Breathe Magazine

Follow Brooke in this special Breathe blog mini-series as she aims her eating habits toward getting a full daily dose of calcium.

“Let’s see if I can tell you something about osteoporosis you don’t already know.” That’s what Sally Field asked me from her latest Boniva commercial the other day. After these past two months of calcium research and experimentation, I’m pretty sure my response to Sally is, “No, you can’t.” (Obviously there’s always more I could [...]

After last week’s slip-up, I’ve  gotten my act together. 6 weeks into this, I finally had a week of good, decently healthy, and tasty eating, with an average of almost 75% calcium intake each day. Right now I’m a bit obsessed with recipes, planning for next week’s Thanksgiving extravaganza, so for this week’s post I [...]

Wow. I apologize. I’ve really let everyone down this week, with an average of only 54% calcium in my diet. I’d like to blame it on being stuck at the Logan Airport Hilton outside Boston for three days at a conference, with no dining option other than Connolly’s – a hotel restaurant with crappy food [...]

My sister came to visit this week, and in the course of a conversation about how much milk we drink (see how writing this blog has changed my daily interactions?) she mentioned that her roommate has been diagnosed with calcium overload. So to anyone who’s read this blog about trying to hit 100% of the [...]

Have you seen those commercials for a calcium supplement that scare you with the warning that your body is stealing calcium from your bones? I feel like I used to hear them in the background on TV all the time, until I started writing this blog and actually listening for them. Now i can’t find [...]

Ok, let’s get this week’s percentage report out of the way – I averaged 73% of my daily recommended calcium intake. That’s actually kind of an estimate of an estimate, since one of those nights I just gave up on an accurate tally of food and assumed I’d hit or gone over my full allowance. [...]

I think I’m coming to the realization that few of my favorite foods are good for me, calcium-wise. And few of the foods I know are good for me in other ways – lots of vegetables, lean proteins, etc. – do me any benefit calcium-wise either. Basically, this is shaping up to be a weird [...]

Ok, so it looks like I’m going to have to step up my calcium game. My first-week tactic of just being more mindful of what I’m eating didn’t really work, as my intake still hovered around 55-60% of my recommended daily dose. There were, however, two good days when I hit 98 and 101%, marked [...]

A quest to get healthier should start with a trip to the gym or a visit to the doctor but instead, like all good things, mine began over a meal of homemade biscuits and sausage gravy.
My pal Joanna was treating me to this deliciousness (oh yes, plus muffins accompanied by her bourbon butter or some [...]