It is very much in vogue to poke fun at vitamin supplements, suggesting that taking them is a waste of money, providing nothing more than expensive, brightly colored urine. For many years I took a multi-vitamin as nutritional insurance, and I supplemented with various individual vitamins periodically like C and E, and supplemented with some minerals like Zinc and Magnesium. Sometimes I would buy the Animal Pak and I still chuckle when I recall Jamie Lewis’s hyperbolic recommendation to take them because they probably cure cancer.
After completing the Bayesian Bodybuilding PT Course, I stopped taking a multi-vitamin and started only supplementing with the vitamins that are hard to get from food, and/or those which athletes or hard training individuals tend to be deficient in. I accepted that because my diet is now the healthiest it’s ever been, I probably got enough micronutrients, aka vitamins and minerals, from my food. My supplements consist of:
- Vitamin D-3 – Most people in the world are deficient, it’s very hard to get from food, and unless you’re hanging out naked in the sun for 20-30 minutes every day, you should supplement.
- Calcium – Critically important, helps with the absorption of Vitamin D and pretty important for strength trainees for bone health.
- Zinc – Almost everyone on Earth is deficient. Critical for proper hormonal function.
- Magnesium – Critically important and again, hard to get enough from food.
- Vitamin K – Didn’t know it existed, important for blood clotting and hard to get from food.
I will state confidently that my diet would be considered excellent compared to the average American. I don’t eat restaurant food, packaged food, fast food, or processed food. I eat broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, Lima beans, peas, or mixed vegetables every day. I eat blueberries, blackberries or strawberries every day. I take Omega-3 fish oils every day. I don’t eat processed red meats like bacon, sausage or jerky. I get 38 grams of fiber in my diet every day. There’s a salad of spinach, carrots, tomatoes, and mushrooms in my daily fare. Sweet potatoes are my basic starchy carbohydrate staple, and I eat eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, salmon, turkey and chicken as my primary protein sources. Suffice it to say, if anyone should be getting the vitamins and minerals they need from their diet, it’d be me.
I heard about Cronometer listening to a Revive Stronger podcast interview with Examine’s Kamal Patel. I’ve been using Lose It for almost 8 years, so I didn’t feel like I needed a new food tracking app, but he indicated it tracked micronutrients, which Lose It does not. So I downloaded it to check it out. This post isn’t about Cronometer, so I won’t review it and instead will focus on my findings. Yesterday, I ate my typical day’s foods so the Daily Report the Cronometer provides is a good snapshot of whether I’m hitting all my goals. It allows you to input supplements in addition to food, so my supplemental D, K, etc. are also factored in. Before I disclose the surprising results, let’s talk about the RDA.
The Recommended Daily Allowance is an average intake that should keep the average healthy person from being deficient in these nutrients. Think about that for a moment. It’s not an optimal level, or an amount that is beneficial for health outcomes or longevity. It’s the bare minimum to keep the average healthy person from being deficient. If you aren’t getting the RDA at an absolute minimum, you’re deficient and that’s assuming you’re healthy overall. It’s also assuming your diet is pretty good, so that you’re getting lots of nutrients from the food you eat. If your diet looks like a fast food commercial, or features things that you buy at gas stations on the way to work, your diet is not only not pretty good, it’s awful. If you have any underlying health issues, you’re not the average healthy person the RDA is referring to.
My typical day’s nutrition fell below the RDA for B1, B5, choline and folate. It fell short of the RDA for Vitamin C. It fell desperately short for Vitamin E. On the minerals side, it was a bit better missing only copper and manganese. The first day I used the Cronometer I fell short on potassium as well, so I checked into why that might be since potassium is a pretty critical essential mineral. It seems I didn’t have an Avocado that day and that’s my highest source of it.
Now I could try to tweak my diet even more to add foods high in these micronutrients I’m lacking, and I probably will, like adding a banana every day to get enough potassium, but even my relatively obsessive nature around health and fitness isn’t going to be optimal every day, and there’s one major assumption we all make as consumers: that the food we’re buying and eating actually has all the nutrients we expect them to have. If you think about the odds that the strawberries you’re eating were grown in good soil, are relatively fresh, haven’t been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals, weren’t exposed to excessive heat or cold in shipping, storage and display, well, I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on it being the perfect specimen.
My first order of business is just to make up for the deficiencies so I ordered a B Complex, some Potassium supplements and Vitamin E. However, I can pretty clearly see some kind of catchall supplementation in my future. I may even go back to the Animal Pak because they’re just that cool.
So if you jumped on the vitamins suck bandwagon because you saw a headline somewhere, it’s time to update your priors. Your beliefs should change based on new information. Don’t take my word for it though, take a day or two to write down everything you eat every day and see where you fall against the RDA. I’m not a gambling man, but you being deficient is probably a very safe bet.
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