I had a question from someone at the gym about whether or not I had any multi-vitamins I could recommend and my answer to him was no. I have a multi-vitamin from Trader Joe's that I take ONLY if I know I ate like crap all day, but during my normal training, I do not take a multi.
My reasoning is based off of my diet. With a diet high in meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy, I get a pretty good balance of vitamins and minerals. I always wanted to try this, so I took a "sample" day of eating for myself and tracked the nutrients. I did this without an app or software, but used the the nutrition data website because I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. I put in a typical Rob day:
3 eggs ( I usually eat 4 but 3 was easier to calculate)
4 slices of bacon
A sweet potato
A fruit smoothie with a banana, blueberries, yogurt, coconut water and whey protein
A spinach salad with salmon, goat cheese and walnuts
2 tbsps of peanut butter
More whey with 8 oz. of whole milk
An 8 oz steak
12 spears of asparagus
This was incredibly "generic" as I usually eat another salad with dinner and didn't include cooking oils and spices or snacks other than the peanut butter. I just wanted to get a vague idea of what was lacking and these foods pop up in my diet a ton. Here are the results:
Vitamin A 792%
Vitamin C 131%
Vitamin D 63%
Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) 50%
Vitamin K 930%
Thiamin 75%
Riboflavin 186%
Niacin 165%
Vitamin B6 186%
Folate 139%
Vitamin B12 176%
Pantothenic Acid 88%
Calcium 110%
Iron 75.00%
Magnesium 113%
Phosphorus 181%
Potassium 115%
Sodium 74%
Zinc 122%
Copper 58%
Manganese 141%
Selenium 229%
Obviously, these numbers will vary from day to day, but if you are a typical semi-primalish crossfitter like myself, you can see the holes. Here are my observations:
1. Most multis have tons of Vitamin A, which as you can see, we don't need. So immediately I don't like the idea of multi because there are studies that link too much supplemental Vitamin A with bone fractures. This is apparently due to the fact that most people are deficient in D. A and D need to be somewhat in balance.
2. My K is pretty high but there are no known toxicity issues with this.
3. Vitamins and minerals that were low on this day were:
Vitamin D: I supplement daily with this and you should too! Vitamin D deficiency is rampant in America, especially the northeast.
Vitamin E: Butter and olive oil contain plenty of E and would put me over 100%, and I cook only with those two and coconut oil. Supplemental E is linked to higher mortality as well. If I wanted, I could add a handful of almonds, but it's not necessary.
Thiamin (B1): I do eat pork which has plenty of thiamin and also a handful of macadamia nuts can help solve this as well
Pantothenic Acid (B5): This is only low because I left out the avocado that I almost ALWAYS throw on my salads or eat as snacks. You can also get B5 from animal livers, but I don't eat that nonsense.
Iron: I used to get a ton of this when I ate Cream of Wheat. Damn. I do eat quite a few oysters, but might want to add some cashews in for the iron.
Sodium: I use salt and snack on pickles....covered.
Copper: I use a copper supplement because I know I am deficient here.
So after the experiment, it looks like this should be my daily supplement intake:
D, A handful of almonds, A handful of macadamia nuts, A handful of cashews, Copper.
I also take a Chromium supplement and Kelp tablets because these people told me to: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/
Seriously, I hate the name of their book, but it is solid. Unlike fad diet books, these people actually back up their diet with resources. I don't follow it 100 percent (Sorry I'm not going to eat tendons), but it has some good information.
So instead of just popping a mutli-vitamin, maybe you should take the time to log a day or two of your life and see just what vitamins and minerals you should be adding. I'm sure there are awesome apps out there that make all of this very simple. Good luck!
