Hi,
I went to my doctor recently and he used some metaphor to explain that I need to supplement my diet. He told me that my body is like a construction company and it’s used to building a few houses here and there, but I’m telling it to build a whole city. I’m giving it enough raw materials (carbs/protein/fats), but…
Well I forgot the rest.
But the point was that my liver is filtering a ton of shit and needs more vitamins to keep up. And he said that I need a lot more vitamin E for my skin to keep up with growth (I’m covered in stretch marks). He also said my joints were pretty inflamed. I don’t have tendinitis or anything, but I get occasional elbow pain and such.
He tried to sell me a bunch of Standard Process inc. supplements, but I’d like to hear from you guys first.
Is there a good multivitamin that I should be taking? I get a lot of calories, but it’s mostly the same food. I’d like to supplement with a multivitamin.
I do take fish oil. I stopped for a while out of laziness, but it makes my joints feel better.
My diet is mostly milk, meats, some grains (buckwheat/rice), but not much, and fruits and some vegetables.
I’m 16, 230lbs, 5’11’'.
SUMMARY:
I’m looking for a good multivitamin. Help please
I’m not a big supporter of vitamins, personally I think it’s a waste of money & packed with more filler than vit & min. Instead spend your cash on cabbage,Kale,kiwi,spinach,broccoli,chard,wild fish,berries. They contain a ton of mineral,phyto chems,vit, anti inflam, anti oxidants,fiber & most are pretty low in calories.
I’m not gonna sit there measuring out and eating all that shit. I’d much rather just take a multivitamin and use my stomach space eating food that’ll make me grow.
[quote]Artem wrote:
I’m not gonna sit there measuring out and eating all that shit. I’d much rather just take a multivitamin and use my stomach space eating food that’ll make me grow.[/quote]
Are you saying that you’re avoiding fruits and vegetables because you want to grow???
Newsflash – your body needs more than protein, carbs, and fat to grow.
I’m looking for a good multi vitamin too, the one I was recommended is a little too expensive for me. PM me if you want me to send you the link. Its a naturally made multi vitamin.
[quote]HK24719 wrote:
Artem wrote:
I’m not gonna sit there measuring out and eating all that shit. I’d much rather just take a multivitamin and use my stomach space eating food that’ll make me grow.
Are you saying that you’re avoiding fruits and vegetables because you want to grow???
Newsflash – your body needs more than protein, carbs, and fat to grow.[/quote]
Yes it does and he’s getting a good amount of it from the “food” he’s eating to grow. If you will read the man’s original post you’ll see reference to fruit and some vegetables. As a general recommendation telling someone to eat more vegetables is fine, but in some cases that advice is neither practical or helpful. If he misses one day of “vegetable loading” than the advice has failed him and he would have been better served with a multivitamin than nothing.
Here’s a more constructive way of answering that question: “It’s my opinion that you should get the majority of your micronutrients from fruit and vegetables, but supplementation isn’t a bad idea if you feel you need more.” In a perfect world “just eat more fruits and veggies” is a fine answer, but this isn’t a perfect world.
As far as multis are concerned I wish I could give you the name of a good brand but in all honesty I just use the substandard ones from sams club. The B vitamins and vitamin C can be taken alone, along with a vitamin A&D and vitamin e capsules. The minerals are the more important ones when it comes to what form they are in and how well they are absorbed…try to stay away from the brands with only “oxide” forms of the minerals. Now I think it’s time for the “perfect” people to go eat another pound of Kale since it’s been 5 minutes since your last veggie load…don’t you?
I’m not saying to go eat a pound of kale. You can simply add a leaf of kale, a stick of carrot or a piece of broccoli to what ever you eat. Or you can substitute the foods you’re eating now with more a nutritious food.
ex:
kale > romaine lettuce
Pumpkin > potato
Wild fish > chicken breast
It’s a lot easier than you think.
I’m not a big supporter for multi. The self claim “high quality” organic/natural stuff is way overpriced. Separate vitamins might be a better choice but then you’d have to pop a shit load of pills.IMO multi-vitamins are only good for making you pee yellow.
I’ve heard (and witnessed, from my own neon pee) that your body can’t absorb an entire multi-vitamin at once, thus you end up with very expensive urine. The old metaphor “You wouldn’t eat all your protein in one sitting, would you?”
So I recommend to break your vitamin in half; I take half before I train and half after, in the hopes that my body is in ‘absorbing mode’ and makes better use of it.
Anyway, take that for what it’s worth. Back to the kale flame haha
Taking it with meals should help with that too, but absorption will never be 100% even from food sources. My jerky response was more in response to the other jerky “newsflash” response. I don’t think anyone would argue that getting your nutrients from pills is as good as food sources. As much as we’d all like to be idealists, realism is more attainable.
We should all be eating organic, free-range, pesticide-free foods etc etc but many of us live on a budget. A good quality multi is still far cheaper than organic veggies all day long.
Point being, the man asked for advice about a fucking multivitamin and got chastised and told to eat vegetables instead. This happens far too often on these threads. If someone asks me what’s a good motorcycle to buy I wouldn’t lecture him on safety concerns, insult him and tell him to go buy a car instead. I would say “I think this one is good or I don’t know”. Can’t we all just get along?
[quote]JMAX wrote:
Taking it with meals should help with that too, but absorption will never be 100% even from food sources. My jerky response was more in response to the other jerky “newsflash” response. I don’t think anyone would argue that getting your nutrients from pills is as good as food sources. As much as we’d all like to be idealists, realism is more attainable.
We should all be eating organic, free-range, pesticide-free foods etc etc but many of us live on a budget. A good quality multi is still far cheaper than organic veggies all day long.
Point being, the man asked for advice about a fucking multivitamin and got chastised and told to eat vegetables instead. This happens far too often on these threads. If someone asks me what’s a good motorcycle to buy I wouldn’t lecture him on safety concerns, insult him and tell him to go buy a car instead. I would say “I think this one is good or I don’t know”. Can’t we all just get along? :([/quote]
[quote]JMAX wrote:
Taking it with meals should help with that too, but absorption will never be 100% even from food sources. My jerky response was more in response to the other jerky “newsflash” response. I don’t think anyone would argue that getting your nutrients from pills is as good as food sources. As much as we’d all like to be idealists, realism is more attainable.
We should all be eating organic, free-range, pesticide-free foods etc etc but many of us live on a budget. A good quality multi is still far cheaper than organic veggies all day long.
Point being, the man asked for advice about a fucking multivitamin and got chastised and told to eat vegetables instead. This happens far too often on these threads. If someone asks me what’s a good motorcycle to buy I wouldn’t lecture him on safety concerns, insult him and tell him to go buy a car instead. I would say “I think this one is good or I don’t know”. Can’t we all just get along? :([/quote]
Umm or he can read between the lines and get the point. They are trying to saying there are no great multi-vitamins, which in another way is saying they are pretty much all the same. And not very useful. Which also means buy the first one you see at the store since you absolutely neeeeeeeedd a vitamin.
His doctor basically told him his diet sucks, but a vitamin will take care of everything. If not thats what he took out of it. He chose to relay this information to get confirmation, which many decided not to do. Otherwise he would’ve just done a search on favorite multivitamin which there are multiple threads for.
I’m a health food NUT. I eat whole grains, boatloads of vegetables, and lean meats every day. No sweets, no unatural shit, no junk food, and I STILL take a vitamin on top of it.
But unfortunately I am not very knowlegable about brands. I just kind of get whatever I can afford that has certian key items. Like some other dude said make sure and take it with a meal which may help reduce the “bedpan bullet” issue.
Also getting your extra vitamins from a good MRP isn’t a bad idea on that front.
Well this is a message board & we’re supposed to discuss our opinions! Some of you guys take shit to serious. I also opened up my comment with my belief on multi vitamins. I was just trying to spark his interest on whole food vs multi. Not shove kale down his throat.
Dips kale stem in Organic Almond Butter
[quote]Artem wrote:
He tried to sell me a bunch of Standard Process inc. supplements, but I’d like to hear from you guys first.
[/quote]
Maybe he was using scare tactics to get you to buy his brand of vit.
If you are going to take a multi then make sure it is a whole food multi and not the typical drug store brand such as Centrum. Most of the over-the-counter types have mostly man-made ingrediants and not as easily absorbed. A whole food type, which is made up of natural ingrediants, are better aborbed by our bodies. The others are just a waste of money.
Vitamin B complex + C is a good mental and energy boost, but you have to cut and take very small pieces of the pill at a time. Vitamins B and C are water soluble and cannot be stored in large amounts in the body. The kidneys will simply flush out the extra vitamins and you will have as one TV show put it, “very expensive urine”.
Some vitamins are fat soluble and high doses will build up in tissues. This can lead to overdose and poisoning.
Beyond vitamins you also need minerals, fish oils that are mercury and pollutant free, etc.
Whole foods are better than vitamins. That said, you will need to plan and acquire an extremely diverse diet in order to be sure you meet optimal conditions for excellent health. Vitamin and mineral supplements can help toward that end. A simple plan is lean protein + variety of vegetables. It is extremely hard to get significant and mercury free omega 3s (fish oils) from modern diet however.
[quote]williamj wrote:
If you are going to take a multi then make sure it is a whole food multi and not the typical drug store brand such as Centrum. Most of the over-the-counter types have mostly man-made ingrediants and not as easily absorbed. A whole food type, which is made up of natural ingrediants, are better aborbed by our bodies. The others are just a waste of money.[/quote]
Wondering, is there a big price difference in your whole food multi’s and ye olde Centrum? It’s tough enough on a wallet as it is.
Multivitamins may be a large waste of money. Natural foods contain dozens of micronutrients that are not found in a typical multivitamin. There may be a lot of underlying complexity with the absorption of these nutrients: what if your body couldn’t absorb “nutrient A” without the presence of several other nutrients that exist in the natural food, but are not in the multivitamin? If that were the case, then the naturally occuring micronutrients in food would be much more effective than the multivitamin.
You could conceivably be absorbing almost none of the nutrients that you are completely willing to eschew from your diet so that you can “grow”. How much growth do you think you’d be doing if your body was getting no micronutrients?
You seem all too ready to do what a doctor or scientist tells you to do… You don’t even remember your doctor’s (weak) analogy or argument as to why you should take a multivitamin, but you’re prepared to go out and buy one just because he said so…? I think that should concern you more than a little. Are you just going to let people tell you what to do your entire life? I’ll give you a hint.
Most of what they’ll tell you to do is to buy nonessential (often useless) commercial goods to perpetuate an economic system that relies on producing and consuming useless shit… The saddest part is that almost everyone continues to do so, because it’s easier to be told what to do than to think for yourself.
The point? Your doctor makes a living off of telling people to buy persrciption drugs and the such… He probably wants you to purchase a useless multivitamin, so that you help to keep him employed and to perpetuate the system.
