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January 19, 2006
Some Questions From a Sister
Amy, our newest CR blogger on the block, wrote me today with some questions about nutrition. Here are questions and answers:
1. What do you do about food items whose nutrient values as listed on the package don't match that provided in the USDA database?
Take cottage cheese. I buy the low fat variety, and when I compare the nutrients on the nutrition label, they don't match the calories or nutrient breakdown given for the item in the USDA database that Fitday uses. I've been largely using my own custom food entry with the nutrition label values, but as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I'm positive that this means that lots of the important nutrients don't get tracked that way. This is actually an issue for me even when using frozen veggies as I tend to buy the bags of mixed veggies, which makes it tricky to track exactly how much of each veggie I eat, but I hate that the bags don't list anything but the major nutrients. So what do the long-time CRONnies do in this situation? Use the USDA values, and just assume that they're the most accurate, even if they don't match the food label?
On really important things, I change the entry in DWIDP to fit the food. For example, I entered Carolina Treet as Treet instead of using "barbecue sauce." That reminds me... I need to replace the entry for "Brewers Yeast" in DWIDP with a customized Lewis Labs entry, and that might change my values a bit. My DWIDP had to be replaced when it went psycho a few months ago, and so I had to re-enter all my quotidian foods. For bags of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, I just take the number of calories in my serving, divide it in thirds, and entery 1/3 as broccoli, 1/3 as cauliflower, you get the idea. You may as well make custom entries this way for things you use frequently.
2. I've noticed in my nutrient tracking so far that I'm almost always short on iron. I looked at your crunch from yesterday, and I saw that you were too. I know you take some supplements, because I remember reading that MR set you up with a regimen - I guess my question is whether your supplements make up for shortages in the minerals that you're low on occasionally.
I am frequently low on iron, so I got an iron test when I went for my bloodwork. Sure enough, my iron was on the low end of normal, which is exactly where I want it to be. Too much iron is just as dangerous as too little, so I don't supplement with extra iron as my diet seems to be providing me with enough iron to meet the target in my bloodwork. That's why it's important to get your blood tests done in addition to using nutritional software.
3. It looked from your crunch summary yesterday that DWIDP doesn't track Vit. D - what's up with that? If not, do you take a supplement for this? I've been eating cottage cheese and some yogurt (but not daily on the yogurt), but my brand isn't fortified with Vit. D. I'm getting mine in my calcium supplement, but I'm curious how you're making sure you have enough.
I have no clue why DWIDP doesn't track D, but I do supplement. There's quite a bit in my AOR multi (I don't know how much exactly but perhaps MR could comment?) and I also take 400 IU a day with dinner in little softgel pills that look a lot like fish eyes.
4. Are you getting your B Vitamins and Vitamin E from the Brewers Yeast? I ask because I've appeared to be short on a lot of things, even though when I compare my diet to yours, they really don't seem to be that different - I eat more meat and fish, I'd say, but otherwise they're quite similar.
Largely, yes. Lewis Labs rocks my world. It really is the only brewers yeast that tastes good. The GNC brand is okay, but Lewis Labs is really yummy. Tastes vaguely like miso. I can't stand regular health food store brewers yeast, I only buy the LL.
I'm still taking a multivitamin (Centrum Brand - plain jane multivitamin w/ 100% of most vitamins and minerals) and a calcium supplement that has Vit. D w/ it (though when I run out of these, I'm think I'm going to buy one like Mary takes, with extra minerals included w/ the calcium as well).
I know from MR that a lot of standard multis have toxic levels of this and that, but I don't know more than that.
I guess items 2, 3, and 4 all relate to your supplement regimen - would you mind sharing exactly what you take? And if you've done this already in a blog entry, just point me to it.
I'd be happy to... and it will give MR an opportunity to review it and make sure I'm still doing everything I should be. But before I do, remember, we're all different, and there is no one-size-fits-all supplement regimen. It depends on your diet, your health risks and concerns, your lifestyle, exercise, and what you want to achieve with your supplement program. I take supplements mostly as "diet insurance," filling in holes in my diet and addressing my specific health concerns.
Here's what I take:
upon waking up, preferably with a beautiful red-headed boy sitting by the side of the bed serving them with a glass of unsweetened cranberry juice mixed with Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper (though I can get them myself if I must.)
-- 2 cranberry pills (protection against chronic urinary tract infections that are completely under control with cranberry)
-- Strontium Support, by AOR, a bone builder
-- 2 capsules Veggie Booster, a supplement designed by someone I know well to fill in all the holes in a vegetarian diet, without all the saturated fat and calories of meat. This takes the place of a bunch of supplements we used to take.
With breakfast:
-- I-3-C, a supplement that addresses my now in regression former cervical dysplasia.
-- Three A Day, which I don't think you can get yet. It's the world's most perfect multi, and unlike Essential Mix, AOR's powdered multi, it's in capsules so I don't risk snorting it up my nose like an unsuccessful cocaine addict.
Between meals:
-- 1 more Veggie Booster
-- 1 lysine (mops up AGEs, or advanced gylcation end-products, which are bad and will eat you for dinner)
With Lunch:
Two things that MR says take the place of my B vitamins and folate. Not quite sure what they are or how to spell them, and can't get up to find out from the medicine cabinet because there is a giant tabby cat on my lap
With Dinner:
-- 400 IU Vitamin D
-- 1 more cranberry
-- Orthominerals, I think, which has calcium in it. I get A TON of calcium from my diet, but I take more anyway.
We also put K2, a bone builder, into our flax oil. (Note to MR: I haven't done that since I bought a new bottle last week... do I need to take K2 in pill form until you get home to mix the K2 into the flax oil?)
I think, I think, that's it. But MR may be able to fill in anything I've forgotten or screwed up.
Don't just take what I take... analyze your diet, lifestyle, etc. Figuring out what supplements to take requires just as much effort as figuring out what to eat... unless you can get someone else to do it for you. Before I met MR, I took Hello Kitty Chewable Vitamins. That didn't kill me and was no doubt better than nothing, but things are clearly better now.
Speaking of, here's today's food and crunch:
Breakfast:
Same as always
Lots of black coffee (Thank you Robert and Ingrid!)
Lunch:
100 g kale with 1 cup nonfat plain organic yogurt mixed with 20 cals salsa verde
1 carton organic vanilla maple lowfat yogurt
27 g almonds (and I ate about half of them before the meal, the rest mixed into the yogurt)
Dinner:
Soup with 85 g organic broccoli, 85 g mixed bell peppers, 1 tablespoon Lewis Labs, and 1 cup vegan organic no salt vegetable broth
1 cup lowfat organic cottage cheese with 1 teaspoon flax oil and 1 tablespoon Treet
91 g organic kiwi, with skin (the skin is really quite good)
NUTRIENT TOTALS:
Abs. Values %RDA/SA
Calories 1147.08__cal 57%
Protein 94.94__gm 173% RDA
Total Fat 37.12__gm 57%
Sat. Fat 10.90__gm 54%
Mono. Fat 15.71__gm 54%
Poly. Fat 6.97__gm 105%
Carbohydrate 117.37__gm 39%
Fiber 14.37__gm 48%
Cholesterol 70.97__mg 24%
Vit. A 11031.61__IU 221% RDA
Vit. B6 1.51__mg 94% RDA
Vit. B12 3.72__mcg 186% RDA
Vit. C 357.74__mg 596% RDA
Vit. E 7.26__mg 91% RDA
Thiamine 3.80__mg 346% RDA
Folacin 1054.90__mcg 586% RDA
Riboflavin 3.57__mg 274% RDA
Niacin 13.77__mg 92% RDA
Panto. Acid 5.85__mg 117% SA
Calcium 1139.20__mg 95% RDA
Copper 2.28__mg 114% SA
Iron 9.14__mg 61% RDA
Magnesium 349.82__mg 125% RDA
Manganese 2.32__mg 77% SA
Phosphorus 1526.09__mg 127% RDA
Potassium 3275.06__mg 164% RDA
Selenium 97.17__mcg 177% RDA
Sodium 4069.12__mg 170% SA
Zinc 8.76__mg 73% RDA
Tyrosine 4.28__gm 446% RDA
Lysine 7.11__gm 988% RDA
Phenylalanine 5.15__gm 537% RDA
Leucine 8.61__gm 897% RDA
Valine 6.19__gm 737% RDA
Methionine 2.42__gm 807% RDA
Cystine 1.31__gm 436% RDA
Tryptophan 1.14__gm 633% RDA
Threonine 4.26__gm 887% RDA
Isoleucine 5.30__gm 736% RDA
P:C:F = 33:38:29
Lookie there! Zoning! Over the course of the day, but still.
Very quotidian, but I love my everyday food. Still holding off on the wine, as it saves a whole lot of calories to skip it. But tomorrow I'm meeting friends and cooking dinner, so no doubt I will have a carefully measured amount then. Sipping chamomile tea even as we write.
Zeynep's marinade recipe sounds great -- I love cooking with wine! Sometimes I even put in in the food! (Okay, so I stole that quote off an apron I saw at a gourmet shop a year or so ago.) Here's the problem: I don't like salmon. Is there something else you might put it on? I found that salon for me was ruined when my cat started licking my face immediately after eating pink salmon in a can -- her absolute favorite treat. So now salmon just makes me think of cat breath. Perhaps shrimp or scallops? I do love shellfish. I also have a rosemary tree that my mom bought us for Christmas, so I have fresh rosemary any time I want. Very yummy stuff!
Posted by april at January 19, 2006 6:11 PM
Comments
April,
Yuck! I know what cat breath feels like, especially after they've eaten some wet food!
As for the marinade, I guess it's seafood-proof, so you can try shrimps, calamari or clams in it or other sort of fish that you like.
Reading your supplement list, I am kind of in disaggreement with all the pills you take. Should that be necessary if you're really doing CRON, Calorie restriction with optimal nutrition? As far as I understand, you're supposed to get all that nutrition from the diet alone, that's the whole idea, if not, you're not on a very good diet regimen.
Posted by: zeynep at January 19, 2006 4:24 PM
April,
What would one do if one can't stand taking pills? I find even small pills like tylenol tough to swallow, and typical multivitamins are just impossible without chewing them (and they taste disgusting).. so I won't take them. So what do I do if I want to add supplements to my diet?
Thanks!
Posted by: Gregg M. at January 19, 2006 10:08 PM
Thanks for all the input! It does look like you're taking a bunch of things that I certainly wouldn't need, but it is good to see what a specially designed supplement regimen looks like :-).
For right now I'm not too worried about my multivitamin, though once I complete my upcoming move and have time to actually breathe, I plan to do some research to refine what I'm taking. I am interested in the strontium, though - with a mom and both grandmas who have/had osteoporsis, this is a hot-button issue for me, particularly as I lose weight.
Thanks again!
Posted by: Amy at January 20, 2006 7:59 AM
In response to Gregg M's comment on his difficulty with swallowing supplements, there is a great liquid supplement on the market called "Body Balance", by Life Force. I have family members who also have trouble with the pill-form supplements, and they take this stuff. Apparently it tastes great, too. Here's a link to one website that sell it, although I am sure it would be available at most health food stores: http://liquid-vitamins.info
Posted by: Shauna at January 20, 2006 11:12 AM
I found Essential Mix to be really good. I too can't swallow capsules or big tablets.
http://www.aor.ca/products/essential_mix.php
Posted by: Matt - UK at January 20, 2006 3:19 PM
Hi i Just wanted to say hello. Im new to CRONs and ive been reading your blog for weeks now
I love it.
i havent figured out how to add you yet to my blog
Jamie:)
Posted by: Jamie at January 23, 2006 5:53 PM