5 ms·

You could instead figure out how to incorporate dark leafy greens into your diet a few times a week. They are basically multivitamins in plant form. Have you e

by gascan 9y ago

You could instead figure out how to incorporate dark leafy greens into your diet a few times a week. They are basically multivitamins in plant form. Have you ever had blanched & sauteed fresh spinach? Blanch for three minutes with a little salt, squeeze out water, saute gently at 4-6 on the dial in a little butter. Really good.

therein 9y ago
I think once they reach a certain age, people stop looking at vegetables as not tasty and they are simply not consumed as often due to either (a) the price or (b) the convenience. Otherwise, vegetables can of course be delicious.
snikeris 9y ago
Yeah good stuff, but I'd need to eat a ton of spinach to get enough selenium. This is my goto site for food prep information: http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43 http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43 Looks like he also recommends blanching first, but doesn't call it that.
- gascan 9y ago
  You probably already eat (chicken|beef|fish|turkey|egg) too though. (In fact, the spinach goes great with egg)
- jmulho 9y ago
  But you only need to eat a few Brazil nuts to get enough selenium. More than four a day and you risk selenium toxicity. And they go great with spinach! And the fat increases absorption of fat soluble vitamins in the spinach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_nut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_nut
LMYahooTFY 9y ago
>instead While I generally agree, I don't think it's a universal prescription. There are biological defects that inhibit nutrient processing and can require you to take considerably more of said nutrient than you could feasibly acquire from diet.
- adventured 9y ago
  As one simple example, I burn easily in the sun vs most people I've known. Maintaining healthy blood levels of Vitamin D via the sun, is both risky (cancer) and time consuming for me. It's essentially impossible to fully offset the sun via food-derived VitD. That's especially true if you believe a healthy VitD blood level is closer to 50-70 ng/mL than ~20-40. Vitamin D3 supplements to the rescue. Prior to supplementing, my blood levels were at 5 ng/mL, very dangerously low (despite eating a diet that regularly includes fish and eggs).
  - gascan 9y ago
    The exception makes the rule; D is the one vitamin I'm aware of whose primary source was never food. Thus, it would not be shocking if food sources were a challenge. An interesting question though- how many IU do you take? What's your absorption rate, and what's the absorption rate from e.g. salmon? I recall hearing, frequently 10% or less of the D in supplement form is actually absorbed.
opo 9y ago
>...You could instead figure out how to incorporate dark leafy greens into your diet a few times a week. They are basically multivitamins in plant form. It really isn't that simple. One issue is that it doesn't matter how many vitamins are in spinach if you don't absorb them. >...Circulating phylloquinone levels after spinach with and without butter were substantially lower (7.5- and 24.3-fold respectively) than those after taking the pharmaceutical concentrate. Moreover, the absorption of phylloquinone from the vegetables was 1.5 times slower than from Konakion. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8813897 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8813897 And while spinach will get you some K1, it won't get you K2 which is important for how calcium is handled in the body. >...We examined whether dietary intake of phylloquinone (vitamin K-1) and menaquinone (vitamin K-2) were related to aortic calcification and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the population-based Rotterdam Study. >...The relative risk (RR) of CHD mortality was reduced in the mid and upper tertiles of dietary menaquinone compared to the lower tertile [RR = 0.73 (95% CI: 0.45, 1.17) and 0.43 (0.24, 0.77), respectively]. Intake of menaquinone was also inversely related to all-cause mortality [RR = 0.91 (0.75, 1.09) and 0.74 (0.59, 0.92), respectively] and severe aortic calcification [odds ratio of 0.71 (0.50, 1.00) and 0.48 (0.32, 0.71), respectively]. Phylloquinone intake was not related to any of the outcomes. These findings suggest that an adequate intake of menaquinone could be important for CHD prevention. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/11/3100.long http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/11/3100.long
- gascan 9y ago
  It's true, spinach is not all you need. You might be forced to enjoy some cheese to get enough K2.
  - opo 9y ago
    While I've seen estimates that the "adequate" amount of K2 is estimated to be 120 mcg per day, it was only with 200 mcg that the proteins that are dependent on Vitamin K2 were almost fully activated: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321262/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321262/ To get 200 mcg of K2 from cheese, you would likely have to eat about 1 pound of cheese a day. If you dislike taking supplements, I'd suggest trying to develop a taste for natto.

by gascan 9y ago

therein 9y ago

I think once they reach a certain age, people stop looking at vegetables as not tasty and they are simply not consumed as often due to either (a) the price or (b) the convenience. Otherwise, vegetables can of course be delicious.

snikeris 9y ago

Yeah good stuff, but I'd need to eat a ton of spinach to get enough selenium. This is my goto site for food prep information: http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43 http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43 Looks like he also recommends blanching first, but doesn't call it that.

gascan 9y ago
You probably already eat (chicken|beef|fish|turkey|egg) too though. (In fact, the spinach goes great with egg)
jmulho 9y ago
But you only need to eat a few Brazil nuts to get enough selenium. More than four a day and you risk selenium toxicity. And they go great with spinach! And the fat increases absorption of fat soluble vitamins in the spinach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_nut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_nut

LMYahooTFY 9y ago

>instead While I generally agree, I don't think it's a universal prescription. There are biological defects that inhibit nutrient processing and can require you to take considerably more of said nutrient than you could feasibly acquire from diet.

adventured 9y ago
As one simple example, I burn easily in the sun vs most people I've known. Maintaining healthy blood levels of Vitamin D via the sun, is both risky (cancer) and time consuming for me. It's essentially impossible to fully offset the sun via food-derived VitD. That's especially true if you believe a healthy VitD blood level is closer to 50-70 ng/mL than ~20-40. Vitamin D3 supplements to the rescue. Prior to supplementing, my blood levels were at 5 ng/mL, very dangerously low (despite eating a diet that regularly includes fish and eggs).
- gascan 9y ago
  The exception makes the rule; D is the one vitamin I'm aware of whose primary source was never food. Thus, it would not be shocking if food sources were a challenge. An interesting question though- how many IU do you take? What's your absorption rate, and what's the absorption rate from e.g. salmon? I recall hearing, frequently 10% or less of the D in supplement form is actually absorbed.

opo 9y ago

>...You could instead figure out how to incorporate dark leafy greens into your diet a few times a week. They are basically multivitamins in plant form. It really isn't that simple. One issue is that it doesn't matter how many vitamins are in spinach if you don't absorb them. >...Circulating phylloquinone levels after spinach with and without butter were substantially lower (7.5- and 24.3-fold respectively) than those after taking the pharmaceutical concentrate. Moreover, the absorption of phylloquinone from the vegetables was 1.5 times slower than from Konakion. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8813897 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8813897 And while spinach will get you some K1, it won't get you K2 which is important for how calcium is handled in the body. >...We examined whether dietary intake of phylloquinone (vitamin K-1) and menaquinone (vitamin K-2) were related to aortic calcification and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the population-based Rotterdam Study. >...The relative risk (RR) of CHD mortality was reduced in the mid and upper tertiles of dietary menaquinone compared to the lower tertile [RR = 0.73 (95% CI: 0.45, 1.17) and 0.43 (0.24, 0.77), respectively]. Intake of menaquinone was also inversely related to all-cause mortality [RR = 0.91 (0.75, 1.09) and 0.74 (0.59, 0.92), respectively] and severe aortic calcification [odds ratio of 0.71 (0.50, 1.00) and 0.48 (0.32, 0.71), respectively]. Phylloquinone intake was not related to any of the outcomes. These findings suggest that an adequate intake of menaquinone could be important for CHD prevention. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/11/3100.long http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/11/3100.long

gascan 9y ago
It's true, spinach is not all you need. You might be forced to enjoy some cheese to get enough K2.
- opo 9y ago
  While I've seen estimates that the "adequate" amount of K2 is estimated to be 120 mcg per day, it was only with 200 mcg that the proteins that are dependent on Vitamin K2 were almost fully activated: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321262/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321262/ To get 200 mcg of K2 from cheese, you would likely have to eat about 1 pound of cheese a day. If you dislike taking supplements, I'd suggest trying to develop a taste for natto.