I’m a medic particularly interested in this area which is rapidly advancing and a lot of accepted wisdom/marketing is rapidly being debunked. There are some great authorities around such as Prof Tim Spector (of Covid Zoe study and app fame) who is a genetic epidemiologist at Kings College London and an authority on diet and is worth reading. His latest book ‘Spoon fed’ has a chapter on supplements which basically concludes from the evidence they are more harm than good unless you have specific illnesses eg MS and with an increasing problem of overdose given many processed foods are needlessly fortified (often to make them appear healthy when they are packed with processed fats and sugars) and that some vitamins like Vit D (which is actually a hormone) can accumulate and cause problems. I’d be reluctant to take a hormone made in a far off factory with who knows what quality control rather than say get my Vit D from 15 minutes of sunshine per day or from some oily fish or a few mushrooms.
I don’t take supplements but do largely avoid processed foods and enrich my diet with foods with higher levels of polyphenols – brightly coloured fruit and veg, moderate red wine, coffee, dark chocolate etc and enrich my gut micro biome with kefir, nuts and seeds as part of a pretty normal diet. Do I feel any different, no, but I might have less of a burden of chronic disease from middle age onwards.

I take a multivit and a pretty high dose of vit D (prescribed by my neurologist). Will probably stop the multivit when the tub runs out though.

Vit D, cod liver oil and glucosamine.

A few years ago blood tests showed I had vit D and magnesium at the lower end of the range despite working outdoors all year round so I started taking a suplement of both. A recent malignant melanoma means I am now advised to cover up/use sun block while outdoors and during treatment for that my Onco advised me to double up the vit D supplement.

With the more intesive farming techniques used these days i do wonder if food contains as much vitamins and minerals as it once did

There have been studies done, showing that foods grown now contain a fraction of the nutrients they did 50 or 100 years ago. How reliable they are is another question. If true though, it’s a bit scary and we could be looking at a future where we have no choice but to supplement our diets.

Nutrition always seems to be a minefield of conflicting information.

Omega 3 – because I’m veggie

Have you found a source of that which isn’t fish?

Walnuts, Chia seeds & flax seeds come to mind.

Nutrition always seems to be a minefield of conflicting information

Would agree, there is a lot of misleading information by people selling foods to maintain their profit margin. Govt lobbying/donations by some of the food industry is part of the problem. The NHS website has balanced advice on vitamin supplements.

Vitamin D in winter and omega 3 for general health.

Magnesium to help with sleep and sports.

Beta-Alanine for endurance (iirc studies show it boosts performance as much as caffeine, but you don’t get a double boost if you take both, so the mechanisms are not clear).

Magnesium and beta-alanine are often taken as pre or during workout, that doesn’t work they are not an instant hit, they need to be supplemented regularly and be in your system.

Walnuts, Chia seeds & flax seeds come to mind.

Handy. Ta.

ok, here goes……11 pills a day for me (when i remember)

twas a recommended ‘stack’ when i started weight training, due to my poor diet (not a lot of meat or veg, more protein shakes and poached eggs on toast), and altho i dont train as much now, ive carried it on.

i do know however, that when i go a couple of weeks or so without taking them (holidays, forgetfulness etc), i ache a lot more.

3 x uni-liver dessicated beef liver
chelated zinc
2 x chelated magnesium
omega 3
vitamin B12
vitamin C
vitamin D3
glucosamine and chrondoitin

dont ask me what i take em for tho, no idea. i just trusted that it was right for me at the time and that they still help me for my joints and vitamin/mineral deficiencies at 57 years of age.

I take 5g of BCAAs, 5g of creatine and Vitamin D daily. I find as I’m getting older that it helps my training and energy levels. As long as I still feel good taking it I don’t see any point in stopping!

There have been studies done, showing that foods grown now contain a fraction of the nutrients they did 50 or 100 years ago. How reliable they are is another question.

These will be the utterly bogus scare stories I mentioned previously. Regularly debunked by people who know what they are talking about. Some higher yielding crops have slightly lower levels of some trace nutrients, but nothing that actually matters.

I particularly like the example of copper that is commonly quoted. Copper used to be liberally sprayed on to various crops as a fungicide (in the form of copper sulphate), contaminating the crop to a significant degree. This is no longer done to such an extent, so the copper level in the crops has dropped!

Possibly DDT levels are down too, best take a supplement!

I believe everyone in the uk should be taking vit d. I was tested a couple of years ago. Vit d 20% of normal levels.

I believe everyone in the uk should be taking vit d. I was tested a couple of years ago. Vit d 20% of normal levels

I was tested a couple of years ago too as part of my MS diagnosis. My levels were normal so unlike chvck my neurologist hasn’t prescribed Vit D (I do take loads of other meds though). It’ll be helpful for some people for sure but unlikely to be helpful for everyone.

I believe everyone in the uk should be taking vit d. I was tested a couple of years ago. Vit d 20% of normal levels.

What a strange statement … do you think that if everyone else in the UK takes them it will help your levels? 😉

It’ll be helpful for some people for sure but unlikely to be helpful for everyone.

That sounds more sensible. For anyone it’s probably worth getting seasonal bloods to see if there’s a consistent deficiency .

I was tested a couple of years ago too as part of my MS diagnosis. My levels were normal so unlike chvck my neurologist hasn’t prescribed Vit D

This is actually why I have them – I have MS too. I expect it’s highly neurologist dependent. Before I moved (~4 years ago) I wasn’t prescribed them.

For anyone it’s probably worth getting seasonal bloods to see if there’s a consistent deficiency .

Can I get this done by my GP?

I believe everyone in the uk should be taking vit d.

What a strange statement …

Not really, i can remember reading something similar in one of the health research thingies a few years ago when i gave shit about this sort of thing, can’t remember if it was due to shit diet or a phobia of the outside/exercise, but statistically speaking, giving everyone in the UK a generic multivitamin would be a net gain in health terms for the population.

I take 4-5000 IU daily sublingual of D3 + 150mg K2 during winter months (and 2-3 x week in the spring/summer if not getting in the sun), plus Mg Citrate 150-300mg most days. I also take a high quality multivit 2-3 x week with decent B vitamin levels. The reason being that I’d like my D levels to be optimal (125-200 nmol/l) based on research on populations who live in sunnier climates. The magnesium helps vit D synthesis/absorption and to calm neuro-inflammation/excitation apparently, and its often recommended due to depletion in our soils nowadays. I take the multi because, well why not? They are cheap and not doing me any harm. I eat well and may be getting enough from my food, but it’s my decision. I also get my levels checked bi-annually on Thriva, as GPs are not keen to do “routine” blood tests if you aren’t showing overt signs of deficiency IME. Fair enough given they are stretched, but I do believe more regular blood testing could catch issues before they cause long term effects.

Its not a strnange statement. NICE recommend it in winter.

In the uk especially scotland we do not get enough sunshine for vit d and not enough in our diet

For those taking omega-3 supplements beware of these claims:

https://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20130710/too-much-fish-oil-might-boost-prostate-cancer-risk-study-says

I am not qualified to express an opinion on the matter beyond my understanding that excessive amounts of anything appear to be potentially harmful.

After all excessive amounts of even oxygen and water has the potential to be fatal.

You can have too much of a good thing.

Can you remember where you heard/read about this trial? I seem to remember hearing about a similar trial that came to a different conclusion but my memory is pretty hazy.

Seems there have been quite a few, see: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/antioxidants-fact-sheet

It was probably this one:

Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET), United States (13–15)

Initial: increased risk of lung cancer and increased death from all causes—trial ended early

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You can have too much of a good thing.

Yep – see above for anti-oxidants!

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In the uk especially scotland we do not get enough sunshine for vit d and not enough in our diet

Although that is a generalisation across a population, so there will be people who manage to get enough as they spend more time outdoors than the norm or have a better diet than the norm.

So if you spend more time than average outdoors (eg lots of outdoor activity), you may be getting enough. Also, the Scots are not exactly known for their healthy diets….

Government advice on Vit D:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/

I spend aot of time outdoors and have a decent diet thing is we all use sunscreen and cover up

My career has largely been in the supplements industry. I am recently retired now and suffice to say the only thing I take is an (high quality) Omega 3 supplement with added vitamin d. Why? because they have the most clinical studies proving benefits.

TJ,I barely know of anybody who uses sunscreen(regularly),or covers up for that matter!Have you ever walked around England on a sunny day?

TJ,I barely know of anybody who uses sunscreen(regularly),or covers up for that matter!Have you ever walked around England on a sunny day?

Which only leaves anyone not wandering arround topless, or the other 364 days of the year as an issue.

Anyone here take potassium as a supplement? Jens Christian Skou won the Nobel prize for discovering the Sodium Potassium pump.

I also take Zinc, Vit D and a type of Magnesium I cant remember which makes me sleep like a king.

Walnuts, Chia seeds & flax seeds come to mind.

contain ALA which is poorly converted to DHA (the important one). Fish contains DHA

Yes, but he wanted a vegetarian option.

I’ve started getting the sign of arthritis (perhaps inherited from a parent). So I started looking into what I could take to help my joints. Curcumin has quite a lot of buzz about it at the moment. I already add turmeric to my food when appropriate (basically just curries so far as I can tell!). However, it seems the effective dose of curcumin required is 1000mg or 1g. And only about 3% of turmeric is actually curcumin. So I would have to eat 33g of turmeric in one sitting in order to get a useful dose of curcumin, which seems like a bit much.

Yes, but he wanted a vegetarian option.

There is no veggie option for DHA

Protein – basically because I am pretty much constantly training for climbing or actually climbing – it’s just belt and braces so I don’t have to think about getting enough protein in my regular vegetarian diet. Also a protein shake helps kill the carb craving after a hard session