Figured I'd x-post this here since it's a busier forum.

I'm just wondering what you all do on a daily basis to ensure that you are meeting your nutritional needs. I've been really tired and low on energy lately, and I'm wondering if I'm missing out on something. I take a multivitamin, and try to eat well-balanced, although my diet tends to be heavy on grains. I prefer everything to be as unrefined/untampered with as possible. Keeping it close to the source, kwim? We eat a lot of raw fruits and veg. I add nutritional yeast to some foods, but not every day, same with blackstrap molasses. Are those things I should be using every day, to get the best benefits? What about flaxseed oil?

So, here are the questions:
- What supplements do you take?
- How do you make sure you get enough protein? What about fats?
- What do you do to get enough B12? Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids? Iron?
- Also, is there anything special I should be doing for my kids?

Thanks in advance for your help.

For protein:
There are five groups in the plant food realm. Fruits, veggies, roots/tubers, legumes, grains. (I think I got that right)

anyway, and there are a number of amino acids that make up complete proteins. Our body makes up most of these building blocks itself, but there are a number of "essential amino acids" (I think 8 are the "essentials") that our body can't make. To get them, we either have to eat complete proteins (meats, and very few plant matters like soy and some other legumes). or another more tricky, but quite easy to accomplish way: Each of these groups is (generally speaking of course) lacking in just one or two of the essentials. but each group characteristically is missing a different set. So if we combine two or more of the groups at a sitting (like a piece of fruit with some nuts, or some whole grain bread and a salad) then we pretty safely can assume we've got all the building blocks in our meals to get all the protein we need.

Other things that could be missing are Iron, zinc and a couple of the B vitamins. these can be supplemented, but are also attainable quite easily in the diet. a few tricks exist for assimilating them better too.

For iron, eat iron rich foods with some vitamin c source like a glass of OJ. and/or Cook in iron pans.

B vitamins come a great deal from whole grains. So keep them in your diet in abundance.

I don't know many other tricks, so you may have to come up with them on your own. sorry.

Here's what I do for me and my daughter, and I generally feel well. (but keep in mind that iron is particularly important for a woman)

- Eat a varied diet. If you succeed at this, you generally get two plant-food groups, just by accident. As a rule of thumb I just make it a rule that if we had it yesterday we don't have it today. (unless it's leftovers and we've applied the rule to the other meals of the day)
- Eat Raw before cooked. (so salad before meal, not during) Supposedly we absorb nutrients better if we prime our bellies with raw.
- take my multivits (or B vits) with juice. Preferrably OJ.
- Excercise.

That's it. and it worked for me.

We aren't vegetarian but have limited diets due to allergies. We have to avoid dairy and gluten grains. I am always looking for ways to improve nutrition. Amaranth has all the "essential amino acids" Ian was referring to. It is a really great food for you and extremely versatile. We use it as a hot cereal in the mornings and with supper as a savory dish.

We do the Flax Seed Oil and ground flax seed in almost all foods. It helps with regularity and supplies us with some essential fatty acids.

We also do a multi-vite. Check yours to make sure it is complete for you. It turns out the girls' was not, so I switched. They have been eating a lot better since switching. Something they were missing was needed, me thinks. Just because a vitamin seems pretty complete, it might not be just right for you and your diet. You may be getting too much of something and/or not enough of something else.

We also do probiotics to help with flora balance. Because of our lifestyle, we encounter more bad things than I would like. I could control more of it but some I just can't. And, in the last 6 months, we have all be on antibiotics. So the probiotics are a must for a while.

We also do a zinc lozenge each day. My girls' appetite suck if they do not. Plus, before starting this, they were sick A LOT!

Most recipe software will give you the nutritional information of the recipe you use. This might be helpful to see what you are getting in a day and what you might be lacking. I am considering it. However, because of the "odd" recipes I use, I would have to enter many of the ingredients in by hand and I just have not had the "gumption" to do it yet (or money).

Thanks, both of you.

So Ian, do you also take a separate B vitamin supplement?

Michelle, how do you use the flax seed oil? I got a bottle of a flax seed blend yesterday, and it says I can add it to anything, but I shouldn't heat it. do you mix it in salad dressing, or just pour it on things? I don't tend to use a lot of oil, except maybe a touch for cooking, and some in my salad dressing, so the notion of just pouring a teaspoon on my food doesn't come across as really appealing, kwim?
Tell me a bit more about probiotics, if you don't mind. We eat yogurt with active cultures every day. Is that enough to keep our guts happy? :)

Sabina

I pour about 1/2 tsp on a variety of stuff through the day. Like quinoa or amaranth in the mornings. (Oatmeal for those that can eat it.) Mix it up well and you never know it is there. Than pour another 1/2 tsp on something (after cooking) at lunch. On a sandwich, I will spread mayo on the bread then the Flax Seed oil, then sprinkle on some flax seed meal. Then add my toppings like pb&j or hummus, etc. You can mix it right into the peanut butter or hummus.

For some reason when I hit enter, it posted it before I was finished.

Probiotics. Yogurt is good at helping things stay in check. But, if they get out of check, most yogurts do not have enough to get things back right. Also, the sugar in most yogurts can feed the bad guys. I use Garden of Life's Primal Defense. It has all kinds of friendly organisms in it. It tastes like dirt. But, mix it in a little honey and you never notice. Or some carrot or tomato juice. My system is always out of whack. I am allergic to yeast and it is impossible to avoid. Just when I think I can keep my girls off antibiotics, one of them winds up with something where you can't avoid them. (At least not here since we do not have homeopathic drs.) I am hoping that since Spring is finally here, I can keep them off of them for months. Maybe by then their bodies will be "normal" again and be able to fight things better next winter. With our food allergies, it can be difficult to keep us in tip top shape.

HTH.

Originally posted by mama_frog
Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids? Iron?
- Also, is there anything special I should be doing for my kids?


For the above: avocado, canola oil, molasses and lots of dark green leafy veggies.

The best thing is to not worry constantly about the "am i getting enough", if you are eating a balanced diet you do not need any supplements.

It seems to me that the recommendations for everything in America is way too high, a lot higher than europe (proteins, b12, etc...)

Dh is a vegetarian since 30 years, he never took any kind of supplement, never worried about his diet, and recently he went for a throughout check up and the doc was amazed to see how perfect his levels were in everything.
Same with me, I didn't take any supp. even during pregnancy, because I knew my diet was good. I never lacked anything and Vidura was 8.2 at birth.

My only "concern" with my diet is my weight, lol! but I know that less cake and deep fried savouries will solve that, hahaha.

Sorry, my email notification for this thread didn't work until just now.

Sabina, I only take a separate B vite if i've been down on energy. (I may not even need it, but since B vitamins are water soluable, they will just leave with your pee, if you have an excess amount. So I don't worry about having to much of the B vites in me). B vitamins have something to do with energy, and I can't remember exactly what. I belive it has to do with hemoglobin and oxygen carrying capacity. Then again, I may be thinking of iron.

I sound highly educated, don't I? Snicker snicker.

also, never worry about omega 6s. You get those in just about absolutely every food that was ever processed. No matter how "healthy" the processed food is, it contains omega 6's. It's the omega 3's you want more of, because a 50/50 balance between 6s and 3s is believed to be the right amount.

And Squigglymama's right. We don't need the suppliments, they are mostly for people without variety in their diets. If you vary your diet, you're likely to not need anything. My main point with the nutrients I listed in my first post, is that the vegetarian diet is lower (but not entirely lacking) in these nutrients. So they would probably be the only ones you'd be concerned about. IF-- you only recently became vegetarian and are in the process of readapting. If it's been a while, it may be something else entirely. who knows????