A few other things have been causing me look at supplements, and this thread is making me seriously consider developing a regimen. I’m not sure where the best place to start is. On an intuitive level, there are a few supplements that seem like they would be common sense for me:
Melatonin—I just started working a shift schedule, 7 day shifts / 4 off / 7 graveyard shifts / 2 off / 7 evening shift / 1 off. It seems common sense that melatonin would increase quality of sleep, which is a large problem with the rotating sleep schedule. I see one of the results for my Amazon search has turned up Valerian instead. Does anyone have experience with this relative to melatonin?
Vitamin D—I really only leave the house when I have to. Pretty much the stereotypical stay-inside nerd.
Algae oil—I recently (about a year go) became a vegan, but I’m not sure I’m doing it very healthily. From what I’ve read, Algae oil is the best substitute for fish oil.
Multivitamin—I have a bottle of multivitamins that I theoretically take every day, but am actually horrible at following through. Hopefully developing a more structured regimen will help with this, what with the cognitive dissonance and all.
Whey protein—I used to be very successful at drinking a protein shake every morning before work (I have been a vegetarian for many years) but I developed a distaste for them. Since then, I’ve started eating 2 bean burgers just about every day that are my primary source (34g) of protein. I’m unsure exactly how much my other foods fill the 22g gap between this and the recommendation.
What other low hanging fruit is there for me to investigate? The above are only what seem obvious, they are not necessarily what is optimal. Particularly, information on any supplements important for vegans would be helpful.
I would recommend Melatonin over Valerian root. The reason you don’t sleep during the daytime is hormonal. Hormones are entrained by light/dark cycles, meal patterns, and exercise. Melatonin is the hormone your body produces to make you tired and to go to sleep. When you’re exposed to high-energy visible light (blue is the primary culprit, followed by green) your body does not produce melatonin. When that light goes away, your body starts producing it again.
However, just blacking out your room is not usually enough to make you sleep during the day because of the natural entrainment of sleep patterns; Your body produces melatonin not just when it’s dark, but when it is used to going to sleep. Melatonin supplements basically let you circumvent that whole problem because you don’t have to wait for your body to produce the melatonin. Once your’e asleep, your body’s natural systems take over, continuing to produce melatonin, regulating your sleep-stages, and basically allowing you to sleep normally.
Valerian root is a GABA-ergic compound (specifically, a GABA-a receptor agonist, like benzodiazepines, ambien, and alcohol) which means it does not function on your melatonin pathways, it’s a sedative. Alcohol and Benzos are well-known to disrupt your sleep cycles and to favor deep sleep over REM sleep which makes it less restful and can lead to dependence. You can also end up with a glutamate-rebound effect that wakes you up when your body overcorrects after the valerian wears off. Basically, you should think of Valerian as a GABA-ergic sedative/hypnotic drug like Benzos (xanax, ativan, valium, etc.) or alcohol, not as a supplement. Just because it doesn’t require a prescription does not mean it is not a drug.
If you can’t tell, I’m not a fan of Valerian. I’m personally pretty sensitive to excitatory rebound effects, but I definitely got them from Valerian. I would definitely recommend staying away from that stuff.
Regarding your other points:
First of all, as a vegan, you’re at risk for a lot of deficiencies. Why are you a vegan in the first place? If it’s just for health reasons, I would highly recommend switching to ovo-lacto vegetarian and/or including fish. Both groups have demonstrated significantly higher longevity than vegans in epidemiological studies. Either way though, you might want to look into Cronometer. It tracks the vitamins and micronutrients in your food. If you track everything you eat for a week but try not to let it influence your food choices, then at the end of the week, you can pull a report and see where you averaged out in both micro and macronutrients. That can be a good way of identifying deficiency risks. You can then address those either through dietary interventions or supplements, the former being preferable of course.
Probably a good idea, but check cronometer to see where you currently stand
Never heard of it before this, but looked it up and it seems like a decent alternative. Ideally, make sure it’s independently lab-tested for toxins and make sure it doesn’t have too much Omega-6 (n-6) in it or it defeats the whole point of supplementing n-3 (improving your n-6:n-3 ratio). Something I’ve noticed with Vegans is that they tend not to be careful about the types of fats they eat since they’re so restricted already. Think about the purpose you want the Algae oil to fulfill and check if there are any other dietary modifications you can make to assist with that, like cutting out sources of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats. Remember: Saturated Fats and Monounsaturated Fats are healthy. Polyunsaturates (vegetable oil and seed oil) are bad.
Probably only reasonable if you are deficient. There is zero evidence that multivitamins improve health otherwise, and epidemiological studies have shown a positive correlation between multivitamin intake and all-cause mortality.
Beans are not a complete protein, meaning it is missing certain essential amino acids. If you don’t have complete proteins, or at least a complementary incomplete protein that make up for the specific EAAs you’re missing in the beans, you’ll become deficient. Definitely use the Whey (great, easily-digestible, complete protein) if you can. Get a tasty chocolate one and blend it with coconut milk, water (for consistency), bananas, and ice. Throw in some nut butter if you want. I’d say this is one of the more important recommendations here. Alternatively, grab a vanilla one (I like Optimum Nutrition’s Vanilla Creme for this) and mix with orange juice or blend with OJ, Bananas, and Berries. It’s very easy to make it taste good and totally worth it.
Let me know if I can help clarify anything or if you have any questions. Cheers
I’m a vegan for ethical reasons. I’m not rigid about it, (the bean burgers I mention contain small amounts of eggs, for example) but I definitely watch which animal products I consume. If there weren’t healthy ways to get something critical, I would probably make an exception. I tend to believe that there is a vegan substitute for just about anything, however I’m open to be proven wrong.
I just set up a Chronometer account, that seems like a good service. Is there a way to put exact recipes in? I put in my breakfast this morning, which was some leftover homemade bread I made last night. Chronometer said that “homemade bread” had a gram of trans fats in it, which I doubt is accurate. I would suppose that there is high variation in nonstandard food items, and I’m hoping there’s a good way to address this.
You’re welcome, I’m just glad you found it helpful.
And yeah, Cronometer is great. You can add both custom foods and custom recipes.
Just click the “Foods” tab at the top and you can create a recipe. I have some of the things I make pretty often in there, like certain smoothies and other things that I always use the same proportions of.
You can also create custom foods if the brand of some product you buy has a very different nutrient profile from their defaults, you can enter it as a custom food (though you will often miss out on some of the micronutrient data that they have, so be careful with this, or copy the micronutrient info that you don’t know about product from one of their default database foods). Similarly, if there are duplicate records for a certain food you want to use, try looking at a few different ones to see which one has the most complete micronutrient data, then make sure you use that one.
And the Profile tab lets you set your targets for macro and micronutrients.
That’s really all you need to know. With this, you can find out for yourself if you might be getting too little or too much of anything and then experiment with different interventions. I would recommend making sure you don’t forget to track any fats or cooking oils you use. That way, you’ll know if you’re getting too much omega 6. The preset allowances for n-6 are probably too high. I encourage you to do your own research on the subject, but my personal recommendation is to try to keep your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio under 4:1. (Keep in mind only EPA and DHA count towards your n-3 number. “Other” omega-3s are only 3% bioavailable)
Again, let me know if you have any questions and good luck!
A few other things have been causing me look at supplements, and this thread is making me seriously consider developing a regimen. I’m not sure where the best place to start is. On an intuitive level, there are a few supplements that seem like they would be common sense for me:
Melatonin—I just started working a shift schedule, 7 day shifts / 4 off / 7 graveyard shifts / 2 off / 7 evening shift / 1 off. It seems common sense that melatonin would increase quality of sleep, which is a large problem with the rotating sleep schedule. I see one of the results for my Amazon search has turned up Valerian instead. Does anyone have experience with this relative to melatonin?
Vitamin D—I really only leave the house when I have to. Pretty much the stereotypical stay-inside nerd.
Algae oil—I recently (about a year go) became a vegan, but I’m not sure I’m doing it very healthily. From what I’ve read, Algae oil is the best substitute for fish oil.
Multivitamin—I have a bottle of multivitamins that I theoretically take every day, but am actually horrible at following through. Hopefully developing a more structured regimen will help with this, what with the cognitive dissonance and all.
Whey protein—I used to be very successful at drinking a protein shake every morning before work (I have been a vegetarian for many years) but I developed a distaste for them. Since then, I’ve started eating 2 bean burgers just about every day that are my primary source (34g) of protein. I’m unsure exactly how much my other foods fill the 22g gap between this and the recommendation.
What other low hanging fruit is there for me to investigate? The above are only what seem obvious, they are not necessarily what is optimal. Particularly, information on any supplements important for vegans would be helpful.
I would recommend Melatonin over Valerian root. The reason you don’t sleep during the daytime is hormonal. Hormones are entrained by light/dark cycles, meal patterns, and exercise. Melatonin is the hormone your body produces to make you tired and to go to sleep. When you’re exposed to high-energy visible light (blue is the primary culprit, followed by green) your body does not produce melatonin. When that light goes away, your body starts producing it again.
However, just blacking out your room is not usually enough to make you sleep during the day because of the natural entrainment of sleep patterns; Your body produces melatonin not just when it’s dark, but when it is used to going to sleep. Melatonin supplements basically let you circumvent that whole problem because you don’t have to wait for your body to produce the melatonin. Once your’e asleep, your body’s natural systems take over, continuing to produce melatonin, regulating your sleep-stages, and basically allowing you to sleep normally.
Valerian root is a GABA-ergic compound (specifically, a GABA-a receptor agonist, like benzodiazepines, ambien, and alcohol) which means it does not function on your melatonin pathways, it’s a sedative. Alcohol and Benzos are well-known to disrupt your sleep cycles and to favor deep sleep over REM sleep which makes it less restful and can lead to dependence. You can also end up with a glutamate-rebound effect that wakes you up when your body overcorrects after the valerian wears off. Basically, you should think of Valerian as a GABA-ergic sedative/hypnotic drug like Benzos (xanax, ativan, valium, etc.) or alcohol, not as a supplement. Just because it doesn’t require a prescription does not mean it is not a drug.
If you can’t tell, I’m not a fan of Valerian. I’m personally pretty sensitive to excitatory rebound effects, but I definitely got them from Valerian. I would definitely recommend staying away from that stuff.
Regarding your other points:
First of all, as a vegan, you’re at risk for a lot of deficiencies. Why are you a vegan in the first place? If it’s just for health reasons, I would highly recommend switching to ovo-lacto vegetarian and/or including fish. Both groups have demonstrated significantly higher longevity than vegans in epidemiological studies. Either way though, you might want to look into Cronometer. It tracks the vitamins and micronutrients in your food. If you track everything you eat for a week but try not to let it influence your food choices, then at the end of the week, you can pull a report and see where you averaged out in both micro and macronutrients. That can be a good way of identifying deficiency risks. You can then address those either through dietary interventions or supplements, the former being preferable of course.
Probably a good idea, but check cronometer to see where you currently stand
Never heard of it before this, but looked it up and it seems like a decent alternative. Ideally, make sure it’s independently lab-tested for toxins and make sure it doesn’t have too much Omega-6 (n-6) in it or it defeats the whole point of supplementing n-3 (improving your n-6:n-3 ratio). Something I’ve noticed with Vegans is that they tend not to be careful about the types of fats they eat since they’re so restricted already. Think about the purpose you want the Algae oil to fulfill and check if there are any other dietary modifications you can make to assist with that, like cutting out sources of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats. Remember: Saturated Fats and Monounsaturated Fats are healthy. Polyunsaturates (vegetable oil and seed oil) are bad.
Probably only reasonable if you are deficient. There is zero evidence that multivitamins improve health otherwise, and epidemiological studies have shown a positive correlation between multivitamin intake and all-cause mortality.
Beans are not a complete protein, meaning it is missing certain essential amino acids. If you don’t have complete proteins, or at least a complementary incomplete protein that make up for the specific EAAs you’re missing in the beans, you’ll become deficient. Definitely use the Whey (great, easily-digestible, complete protein) if you can. Get a tasty chocolate one and blend it with coconut milk, water (for consistency), bananas, and ice. Throw in some nut butter if you want. I’d say this is one of the more important recommendations here. Alternatively, grab a vanilla one (I like Optimum Nutrition’s Vanilla Creme for this) and mix with orange juice or blend with OJ, Bananas, and Berries. It’s very easy to make it taste good and totally worth it.
Let me know if I can help clarify anything or if you have any questions. Cheers
Thanks for such an in-depth reply.
I’m a vegan for ethical reasons. I’m not rigid about it, (the bean burgers I mention contain small amounts of eggs, for example) but I definitely watch which animal products I consume. If there weren’t healthy ways to get something critical, I would probably make an exception. I tend to believe that there is a vegan substitute for just about anything, however I’m open to be proven wrong.
I just set up a Chronometer account, that seems like a good service. Is there a way to put exact recipes in? I put in my breakfast this morning, which was some leftover homemade bread I made last night. Chronometer said that “homemade bread” had a gram of trans fats in it, which I doubt is accurate. I would suppose that there is high variation in nonstandard food items, and I’m hoping there’s a good way to address this.
You’re welcome, I’m just glad you found it helpful.
And yeah, Cronometer is great. You can add both custom foods and custom recipes.
Just click the “Foods” tab at the top and you can create a recipe. I have some of the things I make pretty often in there, like certain smoothies and other things that I always use the same proportions of.
You can also create custom foods if the brand of some product you buy has a very different nutrient profile from their defaults, you can enter it as a custom food (though you will often miss out on some of the micronutrient data that they have, so be careful with this, or copy the micronutrient info that you don’t know about product from one of their default database foods). Similarly, if there are duplicate records for a certain food you want to use, try looking at a few different ones to see which one has the most complete micronutrient data, then make sure you use that one.
And the Profile tab lets you set your targets for macro and micronutrients.
That’s really all you need to know. With this, you can find out for yourself if you might be getting too little or too much of anything and then experiment with different interventions. I would recommend making sure you don’t forget to track any fats or cooking oils you use. That way, you’ll know if you’re getting too much omega 6. The preset allowances for n-6 are probably too high. I encourage you to do your own research on the subject, but my personal recommendation is to try to keep your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio under 4:1. (Keep in mind only EPA and DHA count towards your n-3 number. “Other” omega-3s are only 3% bioavailable)
Again, let me know if you have any questions and good luck!