everything i've read tells me to try to get your vitamins from food, including fortified food. supplements are often absorbed poorly, and i have absorption issues on top of it. they are often too high dosage and mostly end up just killing your kidneys.
the only supplements i currently take are
- vitamin d at 1000 iu/day (because i need it)
- vitamin c, at 250 mg (a 1 g pill cut in 4) every six hours, to superdose
- calcium in tums
that's it.
however, i get my b12 and b1, b2, b3, b6 and b9 from fortified nutritional yeast, soy and (usually) pasta. there's some a in the soy and the margarine, but not enough. the soy is fortified with minerals.
i should get enough minerals certainly (except maybe iron) and vitamins probably from my diet, which was designed to meet a high nutrient requirement. but i haven't been following it lately and may not follow it closely for a while. it may have too many calories for my current lifestyle, which has been forced to change to adjust to the need to shelter in place while these stalkers keep harassing me. if i'm exercising less, i'm burning less calories and need to eat less in response. that means i'm less able to get the required nutrients from my diet, and this is decreasing with the decision to remove nutrients from food and make it less healthy.i may see little value in buying some foods in my diet at all. without high levels of fortification, they become empty calories that should not be purchased at all but should rather be removed from my diet altogether. these items would include things like yogurt, bread and maybe even soy milk, which is just needless calories, without the high fortification. it means i would want to shift my diet to an almost entirely fresh produce diet - fruits, vegetables, spices, cheese, eggs - and only buy the minimal sauces needed on the basis of taste.
i want to avoid potent pills, and have found a series of vitamin pills (in addition to the c and d) tht include:
1) vitamin a - 5000 iu, which i would take every third day. this is still too much but it's better than 10000 iu.
2) a b complex with:
b1 - 30 mg
b2 - 30 mg
b3 - 25 mg
b5 - 25 mg
b6 - 25 mg
b7 - 50 mcg
b9 - 500 mcg
b12 - 250 mg
choline (may be a future b vitamin, like b16) - 25 mg
inositol (pseudo-b8) - 25 mg
inositol was once listed as b8 but your body can make it. it acts like a vitamin.
choline is now considered a vitamin by some, but your body does make it, sort of.
this is more complete than the yeast and is on the brink of being too much. it is way too much b1, b2, b6, b12 and less b9 than in the yeast i currently take. but i can't find yeast with enough b9, and my diet is low in b5. taking one of these a day would make sure i get enough of everything and make questions around insufficient fortification irrelevant, allowing me to drastically reduce the amount of calories i'm consuming, and to cut a lot of excess protein from my diet.
if i go back to exercising more, i may stop taking these and start eating more. but if i'm exercising less, i should take more vitamins and eat less food.
3) same c
4) same d)
5) vitamin e - 100 iu, which i would take every third day, and always the day after the a. this is still too much but it's better than 400 iu.
6) vitamin k1 - 100 mcg & vitamin k2 50 mcg, which i would take every third day and always the day after the e.
7) i'm going to hold off on heme iron because i'm using a cast iron skillet to make bacon and get a lot n my spices. i want to test it first. i could end up taking heme iron.
i don't expect i would have any deficiencies in things like potassium or magnesium. i would want to test.
so, that's ready to go for next cycle.