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Ask HN: Do you take food supplements?

11 points by moystard ↗ HN
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.

21 comments

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davej
Just fibre supplements before my main meal.
dangrossman
A 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...).
moystard
That'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
I 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
one 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
Thanks 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.

alex_doom
I take a multivitamin. Also L-theanine + caffeine.
adventured
On 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
More likely, the focus effect is from the Taurine and Niacin.
flambard
I 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.

mrfusion
Does the timing of the protein matter?
pkinsky
I 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
I 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).