How do I figure out what to supplement? page

[mdlaw]

I would love if there was an easy and comprehensive resource on how to figure out what nutrients and minerals each person should supplement.

For example, I'm a mid 20s pale ass white guy. I eat pretty primally, although I didn't come from a position where I was facing any serious health or fitness problems (except a bit of pudge and atrophy that's reversing well for me with eating generally low carb and lifting heavy things on a regular basis for the first time in my life). Recently I've begun taking two 1000 iu vitamin D pills and two 1200mg fishoil + 1000 iu pills each morning and evening. (the oil pills are 300ish mg grams of Omega 3- it's not one of those crap pills that advertises as having O3 and O6, but wtf is the rest of the oil?). I also take zinc at least once a day, usually with dinner since it can be rough on a empty stomach. Like I said, I eat roughly primally, lots of beef, onions, full fat dairy, herbs and spices, etc. Probably don't get as many veggies as some, as I tend to overestimate my needs and buy so much it spoils... Mostly conventional stuff, since I am a poor student, but GF from time to time. It would be so cool if I could punch all this into some website wizard and have it spit out some recommendations. Is such a thing even possible? I know a lot of people have forumals for particular supplements... I wonder if they could all be hooked together in a spreadsheet or calculator of some sort, but I am excel-impaired.

Pipedreams aside, anyone have suggestions for me? Only real potential mineral/nutrient problem I've noticed recently is getting charliehorse type cramps in various muscles sometimes when engaged in... vigorous adult activity. I do eat bananas from time to time, not sure what the deal with potassium is.

[FairyRae]

Check this out, you may find it helpful: http://1stholistic.com/nutrition/hol...f-symptoms.htm

Mark recommends all folks take a multimineral/multivitamin of some sort (along w/ fish oil, probiotics, and supplemental vit D). Supplementing may help w/ your charliehorses. Potassium could definitely be an issue there. Someone else posted recently about leg cramps that were relieved by some sort of greens supplement.

HTH!

[cillakat]

I would love if there was an easy and comprehensive resource on how to figure out what nutrients and minerals each person should supplement.

There is.....me!

A bit swamped still with....well, with stuff and i'm also getting ready to drive to MI tomorrow but once I'm settled there I should have some time.

Feel free to nudge me repeatedly.


K

[mdlaw]

There is.....me!

A bit swamped still with....well, with stuff and i'm also getting ready to drive to MI tomorrow but once I'm settled there I should have some time.

Feel free to nudge me repeatedly.


K

nudge!

[Athena]

I started getting really bad foot cramps and I found out it was from eating too much red meat (too much iron in the blood) I cut it down to 3-4x a week instead of everyday and my cramps went away. You can help by making cilantro tea to clear out the excess iron too. (boil cilantro with a bag of tea of your choice, yerba mate or peppermint works well to hide the cilantro taste).

[barryman9000]

I've used www.fitday.com to get an idea. You input all your foods for the day, and it will spit out a graph showing the amounts of some basic vitamins & minerals. If you don't like the Zinc supplements, my understanding is a serving of Oysters will give you enough Zinc to last the week. Easy to get once a week at happy hour!

From reading it seems the main vitamins/minerals that are tough to get (even eating Primally for some) are vitamin D, Magnesium and Omega 3. For me, I found my Magnesium is usually ok, but Calcium was usually low.

Here's a good Dr. Eades article about Magnesium and inflammation:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/u...-inflammation/