Vitamin and mineral suppliments on Keto diet.

StarshipFighter23

At the moment I'm just taking a general low-iron multivitamin and mineral tablet to supplement my dietary intake. Does anyone have any recommendations for other vitamins and minerals that are useful for the body whilst running on ketones?

Sunny_Bunny_

Assuming you have no existing deficiency you're aware of, keeping sodium up and eating enough animal based foods is really all you need.
I think taking a well absorbed form of magnesium is a good idea too, but if you don't let sodium get deficient you may be fine without that too. Magnesium is one of those things though where fine is ok, but maintaining a higher amount can be more beneficial. If you're curious, read The Magnesium Miracle.
http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/facts-about-vitamins.html
You'll likely get better nutrition on keto than you ever got before.

bowlerae

I think we need a thread "Definitive Guide to Macro and Micro Nutrients" that in order from fat (including o3 and o6), protein and carbs all the way down to magnesium, sodium, potassium, vitamins A-Z lists the best food sources for such nutrients. Does anyone know if something like that exists? Perhaps on Reddit or another site.

I think it's possible to get enough vitamins and minerals on a LCHF diet without supplementationg, the problem is perhaps people don't know what foods to eat or they are sticking to a very narrow assortment of foods.

HairTie1

I'd love to find the resource you describe here, but I don't know where it is. Without it, my approach has been to supplement electrolytes (salt-tabs... I'm an endurance athlete), take a robust daily multi-vitamin, and try to keep my LCHF food intake as diverse and variable as possible. For example, if ate fish yesterday then I'll chose meat or poultry today. If I had spinach salad yesterday with olive oil, I'll have kale salad today with avocado oil. If I had pork rinds and sour cream for a snack yesterday, then today I'll choose celery and almond butter. If I had brazil nuts yesterday, then I'll eat macadamia or pecans today.

I think you get the point. I'm sure there's a better way, but without that list and without a lot of work to micro-analyze my daily diet, this is working for me so far. At least I haven't experienced any symptoms of micro-nutrient or electrolyte deficiencies.

Cheers,
Nick

cstehansen

I get a bit leery about any generalizations regarding many of the micronutrients. In terms of omega 6 and omega 3, I think it is fairly easy to say to avoid most items high in omega 6 simply because it is in so many foods that it would be hard to be deficient in it. If you do that, most people don't need to supplement omega 3 because the ratio would improve. Eating real foods to get the omega 3 is better than the supplements from what I have read so far. Real would be fatty fish including salmon, tuna and sardines.

As we have been discussing in another thread, research shows that even those not on a low carb diet should get between 4-5 g of sodium a day for optimal health. Low carb just seems to make the need more noticeable (keto flu).

Vitamins is where it gets tricky. Many people get enough vitamins, but their bodies don't process some of the properly. For instance, most with IR do not properly process Vitamin D, so even though they get what should be enough via diet and sunlight, they still need to supplement. However, that is a vitamin where it is possible to have too much which is bad.

Personally, I found out I was either borderline or deficient in all but 1 of the B vitamins despite the fact that based on diet I should have been at the upper end of optimal. Apparently, my body does not properly process them and therefore I have had to add supplements.

If you can get testing done to see where you may be deficient, that is what I would recommend. I had a very high number of things tested recently. Although insurance did not cover all of them, I think the $190 I spent out of pocket was well worth it to know exactly what I did and did not need to supplement. It also helped my dr and me to determine the best course of action to improve my BG numbers. As I shared on another thread, since the addition to the supplements and making some changes to my stress management, all my BG readings (AM FBG, 2 hour PP for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and post work out) have all been trending down. I'm a nerd, so I am tracking these in Excel. Screenshot of the graph below so you can see.

bowlerae

@cstehansen For the test that you got done to show you your vitamin deficiencies, what is the time period that it measures? Does it just measure the past few days, a week, a month?

@HairTie1 that's a smart way for eating. However, for me, I usually meal prep on Sundays and then another night later during the week like Wednesday. The food I eat lasts me until I need to meal prep again. I can't do a whole 7 days on the same meal because I get so bored of it.

So for 4 days I might do pork chops with green beans for lunch and then 3 days of salmon with asparagus. Dinner would be salad with chicken, tomatos, mini cucumbers, hardboiled egg, avocado, etc and then maybe later in the week I will do something else like fathead pizza with leftovers to last a few nights. Breakfast is about the same week to week. I alternate between greek yogurt with berries, BPC and eggs and bacon.

I'm not sure if the 4 days of eating the same meal is bad or not. I'm not sure how long it takes for the vitamins and minerals to be fully absorbed and need to be replenished.

cstehansen

bowlerae wrote: »

@cstehansen For the test that you got done to show you your vitamin deficiencies, what is the time period that it measures? Does it just measure the past few days, a week, a month?

My assumption is it is just measuring that point in time. However, given my diet is pretty consistent, I would think it would be representative of where the numbers would be all the time. Also, my understanding is that most of these don't fluctuate quickly with changes in intake but rather build slowly and go down slowly which is why you can have recommendations to have X food 2 times a week to get such and such vitamin.

FIT_Goat

When it comes to omega 3s and omega 6s, the best advice has been given above. The ratio is messed up. But, it is messed up because we are eating way too much omega 6s. It isn't a lack of omega 3s. Cut the foods that are extremely high in omega 6s (looking at you, vegetable oils and nuts) that still remain in the low-carb diet, and you will be better off than if you keep them in and try dumping omega 3s on top of them.