Obtaining all vitamins and minerals from FOOD alone...

[James]

I'm seriously looking at ditching multi vits, additional vit c and d caps/tabs etc etc... obviously, wanting to get all the required vitamins and minerals from diet alone - a lot more natural, less stressful having buy and remember to take supps, better to get natural sources of vitamins etc etc blah blah blah.

Now, what I put to you guys out there, is what are some great foodstuffs that would cover all bases for vits and mins daily, I currently eat:-

Spinach/broccoli
Eggs
Salmon
Beef
Cheese/cream
Sweet potatoes
Strawberries/blueberries

I'm thinking that the first thing on the list will be liver/ox liver, still need to try it on it's own!

Any other ideas to help in my quest, is it even practical :P ?

[daffy]

Nuts - these contain lots of goodies, particularly fat soluble vits, and some minerals, like selenium.

The typical advice you see obtaining vits from food sources is make your plate colourful, and I think that will help you cover a lot of your bases.

Meat wise, variety is the key - so rotate the type of meat you're having at a meal, but in the case of fish, rotate the type of fish, and if you have a choice of red meat, rotate the type of red meat. You can get exotics now, such as Kangaroo, Bison, Water Buffalo, SpringBok.

And lastly, and this one might be tricky, if you are near water, try foraging for sea weed type stuff.

[James]

Quote

Nuts - these contain lots of goodies, particularly fat soluble vits, and some minerals, like selenium.

The typical advice you see obtaining vits from food sources is make your plate colourful, and I think that will help you cover a lot of your bases.

Meat wise, variety is the key - so rotate the type of meat you're having at a meal, but in the case of fish, rotate the type of fish, and if you have a choice of red meat, rotate the type of red meat. You can get exotics now, such as Kangaroo, Bison, Water Buffalo, SpringBok.

And lastly, and this one might be tricky, if you are near water, try foraging for sea weed type stuff.

Brill, goodstuff thank you

I am adverse to consuming nuts to be honest, well in anything more than a SMALL quantity - they are either too high in calories, with most fats coming from plant (obviously!) n-6 PUFAs - use them for garnish if at all currently.

In regards to meat, again due to PUFAs and unreliable sources, I don't really eat chicken or other white meats - however, I am looking at maintaining my use of grass-fed beef as my main protein/meat source but 'supplementing' with venison/buffalo a few times a week. Rotating fish also sounds pretty interesting, could swap out the salmon for mackerel every now and then, I will still be taking fish oil supplements to reach the upper end of DHA/EPA levels to promote optimal anabolic response.

I actually live about 50 foot from the sea - our beach is an award beach, too (just below blue flag, the only reason we don't have it, is due to lack of amenities in the town), but do not fancy cooking up the seaweed from down there! I do use a good quality sea salt for seasoning, however.

[MiniHulk]

I was going to make a thread like this today, you are awesome lol.

The seaweed is vital, it's a shame you don't wanna hunt some down - with the right knowledge you can get the bulk of the minerals you need just from the sea. I agree with the nuts, besides you have to soak and bake them to get rid of the phytic acid, and by then - they are pretty much ruined.

Chia seeds, which have been discussed in a different thread recently seem really good though, all you do is soak them in water for a few hours and they turn into an edible gel. Fruit and vegetables are the best bet to cover a lot of your needs. It would be nice to have the perfect mix, with every vitamin/mineral from the minimum amount of produce!

[MiniHulk]

Maybe someone can compile a list of every vitamin and mineral needed for the human body and we can search for foods which cover them and swap them about where needed - that would be really cool.

[James]

Yeah, seems like a lot of research and stuff to look up to find the optimal totals... would be great if we could collate it all here, though!

Makes you think though... we did fine without multivitamins before, plus people were geologically locked to a certain diet so would not be able to obtain the 'optimal balance', then there is the little matter of a GREAT deal of the general population not taking vitamin and mineral supplements at all - they seem to be fine?

Surely the body can make do with what it has, no?

[MiniHulk]

The major problem with the foods nowadays is that they contain A LOT less nutrients than they used to... all these chemicals they splash on them and trying to produce them as fast and big as possible doesn't do anything for our health.

[MiniHulk]

Vitamin A (retinol)
Vitamin B complex Vitamin B1 (thiamin)
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
Vitamin B3 (niacin)
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
Vitamin B6 group: Pyridoxine
Pyridoxal
Pyridoxamine

Vitamin B7 (biotin)
Vitamin B8 (ergadenylic acid)
Vitamin B9 (folic acid)
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin)
Choline
Inositol

Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid)
Vitamin D
Vitamin E (tocopherol)
Vitamin K
Biotin
Carotenoids Alpha carotene
Beta carotene
Cryptoxanthin
Lutein
Lycopene
Zeaxanthin


Minerals
Calcium
Chloride
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Iron

Trace minerals
Boron
Cobalt
Chloride
Chromium
Copper
Fluoride
Iodine
Iron
Manganese
Molybdenum
Selenium
Zinc

[MiniHulk]

Now we just need someone to tell us what we don't actually need to get directly... are some of them precursors to other things for example?

[dowdy16]

very useful info so far. . .