Monday, March 5, 2012

Most Important Supplements for Vegans

Personally, I usually only take 2 supplements every day. First, I take a good multivitamin or vitamin powder. Here are a few examples of a good multivitamin:

   

Second, I add some flax or flax seed oil into my morning smoothie.


That's it! I really don't worry a lot about supplementation. 

As a side note, I also take plant enzymes whenever I eat cooked foods. Plant enzymes are not essential for nutritional needs. However, they do help with digestion.


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The following 6 essential vitamins and nutrients are available in most vegan multivitamins. 

1) Vitamin B12 (B12 is found in fortified foods. It is also in most multivitamins)
2) Vitamin D (found in sunlight, fortified foods and most multivitamins)
3) Iron (found in greens, oatmeal, raisins, cinnamon, black olives, prune juice some multivitamins)
4) Iodine (found in baked potatoes, seaweed, navy beans, beans, fortified salt, strawberries, canned corn, bananas, most multivitamins)
5) Vitamin A (found in carrots / carrot juice as beta-carotene and most multivitamins)
6) Zinc (found nuts, greens, beans and most multivitamins)

The following 4 vitamins and nutrients are not available in most multivitamins, and should be obtained through dietary or supplemental means.

1) Protein (beans, nuts, seeds, greens, vegan protein powders, etc.)
2) Omega 3 ALA (flax seeds or flax seed oil)
3) Omega 3 DHA (available in algae oil supplements - also, the human body naturally converts ALA omega 3 into DHA omega 3)
4) Calcium (found in broccoli, spinach, orange juice, carrot juice, fortified soy milk and supplements)
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Sources:

Registered Dietitian and vegan author Jack Norris has the best and most researched list of supplement recommendations for vegans that I've found. You can check the list out Here.

4 comments:

  1. Vitamin E is an essential supplement for human body and contains natural mineral, which helps support your brain and respiratory systems. You can find information about vitamin in our website.
    Iron supplement

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  2. From this article, it appears that Omega 3 from Vegetarian sources is equal to the one derived from Fish (DHA).

    However, I've read that Omega 3 in vegetarians sources such as Flax seed oil is of short chain version (chemically) while the one from Fish oil is said to be of long chain version. Though body does convert this short chain version to long chain version required by brain, it is said to be of insignificant quantity only.

    So, vegetarians are said to be highly deficient of long chain variety, even if they consume the plant based omega 3 sources in large quantity.

    Fortunately, the omega 3 derived form 'Algal Oil' ( From Marine Algae - the source for Fish too)is available nowadays. I'm a vegetarian too, and have been buying this variety (Vegan Dha) right in India itself.

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  3. Fish oil or Omega 3 supplements are essential in heart health. For brain vitamins nootropics supplements are important in nourishing our brain development. Fruits and vegetables are natural nutrients that help a lot in keeping our body healthy and strong.

    Joseph @ Nootropics

    ReplyDelete