Should i take a v d3 supplement?

kibbles

Newcomer
Joined
Jul 2, 2018
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Age
28
Lifestyle
  1. Vegan
Introduction:

hello, maybe some of you remember me from my last vitamin related post. i have not taken more than a few vitamin supplements in the past 9 months. when i got a blood test about 7 months ago the doctor said that my levels were fine. B12 was a bit above the range. ever since then i pretty much just assumed that i was one of the people who could get all of the nutrients i need from food and fortified foods. i'm pretty sure that i feel a lot better now than i did back when i was getting the blood test.

every single day (unless i'm feeling too lazy to cook) i consume oats, fortified soy milk, blueberries, hemp seeds, ground chia seeds, seasoning (chinese 5 spice, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, black pepper), buckwheat, red kidney beans, black beans, lentils, tomato sauce, peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, olives, jalapeno peppers, chili peppers, mushrooms, fortified nutritional yeast.
sometimes ground flax seeds.

i know my fruit game is weak. i used to have apples and bananas in my oatmeal but then winter came around, so you know. also i've experimented quite a bit and the best frozen fruits to thaw and eat seem to be blueberries. the other frozen fruit are often not properly ripe and they have a weird smell from being frozen, so if i'm not blending it (and i don't blend stuff) it's not often a pleasant experience.

Topic:

after a quick google search i read that vitamin d2 is the same as vitamin d3 except that d2 doesn't last as long inside of the body.

so if i'm getting d2 from fortified foods, do i really need to take a supplement? honestly, i think there is a real possibility that i'm not getting enough of it. if i had to choose between increasing the amount of soy milk i drink and taking a d3 supplement, i would prefer the d3 supplement. a vegan friendly source, of course.

any advice?
 
Hi Kibbles , l don't see many vegetables in your daily diet - broccoli , kale , cauliflower , sweet potato , carrots , etc., are all very good for you ...
Anyway , you were asking about vitamin D3 - l don't know how old you are or where you live , but here in the mountains in Tasmania , vitamin D deficiency is actually quite common . If you live in a sunny climate and expose your skin enough during the day ( not just hands ) and you are otherwise healthy and young , then you should get enough of it ..

If you are inside a lot , or live in a cloudy / dark climate , and/or you are an older woman , it is a really good idea to supplement with a vegan D3 .. One of it's important body -uses is that it helps to keep your bones strong - you don't want to end up with osteoporosis .. It helps the bones absorb calcium and other nutrients they need , to stay strong .
I am 59 , and have a few body issues , so l take MRM vegan D3 , 5000 IU - one a day with food . It is non GMO , and it comes all the way from America - l can't find that one here in Australia .. They post it to me .. From memory the site is called "Lucky vitamins " - or similar .

Believe me , you want to make sure your body stays as healthy as possible as you age . I've been a vegan since l was 17 , vegetarian for 2 years before that , but l was a lazy cook and did not look after myself nutritionally for many years .
Whatever your diet is , you need healthy bones to support the rest of you ..

Best wishes to you , big hugs from Blissful . xo
 
right, thanks for pointing that out. i actually started eating potatoes daily about a week ago with my second meal (so i've been having one potato whenever i'm not too lazy to cook).
i realized just now that i am consuming too many nuts and seeds per day, so i am going to drastically reduce my intake of almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. i wasn't having an insane amount, but it was enough to help keep me satiated.
since i'm going to be having a lot less nuts and seeds i will separate my potatoes from my second meal and create a third meal consisting of the nuts & seeds (almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds), and two well sized potatoes.
one thing about this that will be exceptionally beneficial is that the third meal will be easy to prepare, and i won't have to rely on cooking the second meal to have potatoes. honestly, i'd love to have other veggies daily but it's just too much to prepare. being lazy is a habit that i'm trying to work out of, but it's also a matter of how fast i can get things done and the minimum amount of time that a task takes to complete.

yeah, i think it's a really good bet that i'm vitamin d deficient. i'll check the local stores to see if there are any vegan friendly d3 supplements. thank you :)
 
If this is just a blood test, the B12 value may not be reliable. In other words, you may be deficient even though the test says you’re not. I remember reading something about this. You might want to look into it.

All I can say is that after about 4.5 years of not taking supplements, I thought I was doing well, but I felt significantly better when I started taking B12, D3, and DHA/EPA, followed later by iodine (in the form of bladderwrack powder).