Vitamins or diet changes? Opinions wanted!

[Shanlee16]

Hi ladies so I have a question for you all!

I work at an organic smoothie and juice bar. I absolutely love my job and the knowledge that I have acquired since working here. I've started making changes to my life including eating healthier, working out more, praying and meditating and just all around trying to better my mind and body. I feel absolutely amazing as a result and am truly pumped about my lifestyle choices recently.

One thing I've tried to do is incorporate enough variety in my diet that I am getting a spectrum of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

So my question for you ladies is do you think if I am maintaining a pretty well balanced diet that I should take vitamins. I know with all the fillers and extras in certain vitamins they can end up not even being good for you.

Are any ladies doing this right now? If so I would love to hear your reasoning! If not I'd still love your advice and any changes you've made to your diet! Thanks for reading and sorry this became a book!

 

[scoobybeans]

Hi Shanlee, sounds like you're getting really healthy and that's awesome My opinion is that there are certain nutrients that are particularly tough to get enough of with diet alone, so I researched pre-natal vitamins until I found one that seemed really high quality and easy to absorb. I settled on Garden of Life RAW. It doesn't make me queasy or give me any other stomach issues (the ones my doctor prescribed did NOT agree with me) and I think the price is reasonable on Amazon. In addition to that I take Vitamin D & Omega 3 DHA (Nordic Naturals). I used to take more but the expense got a little much so I consider these the essentials.

Best of luck to you!

 

[MindUtopia]

If you're eating healthy and don't have any known deficiencies (like in b vitamins or iron) I wouldn't say there is much benefit to taking vitamins other than folic acid and anything else you feel like you can't get from your diet. There's also probably no harm though if you find one that works for you.

Last time we were TTC, I took a pregnancy vitamin from about 6 months before, though the one I initially started on caused me so many stomach problems (I think because of the iron?). It was so bad they sent me for an endoscopy (where they put a camera down your throat to look for ulcers). I finally worked out on my own that it was the vitamins and switched to a gentler brand and those were good for me through pregnancy and into the PP period. It was important for me to take them then as I was a vegetarian, so I was realistic my diet could have been lacking in something. I'm not a vegetarian now though I do eat lots of vegetarian meals.

This time I'm not taking a pregnancy multivitamin. I tried the same one I had last time which I loved and that even caused me problems this time. So now I just take folic acid, vitamin d (everyone ideally should take that anyway, pregnant or not), and floradix for iron (I have been anaemic in the past so it's extra insurance for me). When I'm pregnant, I add in a daily vitamin c and DHA/EPA (krill oil) capsules. So yes, I do take vitamins, but they are mostly for things I can't get sufficiently in my diet, except maybe for the vitamin c, even though my diet is better than most. We all need extra folic acid and usually also extra vitamin d, and the iron I take because I haven't always had enough in the past, and omega 3s are also tricky to get sufficiently in our typical western diets (we tend to get way to many omega 6s), hence the krill oil. So my diet is good (eat loads of fruit and veg, nuts, lean protein, very limited simple carbs or sugar), but it's just the extra reassurance on a few things, but I don't feel like I need a full multivitamin because it's best if you get it from eating healthy when you can.

 

[2ducks]

If you take a prenatal your body will excrete naturally what it doesn't process, hence the yellow pee. My midwife also recommended vitamin d in addition to a prenatal.

 

[Shanlee16]

Scooby- we actually sell Garden of Life at my store, those exact vitamins actually! Haha that's too funnny. And yea I agree they can be really expensive and add up you have to find that delicate balance!

MindItopia- I've found a lot of foods that are high in folate (the natural form of folic acid) and feel I even receive enough mcg to not take a supplement. But I'm still always considering getting a good one for the days I feel like cheating!

2ducks- I live in Florida and get so much sun I tell myself that's my extra vitamin d...even tho I know I should look into it haha!