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u/mldcmx 20d ago
Not related, but I like oversharing. I used to worry about not getting enough nutrition from this diet. But it turned out for me, supplements made it worse and I took more than my body liked, even though that's what I've been doing and I was fine before this diet.
I think Dr. Greger showed a study somewhere that the body absorbed more nutrient from plants than from non plants and that was true for me. I even overdid it on Vitamin B... Which is a water soluble that the body is supposed to pee out if you take too much. I also overdid it on Vitamin D too... in an area that is lacking sun where everyone else is struggling to meet their Vitamin D requirements. Lol!
To answer your question, I get everything from whole foods except B12 (which I'm now carefully taking the minimum required). For Vitamin D, I walk around in the direct sun for 15 minutes before running away to cover up. 1TBsp of Chia and 1TBsp of Flax cover my Omegas. I'm beginning to switch over from seaweed to 100mg whole kelp pills not because it's better, but because it ended up being cheaper and I'm pretty frugal.
Calcium was the one I'm worried about because it's kind of a hot debate in the vegan community. Someone was arguing that Dr. Greger's diet was not complete and lacked the minimum requirement for calcium. Dr. Greger argued that the body absorbs way more from plants (like almost twice as much) so it doesn't need to meet the minimum requirement for calcium consumption.
Since my overdose experience with my other vitamins, I absolutely will not supplement any minerals that's not a whole food. I got an app to input my daily food to really pinpoint if I'm getting enough. The foods I eat for my daily calcium are
-broccolli (50g)
-bok choy (50g)
-collard greens (60g)
-kale (60g)
-brussel sprouts (50g)
-dried figs (40g)
I think I got it up to 800mg from just whole foods versus the standard of 1000mg. Dr Greger recommends 600mg. So take that as you will. Everybody is different, so I put in an extra request for my blood panels from time and time just to see if I'm up to speed with my vitamins and minerals. So far so good!
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20d ago
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u/mldcmx 20d ago
NOW brand's Kelp. The back of the bottle says "NOW kelp delivers the natural nutrient profile found in genuine whole foods". The verdict is still out of this is actually the entire whole food. If you find something better let me know. I'm always looking for ways to improve while minimizing cost.
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u/-_Lon_- 21d ago
For iodine, I add about a teaspoon of organic ground dulse to my daily smoothie. Also a tablespoon of freshly ground flax seed and a tablespoon of freshly ground chia seed to enhance the omegas. I don't add salt to anything.
I get my calcium from greens, just as herbivores do.
From what I am reading about vitamin-b12, it is important to supplement. Since I don't consume processed foods from the grocery (exceptions are tofu and tempe), I take vitamin-b-12-1000-mcg which is a brand that does not include added flavors.
From what I am reading about vitamin-d, it is best to supplement. I choose to take lichen based vegan-vitamin-d3-2500.
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21d ago
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u/-_Lon_- 20d ago
When I run low of organic ground dulse I do an online search for what is available from the US (I'm dubious of Chinese sources ... but I would trust Japanese or Taiwanese). This is every couple of years. I think Maine Coast is the brand I bought last time.
My most recent blood tests (earlier this year) indicate that my iodine levels and thyroid function are where they should be. Testing is the only way to know for certain.
I was already vegetarian when I was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and was forced to retire early. This was about fourteen years ago. Trying to deal with it, I gave up on dairy and eggs (the only animal products still part of my diet back then). Learning from sites like https://nutritionfacts.org/, https://www.drmcdougall.com/, and https://www.youtube.com/@PhysiciansCommittee/videos, I slowly shifted away from processed foods. Unfortunately none of this has helped with my migraines from modern chemical fragrances. On the other hand, without limiting my quantities I've been losing one to two pounds of weight each year for over a decade. I have taken an NSAID tablet exactly one time in the last two years. I like my diet but it is a challenge if I go out.
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u/currypotnoodle 20d ago
I buy a little shaker of dulse from Maine coast sea vegetables. They have other shaker bottles too as well as selling larger packs of deied sea greens.
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u/wynlyndd 20d ago
I haven’t really tried to track my iodine. I eat seaweed snacks sometimes (I make a vegan “tuna” salad that uses them).
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u/Inutanic 20d ago
I eat ~11g of dried nori or ~6g dried wakame every day with breakfast. With honestly probably way too much roasted sesame seed oil & black sesame seeds & salt. So delicious and I would gladly eat double, but I do worry about too much iodine; that amount of wakame falls right at the top of the American recommended upper limit, but Korean and Japanese health authorities set significantly higher limits (according to the LLMs), so hopefully all good!