On Supplements

A lot of interest and a lot of questions have come my way regarding the hot topic of supplements.

First of all, I feel compelled to start by clarifying that, you need to consult a health professional before you choose to take any supplements or choose to make radical changes to your lifestyle or diet. I’m just sharing some information based on my knowledge and experience but I don’t know you and your specific circumstances. So just take this as information and then do your own homework, your further investigation and consult professionals before you make any changes. Please be safe.

Supplements are a big topic and an even bigger industry. There’s a lot of people making a ton of money from selling all sorts of them. I am not here to debunk or demonize them all; there is a purpose for them and in most cases, they are a fundamental part of a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle. However, the first thing that I feel very compelled to talk about is that the human brain loves to add things to our life, and especially to our diet. However,

we really resist taking things away, losing things, and getting rid of things. Because immediately we start feeling deprived, which makes us want to hold on to stuff.

This is the reason why everybody loves the idea of taking a pill that will help them achieve a certain result or that might be the missing link as to why they’re not getting the results they would like to. I want to invite you all to consider the possibility that actually the greatest results pertaining to your health, well-being, mind-body confidence, have more to do with things that you need to lose, whether it’s habits or even foods that you need to stop or decrease eating, rather than things that might be missing. I have found in my practice, in my experience, and in my life, that more often than not, what was getting in my way was not anything that might be missing as much as some things that should be missing but I was holding on to.

These can be negative self-sabotaging thoughts, negative habits, foods that don’t work for you any longer. It’s harsh, but it’s true. You won’t receive any greater results than from stopping the consumption of things that are not good for you, I want to clarify that. Now with that said, once you’ve done your best and once you’ve made all the changes that are most conducive to you, once you’ve cleaned away all the superfluous stuff (which is a process that I’m still constantly working on), you can then consider whether you need to add any new things that are not currently present, such as supplements to integrate into this new healthy balance that you’ve achieved.

There are a couple of things that most people could do simply because of the daily lifestyle and modern lifestyle that we all go by; bear in mind that the reason why there’s no such thing as the perfect diet, as in a diet that gives you all the nutrients that you need without the need of any supplements, is simply because the food chain is fundamentally disrupted. This is simply due to the way in which we produce foods, the way we farm. We don’t go 100% only by the rules of nature anymore. Therefore the soils are quite depleted, food takes a long time to get to us, we don’t go straight from the producer to the table, in most cases.

That’s why, as well as you might be doing, you might still need to take some supplements daily. This is not because your diet is lacking, it’s more because the food is fundamentally lacking and there’s not very much you can do about that. This is something that comes up around plant-based nutrition a lot because some people think you still have to take supplements, so it’s not the best diet for human consumption. That’s not because plant based eating is not the ideal one for human consumption rather because the food chain is fundamentally disrupted.

So, with that said, let me explain to you the supplements I take and why I take them.

The first one is magnesium. It’s just the powder that you dissolve in hot water. Magnesium is a mineral, which is fundamental for very many bodily functions, and is one that we tend to overuse when we live a very busy lifestyle, when we’re particularly tired, or stressed out, or on the run all the time. So it’s one that most people in the modern world tend to lack and is one that can give you powerful positive benefits; the moment you start integrating it into your routine, you feel more relaxed and balanced. For the ladies out there, it massively improves your experience with PMS: you’ll be able to sleep better, your bowel movement and your digestion will improve.

I don’t take magnesium every single day, I tend to do 20-day spurts where I take it every day, within a month and then I take 10 days off. That’s just what seems to be working for me but you could take it every day if it was suitable for you.

Now bear in mind, I eat 100% plant-based mostly un-processed and have been for the past seven or eight years now, I obviously take a B complex spray. I use the Better For You spray and this contains all B vitamins, including vitamin B12, which is the one that if you are plant-based for any longer than a couple of years, you want to definitely supplement. To cut a long story short, the only reason why we lack B12 as I said is that the food chain is so disrupted that the soil is depleted of the bacteria that make it, so by the time the food gets to you it is so sterilized that the little bit which could have been on it, has been washed off.

Most people tend to be deficient in B12. Even those who do consume animal products. Those who consume animal products, if they are not deficient are not because B12 naturally occurs in animal products but simply because the animals are also given supplements. So you’re essentially still getting it from a supplement only via the animal because even the animals can’t get it naturally anymore, because of the way they’re raised.

Another one that most people tend to be deficient in is Vitamin D. I tend to use sprays as much as I can because the absorption is much more efficient. Vitamin D is especially important for anybody that lives in places such as England or anywhere where you don’t expose yourself to the sun every single day for at least 20 minutes. It’s generally produced by the skin through exposure to the sun. But if you don’t get yourself in the sun daily, then you might want to supplement it. A lack of vitamin D has very serious effects including terrible effects on your energy levels. So if you’re not exposing yourself to the sun daily or consistently, it’s highly recommendable.

By the way, just get checked on all your levels and get a health professional to follow you to know exactly if and what you might need. I also take omega-three. This is again highly recommended for us plant-eaters. The misconception is that omega-three comes from fish, that’s why many people who go on a plant-based diet find it hard to let go of the seafood because they feel like they will then lack the omegas. Now, the fish get their omegas from algae, it’s just that our diet, the Western diet doesn’t include a lot of algae. So we find it hard to eat it naturally but when you get it from the fish, you’re essentially once again not getting it straight from the source, you’re getting it from the algae that the fish eat, and then secondhand via the fish.

So you can cut out the middle man and simply get some supplements, which essentially are algae oil. So straight to the source without needing to eat fish, which I’m not demonizing, if you enjoy it, and if it’s a part of your healthy routine and if it works for you, that’s great, but it’s one of the most polluted food items out there and it contains a ton of heavy metals and other pollutants which are not very good for you. So if you’re only eating fish, because you’re afraid of the lack of omegas, you are much better off taking an algae supplement.

Lastly, I take iron, and this is for my own predisposition and is one that you need to be particularly careful of. So if you don’t need it, you shouldn’t take it and you should check with the doctor, I’m never gonna get tired of saying this. This is because my predisposition is to be anemic from a very young age, from when I was 13, it’s very common in the Mediterranean. It’s very common for women still going through menstruation. So I just take a spray, and I don’t do it all the time, just when I get a sense that I feel like I need it. I’ll do a month or a couple of months and then give my body a break and that’s just because I tend to be on the lower end of my iron storage. So these are the most fundamental ones.

If you are shifting to plant-based eating, the three that are highly recommended for you are omega three, B complex, and vitamin D. Those are the ones that we plant munchers need to be most aware of. Again, this is not because plant-based eating is not good enough; it is just that we don’t eat the animals that get fed the supplements. So we have to get it straight from the source, which is the supplement instead of via the animal. I hope this was useful. It’s a big topic.

I’m sure there might be questions, feel free to hit me up. Like I said one last time, check with a health professional before you make any changes, don’t take anything without knowing what you’re doing for yourself. What works for me might not work for you.

And a final reminder, make sure you first think and ponder what you might need to let go of rather than what you might need to integrate. Because you’ll get more value from doing that and stop eating stuff that hurts you and stop habits that are not conducive before you start thinking about adding stuff on.

I know it’s harsh, but it’s the truth.

Let me know what you make of this. Let me know if you have any questions feel free to reach out. Ciao for now! Sx