Supplements... new vegan

[poqqy]

Hey,

I ve been reading the forums to see what if anyone is taking suplmenets to compensate for not eating meat/bi-products... any suggestsions?

thx

[NYCVeg]

The only thing you absolutely can't get from plant food is vitamin B-12. There are lots of vegan foods fortified with B-12, though--rice milk, soy milk, energy bars, cereals, meat analogs, Nutritional Yeast, etc. If you're not eating 2-3 servings of these things a day, a supplement is probably necessary.

The only other supplement I take is zinc, a few times a week.

[Jenica]

Even if I ate omni I would still take a multi. We take the VeganLife Multi (http://www.veganstore.com/index-store.html?deptid=17152&parentid=72&stocknumber=240%20%20%20%20%20%20%20IRON&page=1&itemsperpage=12) from Pangea (http://veganstore.com).

[annie7]

Originally posted by Jenica
Even if I ate omni I would still take a multi.

Me, too!

[vegma]

I seem to be ever-changing! I no longer take a multi, but I do take a b-12 supplement and DHA (O-Mega-Zen3). Looking into juicing veggies as a way to supplement...

[joanne]

We do a b-12 supplement too, but that's it. We eat a TON of raw fruits and veggies and a few cooked, take at least 1T of fresh ground flax a day, and eat plenty of legumes, so I'm not worried about it. If things change, I might reconsider ... but for now, we all feel and look so awesome; if it isn't broke, don't fix it, right?!

[NYCVeg]

poqqy: You may also want to chart your food intake on fitday.com for a couple of weeks to see what, if anything, you're actually missing from your diet. When I charted, I discovered that I was already eating way more than the RDA of C, A, folic acid, B6, etc. Given that I also eat some fortified foods (energy bars, soy milk, nutritional yeast), taking a multivitamin on top of all that seemed like overkill--particularly given that I'm not totally convinced of the effectiveness of multis (some of the vitamins/minerals interact with each other, decreasing absorption; some are toxic in very high doses, like synthetic vitamin A; and studies comparing people who get vitamins from foods to those who take a multi have shown that the multi actually doesn't provide the beneficial effects of the antioxidants in food).

That said, I don't think there's anything *wrong* with taking a multi as "insurance." But for me, it just made more sense to see what vitamins and minerals my diet might was actually lacking and to supplement selectively.

One other thing: I've also read studies that suggest high soy consumption inhibits iodine absorption. If you eat a lot of soy, you might want to 1) make sure you consume iodized salt 2) eat sea veggies a few times a week or 3) take a supplement. Most multis don't usually contain iodine.

[PikkuMyy]

I take a supplement a few times a week, basically when I remember it. I take VegLife's 100% vegan supplement called SpectraVeg. It has way more tha th RDA of almost everything so I take 3 of the 6 pills in the serving. I also drink and eat enriched substitute products so I really don't worry about it if I don't remember my vitamins so often.

I also tracked my diet on Fitday.com although it was somewhat of a pain since many of the things I eat contain multiple ingredients and there wasn't a choice for the name of the actual food when combined. I was mostly looking for protein and found that on average I was getting about 65-70 g a day (I weigh 122) so I don't worry about that and most of my vits and minerals were over the RDA or close to it.

[SemUK]

Hi, I'm new to this site, and also from England and I gather it's mainly a US site? anyway...about the vitamins thing, it is something that I sort of worry about. I've been vegan for about a year seriously, and I do take a multivitamin, and occasionally calcium, I eat plenty of fruit and Veg, but I guess just to be sure.
Also I do eat quite a lot of fortified soya stuff. Don't know if u have Holland and Barrett over there, but they do some quite good vegan multivitamins, and generally are fairly good for vegan food.
P.S it's actually only 8.30 pm over here, not 5am!

[PikkuMyy]

Hi Sem! In your user preferences, you can tell the site what timezone you're in so that it shows the correct time for you. Look in the Questions about the board subforum for a thread about it.

Welcome to the site! Yes, we're mostly from the US, but not all! One of our biggest contributors lives in Singapore (Hi Alexis!!!) and we have active members in Canada and the UK.

We don't have that brand you mentioned but we do have others like it. From what you described, it doesn't sound like you have anything to be worried about nutritionally.

[SemUK]

Thanks for that, at least I know I'm not completely the only person from England or the UK here! and everyone seems really friendly.

I tried to change the time, I looked at the subforum u mentioned, but it insists that GMT is 3 hours ahead of what it is. Oh well...doesn't really matter, I'll probably work it out at some point.
:confused: