Training & Nutrition - Vitamins, what do you take?

Today, I switched from GNC sport vitapaks to Animal vitamin packs. The Animals are a lot less plus you get more vitamins. Does anyone else use the Animal packs?

No, but does it matter that much? In all honesty, you shouldn't need them if you eat a healthy, balanced diet.

in no particular order
over 50 daily multiple
folic acid
b6
b12
calcium
vitamin D
omega 3 fish oil
potassium
magnesium
selenium
euchinacea
vitamin C

whey protein powder, but hat's not a vitamin ...

I just go to Costco and get the following

Kirkland Premium Performance MultiVit
Kirkland FIsh Oil
Kirkland Calcium Citrate.

I really dont think $$$ brands matter. And like what above said, you still need to eat balanced diet.

The "get everything you need from food" is a myth in today's world of processed foods and junk that's out there and most people don't have enough time to eat the correct amounts of everything they need. Everyone should take a supplement! I use just Hammer Nutrition's Premium Insurance Caps (I find you really don't need the other stuff) and haven't looked back. Check them out via the link below. Gives an active person or athlete everything they need.

The "get everything you need from food" is a myth in today's world of processed foods and junk that's out there and most people don't have enough time to eat the correct amounts of everything they need. Everyone should take a supplement! I use just Hammer Nutrition's Premium Insurance Caps (I find you really don't need the other stuff) and haven't looked back. Check them out via the link below. Gives an active person or athlete everything they need.It's hard to take your advice seriously when you sound like a shill for Hammer...

do the souls of lesser cyclists count as vitamins?

1 multiple vitamin 1 fish oil and 1 condroiten/glucoseamine (sp) pill all washed down with a beer. However I'm not training/racing/trying to crush souls in the park so... ya

It's hard to take your advice seriously when you sound like a shill for Hammer...

That's what it seems like, doesn't it? The fact is, I am a shill for Hammer because I've used their stuff and it works for me. Don't you like to spread the word on good products that you use when there is so much garbage out there?

Floradix

-might be useful to check this website as a few vitamins/supplements don't contain what they claim to contain or they contain harmful ingredients (like lead).

www.consumerlab.com

(lab that tests vitamins, supplements, etc.)

Calcium Citrate
Vitamin D

Those are my only short comings according to blood work. Everything else I'm more than maintaining with diet apparently.

-might be useful to check this website as a few vitamins/supplements don't contain what they claim to contain or they contain harmful ingredients (like lead).

www.consumerlab.com

(lab that tests vitamins, supplements, etc.)

I Do Not recommend that Consumerlab.com be considered as an 'independent' source of information. They sell their services / endorsement to manufacturers of supplements - so they get paid by the companies they are supposed to be testing for. Hardly an unbiased source, IMHO. Be an informed consumer - buy from reputable manufacturers / brands. Like any other product if the price is too good to be true - there's a reason.

I read recently that it is actually not a good idea to take vitamins after rides. That vitamin supplements (particularly antioxidants such as Vit C and Vit E) can negate the beneficial effects of exercise:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17108-vitamin-supplements-may-cut-benefits-of-exercise.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=34BE94D6-DE92-64D5-91032A27D31E25FC
http://www.wellnessletter.com/html/wl/2009/wlFeatured0809.html
http://www.uni-protokolle.de/nachrichten/id/176846/
(and many more)


I've also discovered that I have to be very careful with Vit K. If a multi-vitamin supplement has Vit K in it, I can't take it. Vit K is a coagulant, helping the blood to clot, and my body has that covered very well all on its own.

I highly recommend getting blood work done and finding out if you are deficient in a particular vitamin or mineral ... or overloaded in a particular vitamin or mineral ... before blindly loading up on them. Vitamins and minerals can actually harm you if you take them when you don't need them.

Multivitamin, lots of fish oil, glucosamine, CoQ10, turmeric in my shakes.

The "get everything you need from food" is a myth in today's world of processed foods and junk that's out there and most people don't have enough time to eat the correct amounts of everything they need. Everyone should take a supplement!

I'm sorry but if you can't find enough time to eat everything correctly and get everything you need from food you need to look at your priorities in life. Getting the right food should be #1.


The Real myth is that these supplements work, look it up there is no evidence whatsoever that supplements do anything.

http://www.livescience.com/health/090209-multivitamins.html

I'm sorry but if you can't find enough time to eat everything correctly and get everything you need from food you need to look at your priorities in life. Getting the right food should be #1.


The Real myth is that these supplements work, look it up there is no evidence whatsoever that supplements do anything.

http://www.livescience.com/health/090209-multivitamins.html

Both sides of this argument seem to make sense. Food has less nutrional value and increasingly has pollutants. For example getting your omega 3 from fish would require you to eat alot of fish every day and get too much mercury. Or you could take a fish oil pill without the mercury. But there is more goodness in the food that just omega 3 or some vitamins and all that is lost if you focus on the pills.

Or you could take a fish oil pill without the mercury. But there is more goodness in the food that just omega 3 or some vitamins and all that is lost if you focus on the pills.

How did you come to this assumption? Most of the fish oil pills contain mercury... A much safer way of getting omega 3's would be flax seed.

The only major food you have to look out for nowadays(when it comes to pollutants) is fish, you can easily live without fish. The nutritional argument is based on huge monocrop farms, food grown in healthy organic soil is just as nutritional as its ever been.

If you do decide to take supplements try to stick to ones that are the least processed and come from natural sources. Hemp protein, Mesquite powder, agave powder, bee pollen, propolis and flax seeds are all great supplemental items

Hemprider, how dare you not mention hemp seeds as a reliable source of health supporting fat, especially taking into account the ratio's in which those fats are provided. Hemp has a ratio of 3/6/9 that mimics what is optimal, according to recent theories and research, of what is optimal for a human body. Not to mention its ridiculous amounts of minerals that are hard to get elsewhere, its hormonal supportive effects for both men and women, and its complete protein.
So eat your fraggin' hemp, druggie.

Hemp seeds are awesome but the ratio is still higher in omega 6's then 3's, some thing like 4/1, i know some people prefer alittle more omega 3's. I personally get by with hemp seeds as my only supplementation and i seem to be doing pretty damn good :)

Centrum regular and an extra vitamin D daily. So far, doctor agrees these are all I seem to need.

trap and eat a kitten 3x weekly should do for ya

The write up in Wiki on antioxidants had some good insights, regarding fruits and veg vs. vitamin supplements. I take a supplement (centrum 1/2 tab, fish oil tab, calcium, vitamin D, Vit C 500, Glucosamine/ chondroitin). But I also really try to get 7 to 9 serv. of fruits and vegetables, and one apple included, every day.

The article stated that supplements have not been proven to be of benefit for reduction in heart disease and some cancers, the way a diet high in fruits and vegetables have been. May be due to a complex mixture of beneficial nutrients including flavenoids and others. The article has numerous citations for more light reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioxidant

I would imagine taking all those supplements is expensive, why not spend the cash towards more fresh produce? Its not just that it has no benefit in the reduction of heart diseases and cancer. It the fact that we have no idea if they even work like they say. I would rather put my money into tried and true methods then trust some pill from a billion dollar company...

I Do Not recommend that Consumerlab.com be considered as an 'independent' source of information. They sell their services / endorsement to manufacturers of supplements - so they get paid by the companies they are supposed to be testing for. Hardly an unbiased source, IMHO. Be an informed consumer - buy from reputable manufacturers / brands. Like any other product if the price is too good to be true - there's a reason.

Regardless of whether they are considered independent or not, their articles include thorough reviews of journal articles about supplements (absent any manufacturer information) in the journal review section of their publications. I find this section of their reviews to be unbiased--as all of their statements are backed up by a journal reference--and full of excellent references to nutrition, endocrinology and other scientific journals. I tend to bounce their reviews off of my sister who has a Ph.D. in endocrinology and is a professor at a large university. She agrees with their advice and respects the reference sources.

They also include tests of brand-specific products paid for by the manufacturers who have products included in the tests. If Consumerlab indicates that a product has lead in it, I'm definitely not taking it. I find value in that sort of information (regardless of whether they are paid or not for testing specific brands). I also find their brand reviews to be extremely matter-of-fact. And, I'm much less suspicious of a manufacturer who is open to a third party lab test of their product vs. one who would not include their products in such a review.

Certainly one should consider the source, but when the source has a wealth of related but non-marketing information, I am happy to use it to my advantage. I've found very few other sources with as much information available (besides doing my own journal reviews which can be quite time consuming). If you have one, please share as I'm always looking for new information.

I'm sorry but if you can't find enough time to eat everything correctly and get everything you need from food you need to look at your priorities in life. Getting the right food should be #1.

The Real myth is that these supplements work, look it up there is no evidence whatsoever that supplements do anything.

http://www.livescience.com/health/090209-multivitamins.html


That blog post is interesting (as is the linked blog included within) however, the author only addresses the potential of a vitamin to reduce the risk of colon cancer--not any other benefits from taking vitamins.

The author also completely failed to include a link to the actual research article (or even a proper reference) so I have posted what I suspect is their basis here: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/10/1/17.full

It's quite an interesting read -- I'd recommend reading the full journal article.

Additionally, the blogger states within his article: Several other studies have shown vitamin supplements to be next to worthless and in some cases harmful. yet it's not correctly referenced other than a link to an another article discussing that perhaps Vitamins C and E don't reduce your risk of cancer.

If my only concern were colon cancer--after I had already been diagnosed, I may not supplement based on this information. However, I suspect there are many more benefits of vitamins. But whether or not the body can use them in supplement form is definitely an interesting question.

Recently, I read that you can not get iron from spinach as there is a substance in spinach that blocks iron uptake. As the article did not have any references backing up their statement, I couldn't follow up. I had been under the impression that spinach was the way to go (especially for a pescetarian such as myself), eating it daily. Now I'm not so sure--however, I can not fully buy into the suggestion that the iron in spinach is worthless until I read an actual peer-reviewed article (or preferably multiple articles) in a respected scientific publication.

I've also read (from better sources) that supplementing with large vitamin E doses is linked to a mortality effect ("Meta-Analysis: High-Dosage Vitamin E Supplementation May Increase All-Cause Mortality." It is in the 4 January 2005 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine (volume 142, pages 37-46). The authors are E.R. Miller III, R. Pastor-Barriuso, D. Dalal, R.A. Riemersma, L.J. Appel, and E. Guallar.)

My best advise is to continue to research and then question the articles that you do find (by checking for references, peer reviews, etc.) Information is always changing and we're always learning based on new findings.

Show me the study that concludes these vitamins will actually supply me with the nutrients they claim, until then they are as good to me as sugar pills.

Show me the study that concludes these vitamins will actually supply me with the nutrients they claim, until then they are as good to me as sugar pills.

I'm not asking to argue, but rather am curious of your motives: Why would you rely upon someone else to find the information for you when the internet is full of hundreds of thousands of research articles (both free and fee based) all describing relationships between all kinds of supplementation (from natural to synthetic) and desired (or undesired) outcomes? or even no outcome.

(If you don't want to pay for the articles, just visit your local library.)

You can review their methods, study size, controls, etc., and read peer-reviews, and then decide for yourself.

However, to get you started, here's a classic example (scurvy and vitamin C supplementation) and a great place to start (University of Oregon):

Scurvy is rare in developed countries because it can be prevented by as little as 10 mg of vitamin C daily (2).

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminC/

And another:

Young children and older persons are predisposed to scurvy because of their diet or the overpreparation of food (cooking destroys vitamin C). Smokers, non-Hispanic black males, and individuals who do not use vitamin supplements have an increased risk of vitamin C deficiency.4

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/413463-overview


Happy reading.

Additionally, the blogger states within his article: Several other studies have shown vitamin supplements to be next to worthless and in some cases harmful. yet it's not correctly referenced other than a link to an another article discussing that perhaps Vitamins C and E don't reduce your risk of cancer.

Read the links I posted about Vit C and E in Post #14.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p=9659634&postcount=14




however, I can not fully buy into the suggestion that the iron in spinach is worthless

Spinach is full of Vit K. If you tend to be a bleeder, that might be a good thing. If you lean toward developing clots, that could kill you.

As I said in my previous post, before taking vitamins, it is a good idea to have your blood tested to see what you might be deficient in, to see what you might have too much of, and to see how your body might react to those vitamins.

The clotting thing is one I've just discovered ... and I cannot take Vit K supplements at all, and have to drastically limit the amount of food I eat with Vit K.

Vitamins and minerals also react negatively and positively together. I forget which reacts with what, but the iron, calcium, Vit C trio don't do so well together. I think one helps the other, but the third gets in there and cancels it all out. My Dr was explaining it to me, but I'd have to look it up.

Before anyone blindly swallows back all those pills, thinking they are good and healthy and all that, it is a very good idea to do some research and find out just how good and healthy they are ... or are not.


EDIT: and about food filling all your vitamin needs. I spent 2-3 weeks last year entering everything I ate into Fit Day in order to discover what it was I was really eating, and hopefully to lose weight by monitering what I ate more closely. I did lose some weight through that process, but also had a few surprises when it came to the vitamins and minerals I was consuming. I recommend doing something like that, using Fit Day or Nutrition Data or another program, and just see what you are or are not consuming.

Multi-vitamin, COQ10, MSM, Glucosamine/ chondrotin (sp), Evening Primrose oil, and one aspirin every morning.

Every hard training athlete should be at least taking a multi- vitamin.

Every hard training athlete should be at least taking a multi- vitamin.

Not true.

Most multi-vitamins have Vit K as one of the ingredients. No matter how hard I train, I'm not supposed to take Vit K because of its clotting properties.

As I said in the post above yours ... know what you need or don't need.


Oh, and unless you've got a heart condition of some sort, according to the most recent research, an aspirin a day is also not a good idea.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111202625.htm
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/dont-take-aspirin.html
http://men.webmd.com/features/aspirin-day-not

However, to get you started, here's a classic example (scurvy and vitamin C supplementation) and a great place to start (University of Oregon):

Scurvy is rare in developed countries because it can be prevented by as little as 10 mg of vitamin C daily (2).

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminC/

And another:

Young children and older persons are predisposed to scurvy because of their diet or the overpreparation of food (cooking destroys vitamin C). Smokers, non-Hispanic black males, and individuals who do not use vitamin supplements have an increased risk of vitamin C deficiency.4


http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/413463-overview


Happy reading.

The reason i won't search for my self is because the study's don't exist. The study you link is in regards to vitamins C only which proves nothing, on top of that vitamin C supplementation is ******** and can be dangerous.


Every hard training athlete should be at least taking a multi- vitamin.

No they shouldn't unless they fail at life and can't even eat a proper diet. Eating the proper nutritious diet should be your number 1 goal, if you have to rely on some unproven pill for your nutrition your doing something wrong

Spinach is full of Vit K. If you tend to be a bleeder, that might be a good thing. If you lean toward developing clots, that could kill you.

As I said in my previous post, before taking vitamins, it is a good idea to have your blood tested to see what you might be deficient in, to see what you might have too much of, and to see how your body might react to those vitamins.

The clotting thing is one I've just discovered ... and I cannot take Vit K supplements at all, and have to drastically limit the amount of food I eat with Vit K.

Vitamins and minerals also react negatively and positively together. I forget which reacts with what, but the iron, calcium, Vit C trio don't do so well together. I think one helps the other, but the third gets in there and cancels it all out. My Dr was explaining it to me, but I'd have to look it up.

Before anyone blindly swallows back all those pills, thinking they are good and healthy and all that, it is a very good idea to do some research and find out just how good and healthy they are ... or are not.

EDIT: and about food filling all your vitamin needs. I spent 2-3 weeks last year entering everything I ate into Fit Day in order to discover what it was I was really eating, and hopefully to lose weight by monitering what I ate more closely. I did lose some weight through that process, but also had a few surprises when it came to the vitamins and minerals I was consuming. I recommend doing something like that, using Fit Day or Nutrition Data or another program, and just see what you are or are not consuming.

I agree w/ your ideas completely. It's tough to figure out what you are deficient in by just tracking what you eat (I do the same, down to the very last amino acid--try finding recommended daily intake for amino's! now that's a challenge.) I find that I tend to be deficient in both iron and vitamin D, however, I'm certain I get plenty of D from the sun so I don't supplement it.

Even if you do track, like you said, some things interact with others, possibly negating the effects--for example, I never take zinc with calcium (or zinc with meals that contain lots of calcium such as dairy). I also continue to eat spinach, but I don't rely upon it for iron (hence my daily Floradix supplement: liquid iron in a natural plant extract form.)

Vitamin A is also one that appears to get over supplemented. Large doses of Vitamin A can be harmful, yet you see it included in just about every single multi-vitamin even though it's extremely easy to get from food.

Read the links I posted about Vit C and E in Post #14.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p=9659634&postcount=14



Oh, and I'm perfectly fine with the fact that there are negative studies about a vitamin and have no doubts that there are many studies showing both positives and negatives. It just really bugs me that the author of the article did not reference his statements in his publication. Not referencing statements in publications causes me to discount the author (as possibly being poorly researched or even false, or worse: plagiarism.) So, when I come across a published article without any references, it's pretty much worthless to me.

Not true.

Most multi-vitamins have Vit K as one of the ingredients. No matter how hard I train, I'm not supposed to take Vit K because of its clotting properties.

As I said in the post above yours ... know what you need or don't need.


Oh, and unless you've got a heart condition of some sort, according to the most recent research, an aspirin a day is also not a good idea.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111202625.htm
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/dont-take-aspirin.html
http://men.webmd.com/features/aspirin-day-not

I agree you should know what you need or don't need, but a lot of people have no clue about there own body. Most people will not run into an issue taking a good multi vitamin. And with the diets most people eat, a multi vitamin can only help.

And an 81mg aspirin a day is a good Idea unless you have bleeding issues. Two of the 3 articles you link to also agree with me.

"Most multi-vitamins have Vit K as one of the ingredients. No matter how hard I train, I'm not supposed to take Vit K because of its clotting properties."

In fact most multi vitamin products in the market do not contain Vit K - but be an informed consumer - read all labels! You are the rare person who knows (from doctor's advise, we presume) that you specifically should avoid K. Great that you know your own needs. Advise from an earlier post suggesting that individuals get tested was also excellent.

With modern western diets the general population has actually been found to be Vit K deficient (source - published studies from University of Maastrich, The Netherlands). It has been shown to be important in bone and cardiovascular health (same source and others). If, however, you are taking a blood thinner based on warfarin / coumadin you absolutely should consult your doc before consuming K.

I agree you should know what you need or don't need, but a lot of people have no clue about there own body. Most people will not run into an issue taking a good multi vitamin. And with the diets most people eat, a multi vitamin can only help.

And an 81mg aspirin a day is a good Idea unless you have bleeding issues. Two of the 3 articles you link to also agree with me.

If you eat a ****ty diet a multi vitamin is gonna do next to nothing for you and you might want to rethink that aspirin.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6246/b-Aspirin-day-bad-b.html

If you eat a ****ty diet a multi vitamin is gonna do next to nothing for you and you might want to rethink that aspirin.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6246/b-Aspirin-day-bad-b.html

I weigh the good and the bad of everything I put in my body. My diet is 100% in check 7 days a week and has been for years. If I get a boost in performance from something I will use it. I believe a multi-vitamin and 1 aspirin a day among other things, are beneficial for my goals and most competitive athletes. I don't ride a bike for health reasons, I ride to beat people in races and on the track.

I don't ride my bike for health reasons either but i know if I'm as healthy as possible I'll ridemy fastest. Its common sense, by the way what the reasoning for taking the aspirin?

1 aspirin a day among other things, are beneficial for my goals and most competitive athletes. I don't ride a bike for health reasons, I ride to beat people in races and on the track.


Unless you have been diagnossis for a CV. Then taking asprin is not a good idea. Since you race, you can crash and taking asprin in the latest study said you have a higher chance of bleeding out.

I don't ride my bike for health reasons either but i know if I'm as healthy as possible I'll ridemy fastest. Its common sense, by the way what the reasoning for taking the aspirin?

I use the aspirin for its mild blood thinning effects. My blood tends to run thicker depending on the time of year and training schedule.

"Most multi-vitamins have Vit K as one of the ingredients. No matter how hard I train, I'm not supposed to take Vit K because of its clotting properties."

In fact most multi vitamin products in the market do not contain Vit K - but be an informed consumer - read all labels! You are the rare person who knows (from doctor's advise, we presume) that you specifically should avoid K. Great that you know your own needs. Advise from an earlier post suggesting that individuals get tested was also excellent.

With modern western diets the general population has actually been found to be Vit K deficient (source - published studies from University of Maastrich, The Netherlands). It has been shown to be important in bone and cardiovascular health (same source and others). If, however, you are taking a blood thinner based on warfarin / coumadin you absolutely should consult your doc before consuming K.


Yes, it definitely was on Doctor's advise that I need to avoid Vit K ... I spent 2 weeks in hospital with DVT just recently, had 25 injections in my abdomen to thin the clots which my left leg was full of, and am now on Warfarin and could be for months yet. I'm just so fortunate that the clots stayed in my leg.

I never expected that I would get DVT. I don't fit the profile at all. The profile of people who get DVT are overweight, sedentary, older people who either don't move around much because of their weight, or who have had a hip replacement surgery or something like that. That's not me. I'm about the right size, active, and only middle aged. But apparently my blood tends to clot easily.

And that's the thing ... you just don't know. You hear of athletes dropping dead on their bicycles or in the middle of practice or whatever all the time. Now that I've experienced this, I'm beginning to wonder ... have these athletes just recently taken a long flight? And did they have a clot that moved and ended up as a heart attack?

My DVT started with something that felt for all the world like a bad calf cramp. How many times here do we read threads about calves cramping ... and the people seem to be doing all the right things (drinking, consuming electrolytes, stretching etc.)? I drank lots, I took electrolytes, I stretched ... and that cramp would just not go away.

The multi vitamins I've used in the past ... including the bottle on my counter right now that I bought before I realized Vit K would be a problem ... have all had Vit K.

And I was killing myself by taking that multivitamin and eating all the foods I love: broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts, kiwi, etc. ... all the Vit K foods. I found it interesting, when I looked up how much Vit K those foods had in them.

The daily recommended intake of Vit K is 80 µg for males and 65 µg (micrograms). 1/2 cup of cooked broccoli has about 200 µg ... three times the recommended intake, and I'm the type who will sit down with about 2 cups of steamed broccoli and eat it for supper.

The list below is a who's who of many of my favorite foods ... which I have to severely restrict my inake of right now:
http://www.vitamin-update.com/definition.cfm/id/5.html


You can find out the levels of vitamins and minerals in your blood through simple blood tests, and there are programs/sites (like FitDay and Nutrition Data) where you can find out what vitamins and minerals are in food, and how much you are consuming on a daily basis. I'd highly recommend doing that before leaping into taking pills.

The biggest thing for me about buying fish oil from Costco is that since there is no FDA guidelines for that brand, you don't know how much mercury is in the fish...

I occasionally take a multivitamin, but not on a regular basis. I use protein powder when I'm working out, but other than that it's usually just vegetables and red meat.

I actually thought there was research to show that taking supplements was more detrimental than beneficial?

Though I do take an aspirin + glucosamine/chronoditin.

How did you come to this assumption? Most of the fish oil pills contain mercury... A much safer way of getting omega 3's would be flax seed.

The only major food you have to look out for nowadays(when it comes to pollutants) is fish, you can easily live without fish. The nutritional argument is based on huge monocrop farms, food grown in healthy organic soil is just as nutritional as its ever been.

If you do decide to take supplements try to stick to ones that are the least processed and come from natural sources. Hemp protein, Mesquite powder, agave powder, bee pollen, propolis and flax seeds are all great supplemental items

There are different types of omega 3's and they are not entirely interchangeable. The ALA found in flax seed oil is only converted to DHA and EPA in very small ratios so taking flax oil in place of fish oil will not usually accomplish the same thing. I believe there are non-fish derived sources for these O3's such as spirulina and other algae supplements if fish oil is out of the question.

Personally I take 1 capsule containing a combination of fish, flax and borage oil along with a Kirkland glucosamine/msm tablet and half of a Kirkland multi vitamin/mineraltwice a day. I will also take calcium on days that I haven't gotten much from food. I don't know that any of it is really helping me as I try to eat a balanced diet but if I am lax on something I figure it can't hurt to get "topped off" in whatever is missing twice a day. And if I did my math correctly it is only costing me 17 cents a day.

One more note on fish oil: most farm raised fish does not actually contain much of the important omega 3's as they are not fed food that wild fish derive them from.