Yogurt - And My Calcium Dilemma

I have been on a vegetarian diet for over four months now as I try to control my type 2 diabetes without medication. (The two medications I've been on for the past year and a half have both had negative side effects.)

Years ago, I read that vegan diets are especially good for lowering blood sugar naturally. I tried a vegan diet briefly at that time, and it did help. But a vegan diet is also very restrictive. Vegans don't eat any animal products, including milk products and eggs. I need protein so I want to eat both. I also rely heavily on milk for the 1200 mg of calcium I've been told to consume daily.

I've been paying more attention to the amount of calcium in foods I eat... and I've discovered - to my surprise - that different 2% plain yogurts contain different amounts of calcium. I find that hard to believe as I'd always thought that 2% yogurt, made of 2% milk which has been soured with a certain bacterial culture, so wouldn't they be pretty much the same? But whereas all milk all appears to have the same amount of calcium in it - approximately 300 mg per cup - yogurt can vary greatly...

As I read nutritional labels, I notice that calcium content varies from 150 mg. per half a cup of yogurt (or 15% of the daily recommended intake of 1000 mg. for a healthy person) to 350 mg. per 3/4 of a cup.

This can mean a difference of up to 2 servings of yogurt a day, if I wanted to get all my calcium from yogurt...

If I ate the 350 mg of calcium per 3/4 cup of yogurt type, I'd get just over 1000 mg of calcium by eating 3 servings or 2 1/4 cups of yogurt a day. If I ate the 150 mg. of calcium per half a cup of yogurt type, I'd need to eat 7 half-cup servings or 3 1/2 cups of yogurt daily to get the same amount of calcium.

What to do?!!

For now, I'm eating the yogurt that claims to have a higher calcium content. At the same time, (being a naturally-skeptical person) I wonder how accurate the nutritional labels on food really are!

But, next time I see my doctor - in about a month's time, I definitely plan to ask her about it.