milk is absorbed, against about 5 per cent of the calcium in spinach, because oxalic and phytic acid hold on to it. Dairy, fortified drinks, tinned fish with bones and low-oxalate greens such as kale are where the absorbable calcium actually is.
The list also says nothing about how calcium reaches most people. In American survey data, milk and dairy supplied about 37 per cent of it and mixed dishes, mostly pizza, sandwiches and pasta, another 17 per cent. Bread, rolls and tortillas carried over half of the 12 per cent that came from grains. Read a table of the densest foods as a map of where calcium is concentrated rather than of where yours is coming from.
Three places the table cannot look
The first is the carton. In an audit of 129 plant milks, 80.6 per cent were fortified with calcium, and as a group they matched cow's milk for it while falling short on protein, iodine and B12. The other fifth had none added, and an unfortified almond or rice drink holds almost none of its own. The share fortified went from 42.6 per cent in 2020 to about 80 per cent within four years, so this is a label to check rather than a brand to memorise.
The second is the tap. Where dairy is scarce, drinking water becomes a real source. In Madagascar's national survey it supplied about 19 per cent of all the calcium adolescents and non-pregnant women got, roughly 57 mg a day, against a total intake of only 200 to 300 mg. Calcium rich mineral water is absorbed at least as well as calcium from dairy, on four small studies that a review could only pool by direction and not by size. Hard water is not a plan. It is one reason the arithmetic sometimes comes out better than a food diary suggests.
The third is your kitchen. Five women ate tortillas twice, once from ordinary maize and once from maize bred to hold about 60 per cent less phytate. Absorption went from 35 per cent of the dose to 50 per cent. Five women is a small number and the size of that effect is uncertain. The direction is the part worth keeping: what holds on to the calcium in a grain depends on how that grain was grown and treated, not only on which grain it is.
What calcium from food has been shown to do
Two things, both modest, both in people who had little to start with. Adding calcium to everyday food lowered parathyroid hormone, and children came out 0.83 cm taller with slightly denser bone at the hip. A year of daily milk in four to six year olds lowered parathyroid hormone by about 13 per cent and built measurably more bone in the forearm, with nothing at all in the legs.
Parathyroid hormone is the one measurement that reliably moves here, and it goes down when calcium goes up. Everything else on the list, including how you feel, stays where it was. This is a nutrient you get right over years rather than one you notice working.
If you take supplements rather than eat these foods, split the dose. You absorb about 36 per cent of a 300 mg dose and about 28 per cent of a 1,000 mg one.
One reason to build the number from this table rather than from a bottle. Across 35 prospective cohorts with 163,657 deaths, calcium from food tracked with slightly lower mortality, while calcium from supplements tracked with nothing. The trials that raised a cardiovascular question all tested tablets of 1,000 mg or more taken at once, and food never delivers calcium that way. The evidence on that is a page of its own.
The reason to bother with this table at all is what happens without it. Long-term calcium shortage reduces bone strength and leads to osteoporosis, which means fragile bones and a higher chance of breaking one in a fall. Blood calcium stays normal throughout, because the body takes what it needs from bone, so there is no symptom to wait for.
Written from the evidence cards and the data on this page, then checked back against the sources. Bioma Learn has no human medical reviewer at this time and we say so rather than invent one. Information, not medical advice. How we verify.
Full guide: Calcium: the supplement question that experts still disagree about
Data: USDA FoodData Central. % Daily Value against the FDA DV of 1300 mg. Checked 2026-09-15.