i think i'm getting enough b-complexes from a combination of soy milk, whole wheat bread (which is replacing the fortified pasta), salami, berries, bananas, eggs, cheese & olive oil margarine. i guess most people get their b in the form of big chunks of meat, which i do not ever eat. i might eat a chicken sandwich once in a while...but i haven't had a steak in like 20 years...and i rarely even eat burgers, anymore. so, the b comes in in fragments, but i do honestly think it's enough.
the a was low, but i fixed it by replacing green peppers with red peppers, mostly, and also by replacing pasta with eggs. i also get smaller amounts of a from ice cream, cheese, tomatoes, kiwis & the eggs, themselves. i think this is ok, now. i'm still thinking about the carrot juice...
i get something like 1000% of the rdi for c, and i like it that way. kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apple or orange juice, peppers, tomatoes, etc are all very high in c. it's probably why i look like i'm 39 going on 13.
i get a fair amount of d from the soy, but i also get some from the eggs. the best way to get d is to go outside, and i admit that's been a struggle for me lately, and may get worse over the next few months. i'll need to keep an eye on that.
i actually get enough omega-3s from the soy as well, which is also low in omega-6s. but, there's also the eggs for that. my understanding is that we actually can't even metabolize things like flax seed, so these high omega-3 diets are just pseudo-science. the daily recommended intake for most people is 1.5 g, and you get that in a glass of soy milk; the rest of it is gravy, and too much of it is probably useless. there's 10x that in a red pepper, so what do you need fish for? but, my cholesterol levels are actually in the dangerously low category, so i'm doing something right.
with fat, it's more about total intake; keep your calories down by avoiding junk and you don't need to worry about that too much. and, you may even do weird things like realize that there's 80 mg of omega-6 in a green pepper and freak out unnecessarily.
as mentioned, i'm not concerned about counting calories or reducing fat intake - with the exception of watching my saturated fats, which is pretty low. i'm not concerned about sugar or salt, either. i just mostly eat actual food, and not too much, and i think that's enough to not concern myself with that.
i actually want to hold off on the k a little due to the high amounts of estrace i'm taking, i think. it's one of the reasons i avoid cow's milk.
what about e? that might be the last thing...
i've added it up, and it seems to be like the b; it comes in in a trickle, and it's not terrible, but i'd kind of like a specific source for it. the problem seems to be that it mostly comes in via nuts, which are something that i actually do avoid due to the high fat content. i'm getting some from the peppers, some from the kiwi, some from the eggs, some from the meat, some from the bread, some from the cheese, some from the olive oil margarine, etc....but where else can i get some....?
nuts & seeds don't seem worth the trade off with saturated fats, and you'd actually have to eat a lot of them to make it worthwhile. avocados, as well. so, no thanks.
likewise, stuff like spinach and broccoli seems to be overrated; you'd need to eat a whole bowl of leafy greens to get the daily amount, and i'm not adding a regular salad to my fruit salad. well, not yet, anyways. actually, i think i just planted a seed, there....hrmmn....
there's more e & c in a kiwi than in the equivalent amount of broccoli, fwiw. i'd really just be replicating a less nutritious fruit bowl, and i'd probably be better off having two fruit bowls than supplementing with a salad bowl.
well, unless i moved the peppers and tomatoes into the salad and went back to having fried eggs. in fact, i'm a little worried about cooking the peppers & tomatoes and missing the point.
if i did that, i'd put
- one small red pepper [50% a, lots of c, 10% e, some b]
- one small tomato [less of everything, 5% e. lycopene. high in omega-6.]
- some broccoli [50% a, lots of c, lots of omega-3, some b, variable estimates for e, 5%?]
- caesar dressing [some e, actually. ]
- chopped cheese [some a, some b, 4% e, 3% d]
======================
all of the c, 25-35% of the e & all of the a, at least. + extra b. almost no d. hrmmn....
then, i'd still have my fruit bowl
- six strawberries [lots of c, some b, ~4% e]
- 1 banana [some a, some b, ~1% e]
- 1 kiwi [lots of c, some b, some a, ~10% e (with skin)]
- 20 blueberries [some c, some b, some a, antioxidants & ~1% e]
- 10 raspberries [some c, some b, some a, antioxidants, phytoestrogens & ~1% e]
- 1 serving of soy milk [some c, lots of b, lots of d]
- ice cream [some a, some b, 4% e]
=====================
all of the c, not much a, ~25% e, half of the d, some b.
so, that's only 50-60%.
if i add the eggs:
- 4 eggs [lots of b, choline, 50% a, 15% e, 25% d]
- salami [lots of b, 4% e]
- olive oil margarine [20-30% e, some a, some d?]
- cheese [some a, some b, 4% e, 3% d]
- bread [lots of b, 2% e]
=======================
50-60% e, all of the b?, most of the a, not much c, a third of the d,
so, over two days, i'd get 150%, meaning i'm getting 75%.
and i am, in truth, a little low on the e. hrmmn.
i'm also a little low on the d, but all i can do is go outside.
the internet is telling me that most people aren't low on e, but i'm looking through this and i can't figure out how to get enough without overeating. even the fish (which i'm avoiding due to mercury) doesn't really have much e, at all. and, you'd have to eat enough nuts to give yourself a heart attack; 100 g of almonds is only 65% of the dri!
unfortunately, soy nuts don't have much e. it's 3-4% the rdi for a reasonable serving. they have isoflavones :). not much e...
so, how? they'd have to eat fortified cereal, from what i can tell. there's no other way. well, that or molly, i guess. i know; wrong e.
i'm going to guess, then, that most people probably actually don't get enough e. hrmmn.
there is one sneaky answer i can see: almond milk. the way they process the almonds maintains the vitamin e, while throwing away the saturated fat.
i've checked the side of the cartons, and almond milk isn't anything close to a replacement for soy milk. the b complex vitamins just aren't there. no d. etc.
but, i can think of two ways to work some almond milk into my diet:
1) i could use it with coffee.
2) i could use it as salad dressing on these hypothetical salads.
i'm going to throw this out there to soy milk companies - why don't you add some vitamin e? contrary to what appears to be the popular myth, it seems like we don't have a lot of natural sources for this essential nutrient that don't come with their own serious health risks. i guess if you eat too much in general, you're accidentally getting enough of it by brute force. but, the irony here is that, the healthier you are, the less likely you probably are to get enough e.
i don't want to buy supplements, so i'm going to look at the almond milk as really the only answer i can find. and, this works for me, because my chocolate soy brand (so good) seems to be disappearing, and i'm trying to resist moving to this other brand (silk) that has a shitty selection of b complexes in it; the so good is legitimately healthful, and has even won awards, and the silk that is replacing it seems to essentially be junk food, marketed as a "soy drink" - itself an apparent step down from what it was a few months ago. it's depressing. so, i've been drinking my coffee black for weeks. at least moving to almond gives me a potential source of e....
i need to post this and start a new post.