Low/No Carb Liquid or Powder Supplements

cathy120861

i have a hard time swallowing pills, and am looking for liquid supplements (or powder that can be mixed with liquid) that are low or no carb. My wish list includes a multivitamin w/out iron, calcium, CoQ10, digestive enzymes, Vitamin C, Omega 3,6,9. Your help is much appreciated.

Dragonwolf

Nordic Naturals has liquid Omega supplements, though odds are, you don't need the Omega 6 (there's a ton of it by nature, unless you only eat fish - if you eat other meat or nuts at all, you probably have more than enough already).

Vitamin C can be obtained in powder form (Emergen-C, etc), but again, you probably don't actually need it. The more you reduce your carbs, the less you need vitamin C.

Calcium can also be found in powder form, most easily from bulk herb places or other not-so-conventional places, or you can eat Tums, which double as a calcium supplement. However, if you're taking it to try to prevent osteoporosis, you might want to look into Vitamin D, instead (which can be found in liquid form, as well). Calcium can't be absorbed without Vitamin D, and most people are deficient in it, not calcium (seriously, it's everywhere -- baking soda, green vegetables, any kind of dairy...).

Most digestive enzymes are powder inside their capsules, you can probably open the capsule and mix it with water or whatever.

CoQ10 and the multivitamin are trickier, but there are also a plethora of gummies you could try for the multi.

That said, I recommend revisiting the supplements you take and see what you actually need. If they're a holdover from your pre-low carb days, or if you've picked them up because you went low carb, under the impression that this way of eating is inherently deficient, then you may not need most of the supplements you're taking.

Calcium is the big one -- http://paleoleap.com/calcium/ (in short, it's not about intake, but absorption)

The Omega fats also require a particular balance. They share the same absorption channels, and in order to get the benefit everyone talks about, you have to keep them in balance. As I mentioned, if you eat meat or nuts or seeds at all, you probably have all the Omega-6 you need (especially if your meat is conventionally sourced). You can probably do just an Omega-3 supplement on that front, but again, you may not need it, depending on what you eat and where you get it from (pastured animals and eggs have more Omega-3, as do wild caught fish).

If you're afraid of deficiencies, talk to your doctor about getting tested for your various vitamin and mineral levels. That way, you get a baseline number for where you're at, and can better target any supplementation you may need. Otherwise, you're flying blind and possibly throwing quite a bit of money away.

GrannyMayOz

Not to interrupt Cathy's thread, but thank you so much for all of that information Dragon, that was so informative!

Cathy, I can't swallow tablets either and the few herbs that I do take (just transient, that my naturopath recently recommended) come in capsules which I open onto a spoon and swallow the powder with the most microscopic amount of cranberry juice that I can use to emulsify the powder and swallow it. I also take a large capsule with some bitter tasting dark sludge inside (tastes like the bottom of a frog pond mixed equally with sump oil!) but I have a tiny amount of cranberry juice in my mouth and then bite the capsule to release its payload, swallow the liquids and spit out the capsule.

To balance the sugar from the unsweetened fruit juice I always make sure to take the tablets along with a fatty meal, or at least right on top of a cup of coffee with full fat cream.

glossbones

In the past when I've tried "Low Carb" (max 120g a day, 15g sugar) I've used Trop50 (half a serving) to swallow pills, but now I'm not willing to give up that many carbs to a beverage, and orange juice will trigger sweetness cravings for me anyway. As a result I've reduced the frequency with which I take vitamins to just a couple of times per week (mostly I've taken vitamins to control an allergy to sulfites in processed wheat products, but since going LCHF I am not eating those 98% of the time anymore). I take my vitamins right after eating, with lots of water, as fast as I can, and then eat a little more to settle my stomach (vitamins make me nauseated), and then have my coffee to "melt" it all.

I have a couple of vitamins I'm going to drop just because I have a really hard time not getting them stuck in my throat. Wish I had someone to just hold me down and pill me like I pill the cat, it would be easier. I psych myself out staring down some of these giant pills!