Anyone here take them? Which ones do you feel are the best to take?

For vegetarian it is usually adivisable to take vitamins b12, D, and zinc supplements.

There is a huge debate on the need and source of b12.

But supplementing implies that the diet is missing something. I prefer to look for the food that has the missing nutrient than supplementing. Vitamins and nutrients isolated in capsule may not be effective in the body. In their natural plant source, they are working in combination with other nutrients some still unknown to us.

Agrees.

My favorite supplements are the green superfoods. The best superfood available is Pure Synergy, it might be the perfect food for humans! I also like Vita-mineral Green (also called Natures First Food), E3 Live, Chlorella, and spirulina.

I occasionally take a probiotic supplement.

On the rare occasion that I eat cooked foods, I eat digestive enzyme supplements.

I also like MSM, bee pollen, and B12, sometimes a mineral supplement.

Mike

sometimes nothing, sometimes any of the following: probiotics, efa's, iron (chronic deficiency), homepathics, e3 live, kelp liquid minerals, digestive enzymes, and whatever else i feel like at the time.

i'm taking a whole food prenatal now.

I've tried supplements a few times they've always left me feeling headachy and uncomfortable though. I mean the vitamin mineral type ones things where nutrients are isolated. I feel they're unatural really. I mean its true that we don't really know everything thats in plants so isolated nutrients may not work right either.

I feel ok with what I would call whole food supplements though where nutrients aren't isolated where whole plants are used like green foods ones like spirulina and chlorella and stuff though I've never taken them, lol!!

I also believe in herbal supplements like dried herb powders. I've used triphala and it seems really good its a digestive aid made from drying three Indian fruits its an ayurvedic thing

I take the supplements my naturopath recommends for me. Don't know if I would supplement if I didn't have health issues though:

Co-Q 10
ACE-S (anti-oxidant formula)
IP6-Inositol - supposed to be very protective

He also told me to be sure to take something called FruitForce, but with all the fruit I eat, I just couldn't bring myself to pay $40 a month for something that I suspect I am already getting.

I also sometimes add green powder (spirulina, chlorella ...), hemp powder, UMAC Core drops and Cellfood to my smoothies. I keep a little tub of goodies like that in the fridge, and pull it out when I make a smoothy - then decide what I would like to add today.

There is so much out there, and so many claims of miracle cures. I don't think I could ever sort it all out for myself. But my instincts tell me that the real miracle cures probably don't come in a bottle of pills (or powders, or whatever..) anyway.

I take vitamins, but they come out the foods and vegetables I eat. My supplementation is my healthful living habits, which supplement and build my health. By this I mean getting lots of rest and sleep, doing yoga, spending time with friends and family, removing stress from my life, etc.

djatchi Wrote:
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> For vegetarian it is usually adivisable to take
> vitamins b12, D, and zinc supplements.
>

Yes.

> There is a huge debate on the need and source of
> b12.
>

No. There is no such debate in the scientific community. There is debate only among the non-scientifics.

> But supplementing implies that the diet is missing
> something. I prefer to look for the food that has
> the missing nutrient than supplementing.

I prefer not to participate in cruelty, torture, murder, and needless environmental devastation. I am pretty sure that I am not isolated in my preferences. This *is* a vegan forum. If you aren't vegan, why not justify yourself on some nonvegan forum? The internet is full of them.

>Vitamins
> and nutrients isolated in capsule may not be
> effective in the body.

This is patently untrue. The only difference between a synthesized vitamin and a naturally occuring one in a plant or animal food is the carbon-14 dating result. The vitamins that have enzyme function in the body (that act as "keys" will still fit in the same "locks" in the body.

If a bacterial synthesis is used to generate B12, for example, it will be pretty "new." If the substance in question is something synthesized from petrochemicals, it will carbon-14 date as "old."

>In their natural plant
> source, they are working in combination with other
> nutrients some still unknown to us.

What you might mean to say is this: there may be other nutrients still unknown to us and I think it is a reasonable statement.

But that does not negate the fact that supplementing with an isolated substance that was previously missing from the diet can make up for a deficiency. This has been shown so many times that it is beyond repute. In fact, that is how we learned that certain substances were vitamins, and "vital"--vitamin coming from the words "vital" and "amine."

[jn.nutrition.org]