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Ask HN: Do you take food supplements?
With all the controversy around regular food supplements usage, I was just wondering if any of you took food supplements to enhance or support your body, and if yes which ones and for what.
I personally take Magnesium on period of stress, as its level goes down during time of anxiety, leading according to studies to more anxiety from magnesium deprivation.
- davej 13y agoJust fibre supplements before my main meal.
- dangrossman 13y agoA varied diet provides sufficient quantities of everything needed. I wouldn't supplement without a doctor identifying an ailment or deficiency, and then I'd prefer a diet change or even a prescription to a supplement. There's too much research (see: SELECT trials) that supplements feed tumorogensis and cancer mortality, and that the supplements you buy may not actually be what you think you're buying (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/herbal-supplements-are-often-not-what-they-seem.html?ref=science&_r=1& http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/herbal-supplements...).
- moystard 13y agoThat's what I was referring as controversy. I would never take all around supplements as a normal diet should provide everything I need. However in the case of magnesium for example, it is proven that stress/anxiety deprives the body from it, and my GP already prescribed it to me in the past. Regarding the fact that it might not be what's written on the box, I cannot agree more, you have to trust the shop on this one.
- mrfusion 13y agoI haven't been able to figure out how almost any diet can get the RDA of potassium. I'd be curious what you suggest for that.
- adventured 13y agoone medium potato, 900mg; one banana, 450mg; one 3oz serving tuna, salmon or halibut, 500mg; various beans and lentils, 400mg to 600mg; yogurt, 500mg; one cup of boiled spinach, 850mg; cup of prunes, 650mg; half a cup of soybeans, 500mg. You can get 500mg from one cup of most tomato-based sauces. One apple or orange will give you 175 to 200mg. One cup of apricots will give you 400mg; half a cup of dates will deliver 500 to 600mg. There are numerous other high potassium foods that are easy to mix into a regular diet. You can get the RDA for potassium without trying too hard with just 700 to 1,000 calories. Some greens have upwards of 10mg of potassium per calorie.
- mrfusion 13y agoThanks for looking it up. I'm still not seeing how to get to 4000 mg/day even with those high potassium foods. 4+ potatoes would be a lot for one day. 8 bananas would also be pretty extreme. As would 3+ cups of boiled spinach. Mixing and matching those items would work but you'd have to really still work hard at it. And I just don't see enough of those items being in a normal daily diet to come close to 4000mg.
- ChristianMarks 13y agoMetamucil
- alex_doom 13y agoI take a multivitamin. Also L-theanine + caffeine.
- adventured 13y agoOn stray occasions I take garlic, vitamin-c, fish oil. The garlic and vitamin-c when I feel like a cold is inbound. Seems to help, but it's an entirely unscientific guess, and I don't get sick very often. Occasionally metamucil tablets, because I don't get enough fiber in my diet. I typically consume one five hour energy per day. Whether it's the b12 or b6 overload that produces the focus effect, I like it (could care less about the caffeine, have considered switching to a tab or liquid b12 to see if that produces the same effect, but haven't experimented). Noticed my vision weakening a bit at a distance (thanks no doubt to sitting in front of a monitor for two decades). 45mg lutein improved that by a non-trivial amount after several months. Kre-Alkalyn when working out.
- benzesandbetter 13y agoMore likely, the focus effect is from the Taurine and Niacin.
- mattwritescode 13y agoI take cider in the evenings.
- flambard 13y agoI take fish oil and a pretty high dose of vitamins and minerals to help recover from lifting heavy objects (powerlifting, weightlifting). Oh, and lots of protein of course.
- pkinsky 13y agoI recently started taking Trubrain's supplements, a subscription piracetam-based nootropic stack with a hefty convenience markup. If I decide to stick with it for more than a few months I'll probably start mixing my own.
- htk 13y agoI take a few (omega 3, B complex..), but I would love to read a detailed report on what supplements Ray Kurzweil takes and why (he's a real supplement freak, but seems to know what he is doing).