Myth: All canned salmon has calcium.

Answer: Busted!

Canned salmon comes 2 ways at the grocery store – canned and in foil packages. Canned salmon with bones is a source of calcium in the diet – ¾ cup has the same amount of calcium as a cup of milk. (Adults need 3 cups of milk or the equivalent and children 2-8 years old need 3 cups.) But look closely at packages of salmon in foil packages – they are labeled as boneless. The calcium is in the bones. If you read the Nutrition Facts label you will see that there is 0% calcium in this kind of salmon.

For more information, see the MissouriFamilies article on calcium.

Contributor: Ellen Schuster, M.S., R.D., Associate State Specialist, schusterer@missouri.edu, 573-882-1933