The Fruit Highest In Calcium Isn't An Orange Or A Banana

The importance of calcium really can't be overstated. It strengthens our bones and our teeth, can help keep our blood pressure low, keeps our nerves communicating effectively with each other, and is even thought to help prevent cancer. We need calcium, and our bodies don't make it. We have to get it from other sources, and food is a much healthier way to do this than supplements — especially fruits and vegetables. 

You likely know the usual suspects when it comes to calcium-rich fruits, like oranges, bananas, and blackberries. But when you want to get nutrients into your daily routine, it's a real life-saver to know the full extent of your options — the more sources you have to work with, the better, the more exciting, and the easier to manage every day. We rounded up 10 fruits packed with calcium you might be overlooking to help with this, and the top fruit may be a surprise: prickly pear. 

Prickly pear is an edible cactus fruit that grows worldwide but primarily in the Western Hemisphere and is especially prevalent in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Prickly pear boasts 83 milligrams of calcium per cup. That's compared to 72 milligrams in 1 cup of oranges or tangerines, 42 milligrams for the same amount of blackberries, and just 6 milligrams in one medium-sized banana. Clearly, prickly pear is a winner if you want to get some more calcium in your diet. In addition, it's rich with antioxidants and fiber. 

Your best bet of finding prickly pear is in your supermarket's international section, or specialty food shops. The fruits look like slightly larger kiwis, but instead of brown fuzz, they have a spiky skin that can be a sunset-esque mix of pink and yellow. The flavor of prickly pears is sweet and has been likened to watermelon crossed with strawberries or bubblegum. However you eat them, you need to discard the skin before eating. Keep them in the refrigerator, where they should last one to two weeks. When you're ready to prepare one, hold it in place with a fork and cut off its ends with a knife. Then, it will be easier to slice the skin open and pop the fruit out. 

The fruit is delicious on its own. Use it to upgrade your regular fruit salad. Prickly pear is a fresh flavor pop on a spread with cheeses and other fruits and veggies, too. It makes a refreshing juice — batching a beverage up is a handy way to get your prickly pear in every day. There are all kinds of add-ins that are tasty with the juice, too, like mint, basil, and hibiscus. Prickly pear sauce is popular in Southwestern cuisine, so you can even get the fruit in at dinnertime. And while cocktails are for a little imbibing fun and certainly not health purposes, you can sneak calcium into tipples by making a tart, sweet prickly pear margarita.