Any arguments in favour or against supplements

[boosted]

Hello everyone, I have been crunching the number and I have realized that is way cheaper and reliable just to supplement a handful of nutrients instead of adding more foods to my current meal plan.

I have been taking B complex, vitamin D and Calcium ( get like 80% from diet) and recently buy Vitamin C powder, I have been thinking in also getting vitamins A and K, instead of carrots and spinach.

Do you have any opions or experience?

 

[clementinemoon]

@boosted If you replaced all or some of your food with supplements, what would you eat to get enough calories? If foods high in calories and cheap at the same time, it will probably not be a healthy option. By consuming whole foods with the required amount of calories, I get all the necessary nutrients at the same time, and I only need to supplement with B12 and possibly vitamin D.

For example, only 100 g of carrots contains almost 100% of my daily dose of vit. A and 100 g of red pepper contains 142% of my dose of vit. C, but both of them also contain a whole range of other nutrients in smaller amounts: vit. E, K, B1-2-3-5-6, folate, minerals: Ca, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mg, P, K... so I just focus on variety.

 

[boosted]

@clementinemoon Thank you for your concerns, I'm not thinking in replacing everything, and I get my calories mostly from rice

 

[clementinemoon]

@boosted Ok, just to clarify, I'm not against supplements, I just tried to explain why I prefer whole foods as the main source of nutrients. Rice is a perfect example: whole-grain rice compared to white rice is a bit more expensive but contains cca 5x more vit. B1, 4x more B3, 3x more B5, almost 5x more Mg, 2x more Zn, etc. and Quinoa e.g. with the same amount of calories even more nutrients + 2x more proteins.

 

[chidi_jp]

@boosted You will fail. Get most of your caloriee from a variety of vegetables/legumes

 

[mommabird]

@boosted Bro just eat food. Whole foods, things like carrots are dirt cheap dunno what youre talking about. On supplement packs it ususally says it should just be used as supplements, not as replacement for a varied diet. Carrots, cabbage, legumes, red bellpepper, onion, garlic, spinach, arugula, etc. Most of those things are not that expensive and you should eat food instead of supplements IMO.