Multivitamins for high school vegetarian athlete

what the fvck kind of weird-ass religion are you a part of?

Vitamin D pretty much has to be gotten in the form of sunlight. In the summer, given that you're a runner, I'm sure you're fine but I think it would be very hard to get enough in the winter. It's good you're taking a supplement for that now - you can't really get too much.

For iron: I think 29 is still on the low side and runners need it a bit higher than regular people. It's good that it's going up but I would say you might as well take an iron supplement. If you do this, you should make sure to have Vitamin C (such as orange juice) at the same time as the iron and I think it should also be on an empty stomach.

This is all I know about and even some of this stuff I'm not positive about. Hopefully someone else will comment on this and give better advice. In any case, good luck.

Thank you for your reply!

The iron fortified cereal has 100% dv of vitamin C and 0% calcium and I eat it in the middle of my school day so that other foods don't inhibit the iron absorption. But yeah, part of the reason I asked my doctor about a multivitamin was because of the iron. She had said that my levels in October (17 ferritin count) weren't low enough for supplements so I didn't take anything and just changed my diet to get more iron. Now, I'll start to take multivitamins though; I was thinking about the Deva Vegan multivitamins available online but I'm not sure how helpful they might be.

Once again, thank you for your response! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Avoid cheese/dairy/high calcium foods/teas/coffees before and after meals that you are trying to get iron from. As mentioned, vitamin C greatly improves absorption.

Eat some beans/lentils with some food with vitamin C (e.g. tomato), or get in the habit of drinking a little OJ with a meal. Onions and garlic also improve mineral absorption.

Whole grains also tend to be good sources of iron.

here's an indispensable source of scientifically-based vegetarian advice:

http://nutritionfacts.org/

asdfads wrote:

what the fvck kind of weird-ass religion are you a part of?

Gee perhaps Hinduism? Why are Americans so ignorant of Eastern religions?

As far as vitamins go, the only thing I recommend is a B12 (or atleast make sure you're eating things that are fortified with it), otherwise only take things like iron/Vitamin D if you've been diagnosed with a specific deficiency.

I don't recommend a multivitamin. They is little evidence showing evidence and there is a possibility they may cause harm (e.g. shortened life, increased cancer risk...although the research is mixed). Spend the money on kale, collards, or broccoli and you'll be much better off.

from the Archives of Internal Medicine editor: “Because commonly used vitamin and mineral supplements have no known benefit on mortality rate and have been shown to confer risk….A better investment in health would be eating more fruits and vegetables…”"

I have to ask, do you FEEL vitamin deficient? If you feel good then numbers and tests don't mean anything. You will be able to tell if you are actually deficient in something.

webb is BACK! wrote:

Gee perhaps Hinduism? Why are Americans so ignorant of Eastern religions?

Why are you so ignorant of meat?

Hindus don't eat cows. But there's nothing that says they can't eat other critters, in particular chickens and fish.

Most of the major religions are against some kind of animal. Some of them say don't eat cows, some say don't eat pigs, and one says goats are bad. But there is no religion in the world that says anything bad about chickens or fish. The reason is chickens and fish are the best kind of meat.

OP, you should ask your religion if you can eat chickens and fish. But if you have to eat vegetables, cook some of them in an iron skillet. And mind your B vitamins, they're deficient in vegetables.

webb is BACK! wrote:

asdfads wrote:

what the fvck kind of weird-ass religion are you a part of?

Gee perhaps Hinduism? Why are Americans so ignorant of Eastern religions?

Because we aren't in the East you dumbfvck. I work with a lot of Hindus, in IT, and they do not know all that much about Christianity.

bubbadeeboo wrote:

As far as vitamins go, the only thing I recommend is a B12 (or atleast make sure you're eating things that are fortified with it), otherwise only take things like iron/Vitamin D if you've been diagnosed with a specific deficiency.

I don't recommend a multivitamin. They is little evidence showing evidence and there is a possibility they may cause harm (e.g. shortened life, increased cancer risk...although the research is mixed). Spend the money on kale, collards, or broccoli and you'll be much better off.

from the Archives of Internal Medicine editor: “Because commonly used vitamin and mineral supplements have no known benefit on mortality rate and have been shown to confer risk….A better investment in health would be eating more fruits and vegetables…”"

^this

Btw to the op, just because something has 100%dv of nutrientX doesn't mean you can absorb 100% of it. Some things are more or less bioavailable depending on other macro/micro nutrient intake. They are also more or less bioavailable depending on how something is cooked/processed. For example you absorb 20% more calcium from kale than from milk (even though there is more calcium in milk), and you can only absorb 500mg of Vitamin D at a time (which is why you should never take 1000mg vit D pill it's a waste of money). Like someone previously mentioned, calcium blocks absorption of Iron and Vitamin C promotes it. These things happen in all areas.

Deficiencies are very individualized. You aren't deficient in something just because you're a vegetarian. You don't need vitamins (accept possibly B12) you just need to eat more of a variety of foods. I'm a vegetarian running 120mpw and I have high Iron, and ferritin and no deficiencies that I am aware of.

Bad Wigins wrote:

OP, you should ask your religion if you can eat chickens and fish. But if you have to eat vegetables, cook some of them in an iron skillet. And mind your B vitamins, they're deficient in vegetables.

And why are you so ignorant of nutrition, but yet always want to tell people what's what on this topic??

1) Per calorie, veggies are often a better source of iron than is meat (sure, it easier to eat a lot of meat calories than veggie calories, but if one cooks veggies, or blends them {smoothies}, it become pretty easy to get a lot of iron from veggies too

2) vegans/vegetarians don't have higher rates of anemia than do meat eaters

3) As I already corrected you on, vegetables are good sources of some B vitamins. Others they are not.

4) contrary to what you continually push on here, one certainly does not need meat to have a healthy diet. In fact, a non-meat diet is almost always healthier than a high meat diet (though it depends on other factors too) {and yes I eat meat, but I am simply stating facts on comparison of health outcomes between vegetarians/vegans and meat eaters)

Here is a source the OP is looking for:

Easy to get your iron if you pick the right foods. You'll need B12 if you are a vegan. But I think you said you drink milk, so .....you'll be all set there. A multi-vitamin every other day would be decent "insurance", but not necessary if you are eating well-rounded vegetarian diet. Get in the sun in the summer (not burned, some exposure at peak of day). If you are dark skinned and/or live in the north, this is particularly important, and you might need some supplementation since will not absorb UV rays as well and have a shorter window of time to get them.

Wow! Thank you to everyone who responded! Yeah, I am Hindu and I do live in the northeast which might be why I seem to have a vitamin d deficiency.

I did feel deficient in the fall and am feeling better now in terms of the fatigue I felt in the fall. I have been getting sick more often (just colds, but before I almost never got sick) after I got pneumonia/bronchitis (doctor wasn't sure which so she gave me levofloxacin to treat it). As a result, I have felt somewhat tired but not as much as in the fall. I'm assuming that I always had a iron deficiency but never realized it until this year because I built up my mileage for the first time this summer and because I was racing somewhat faster than previous years but knew I wasn't hitting the times that I believed I could based on my spring season as a sophomore. As for the vitamin D, I've read that a deficiency could weaken my immune system which might explain my lower wbc count and colds.

I do pay a lot of attention to my diet and I know I eat what I should be eating but it seems that my body is not absorbing all of the nutrients properly (my tests also showed protein in my urine which might indicate that my body is not absorbing all the nutrients I'm taking in or that I'm taking in too much of something). As a result, in case my body is not absorbing the nutrients efficiently, since I can't really eat more food than I already do (~3000-3200 calories a day), I figured a multivitamin would provide more nutrients and this increased intake would increase the amount absorbed by my body. The cereal I eat does have enough b12 too and my results said my levels were normal (712mg/mL) so I'm not too worried about that. I might just take something to give me more vitamin c and iron although I do already eat 2-3 fruits a day for vitamin c and antioxidants.

Once again, thanks to everyone for responding and if you have anything that might help me please share!

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

3) As I already corrected you on, vegetables are good sources of some B vitamins. Others they are not.

therefore they are deficient in b-vitamins. You'll never get enough B vitamins by eating vegetables.

I ignored the rest of your rant, but feel free to rant again, it amuses me.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Why are you so ignorant of meat?

Hindus don't eat cows. But there's nothing that says they can't eat other critters, in particular chickens and fish.

Most of the major religions are against some kind of animal. Some of them say don't eat cows, some say don't eat pigs, and one says goats are bad. But there is no religion in the world that says anything bad about chickens or fish. The reason is chickens and fish are the best kind of meat.

Not true. There are many sects of Hinduism. Some have no dietary limits at all, some are completely vegan, many are vegetarian, some just don't eat certain types.

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

1) Per calorie, veggies are often a better source of iron than is meat (sure, it easier to eat a lot of meat calories than veggie calories, but if one cooks veggies, or blends them {smoothies}, it become pretty easy to get a lot of iron from veggies too

2) vegans/vegetarians don't have higher rates of anemia than do meat eaters

3) As I already corrected you on, vegetables are good sources of some B vitamins. Others they are not.

It's not heme iron, brah.

B Vitamins are also more bioavailable in meat. That's why meat eaters are virtually never deficient in B vitamins. By contrast, people who eat a plant based diet are prone to pellegra and beriberi, which are both B vitamin deficiencies. Now, a careful plant-based diet can avoid that, but it goes to show how tricky adequate nutrition is when you eat vegetarian.

I'm skeptical of the claim that vegans and vegetarians don't have higher rates of anemia. When doctors find someone, particularly a woman, who is low in iron that's the first question they ask. But in any case, a runner who needs protein and loses iron through foot-strike hemolysis definitely needs to get their iron.

Having said that, faith comes first. Eat leafy greens or something.

"When doctors find someone, particularly a woman, who is low in iron that's the first question they ask."

I'm sorry is that what they taught you in medical school?