
Ask HN: Do you take food supplements? - moystard
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.<p>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.
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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.

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benzesandbetter
More likely, the focus effect is from the Taurine and Niacin.

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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...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/herbal-supplements-
are-often-not-what-they-seem.html?ref=science&_r=1&)).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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mrfusion
Does the timing of the protein matter?

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hurch
Yup. These two are good articles on protein amount/timing
[http://eprints.qut.edu.au/64117/](http://eprints.qut.edu.au/64117/)
[http://eprints.qut.edu.au/64127/](http://eprints.qut.edu.au/64127/)

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mrfusion
Ok so 20g every four hours after a workout for 12 hours?

So best to work out early in the day?

I guess 20g right before a workout too?

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hurch
Yep you could go pre exercise as well. Give give enough time prior to a
workout otherwise it might come back to haunt you

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mattwritescode
I take cider in the evenings.

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alex_doom
I take a multivitamin. Also L-theanine + caffeine.

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davej
Just fibre supplements before my main meal.

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ChristianMarks
Metamucil

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moystard
What for?

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jw_
Poopin'.

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moystard
Fair enough.

