Vegetarian Diet Do I Need Supplements

Vegan Supplements: Which Ones Do You Need?

By: Matt Frazier and Matt Tullman

Vegans Need More Than Just B12

I'm here with a message that, without a doubt, isn't going to make me the most popular guy at the vegan potluck. That's right, I'm talking vegan supplements.

But it's one I believe is absolutely critical to the long term health of our movement, and that's why I'm committed to sharing it. Let's dive into vegan supplements and why we need to focus on them.

Here goes…

Vegans need more than just B12.

Sure, Vitamin B12 might be the only vegan supplement required by vegans in order to survive. But if you're anything like me, you're interested in much more than survival — you want to thrive.

As it turns out, there is compelling evidence suggesting that a handful of certain nutrients not typically part of the plant-based diet can help ensure optimal wellness and maximum healthspan.

Why B12 probably isn't enough

The fact is that not all nutrients come from plants.

Or, to be more specific, there are essential nutrients not abundantly available from plants (Vitamin B12 and D); others that may not be adequately absorbed from plant-sources (zinc), and still others that may exist as part of certain plant foods, but are not commonly consumed as part of a Western plant-based diet (iodine, Vitamin K2, and certain Omega-3's).

My hope is not to convince you to take a vegan supplement. Rather, it's to encourage you to be thoughtful about what nutrients you're regularly consuming and which ones you might not be, and to convince you that complementing your plant-based diet with a handful of essential nutrients is critical for your health.

Why do I say "complement" rather than "supplement"?

A complement is defined as "a thing that completes or brings to perfection." This is not about adding more of the nutrients that you already derive from plant-based foods (like protein, for example, or most of the vitamins and minerals in a typical multivitamin).

Instead, it's about complementing your intake of plants with the essential nutrients that are not found in the most commonly consumed plants (or not adequately absorbed from those plant sources).

Why vegan supplements are important.

Let's explore each of these "hard to find" nutrients to see why we need it, and more importantly, what you should do about it.

But first, a warning. This is our research on vegan supplements. Use it, but do your own, too. Get blood tests. Talk to your doctor. You know the deal.

Vitamin B12

The Essential Background

As most people know, there are no adequate plant-sources of B12 — despite what you might have heard about eating "dirty" vegetables. Let's start by exploring that idea to better understand why it's critical to complement your plants with a vegan supplement B12 source.

We all know that human life relies on fertile soil. But we don't often realize that we rely on the life in our soil.

One reason is that soil bacteria produce Vitamin B12. (The bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract manufacture B12 as well. But this occurs too low in your gut for you to absorb the vitamin into your bloodstream.) By eating vegetables straight from the family garden, or foraged from the wild, humans have historically ingested trace amounts of B12.

This is the root justification for not washing your vegetables in order to ingest the B12 that remains on the surface. But here's the catch: Modern agriculture and other human behaviors decimate these bacterial colonies, so the amount of B12 available on the surface of your unwashed fruits and veggies is questionable at best.

Why It Matters for Vegans

Certain animal products, like red meat, contain B12 — those animals ingested the B12 as they grazed the land, consuming the soil along with their food. Thus, humans who eat other animals are essentially supplementing their B12 stores by ingesting the B12 and the bacteria in and on the meat. Of course, this does not apply to plant-based eaters.

How to Get Vegan Supplements like Vitamin B12 on a Vegan Diet

While you may theoretically be able to derive B12 from dirty vegetables, when you recognize the critical importance of B12, you realize that method is quite risky. You are essentially rolling the dice with a nutrient that is critical for neurological function, for maintaining your immune system, and even for making blood cells and DNA. Vegans who remain B12 deficient for many years could ultimately develop anemia and neurological issues.

You can, alternatively, maintain adequate B12 stores by intentionally eating foods fortified with the vitamin — nutritional yeast is a great example, but many common breads and cereals are also fortified. This, of course, is just another form of supplementation, but one that some people prefer.

Personally, with a nutrient as critical as B12, I prefer to know that I'm getting a precise amount every day, so I take a B12 supplement.

How Much Vegan Supplements Do I Need?

You don't require large amounts of B12 in order to maintain optimal levels. That's because your body secretes the vitamin in tiny amounts over long periods of time.

So long as you consume around 2.4 mcg (that's micrograms) per day, you can rest assured that your body can utilize ample stores of B12 for the foreseeable future, even if you miss a couple of days or even weeks. (Don't be alarmed if your supplement provides much more than 2.4 mcg. Because it's water-soluble, there is little risk of overloading to the point of toxicity.)

Vegan Supplement: Vitamin D

The Essential Background

Vitamin D is known as the "sunshine vitamin" because our bodies, like those of other animals, activate D in reaction to sun exposure.

If you're like me, you love being in nature, and you spend as much time outdoors as possible. But you also wear clothing and most of your work takes place indoors (although I do my best to hold meetings outside). That means our natural ability to soak up the sun's rays is limited. As a result, many of us — regardless of dietary pattern — are deficient in Vitamin D. So why does D matter?

Scientific evidence suggests that being "D-ficient" may increase the risk of various chronic diseases, from osteoporosis to heart disease, some cancers, and even multiple sclerosis.

Vitamin D is a factor in the expression of more than a thousand genes throughout the body. If those genes are not expressed properly, any number of issues can ensue, hence the wide-ranging health implications. We have long known the importance of Vitamin D for bone health and immune function, but we're just now realizing how impactful this vitamin really is.

For just one example, look at heart health. Studies have shown that low Vitamin D levels are associated with overall cardiovascular disease, including a higher risk of heart attack, sudden cardiac death, and strokes.

Why It Matters for Vegans

Just like humans, other animals activate Vitamin D from sun exposure. So people who consume animal products like eggs or fish are ingesting some amount of Vitamin D that way. Moreover, many dairy products are fortified with D, so those items are essentially "supplementing" Vitamin D intake as well.

How to Get Vegan Supplements On a Vegan Diet

Theoretically, you can activate all the Vitamin D you need just by exposing your skin to the sun. But, for the reasons mentioned above, you might not be getting that much sun.

Or you might have a genetic condition that limits your capacity to create Vitamin D; or another condition — like pale skin — that prevents you from enjoying the sun without burning. Or maybe you live in Chicago or Canada and can't access the sun's rays like someone living in Florida.

If you can't ensure adequate (and safe) sun exposure, it's best to supplement with some form of Vitamin D. There are many plant-based sources that provide an algae- or mushroom-derived form of Vitamin D. And many plant-based milks (made from everything from nuts to pea protein) are also fortified with Vitamin D.

I suggest looking for D3 (cholecalciferol), which is the type synthesized by the human body that's more effective in raising blood levels.

How Much Vegan Supplements Do You Need

It's possible you're already getting enough D from the sun; to find out, get a blood test and make sure that your doctor measures "25(OH)D" or "25-Hydroxy Vitamin D." Most experts suggest that, for optimal health and even cancer prevention, blood levels of Vitamin D should be greater than 30 mg/dL.

If you, or your physician, is concerned about low Vitamin D levels, many experts, like Dr. Michael Greger, suggest a supplemental dose around 2,000 IU of Vitamin D3. Look for "Vitashine" on the label — that's the only vegan form of D3.

Vegan Supplements: DHA and EPA (The Other Omega-3's)

The Essential Background

We've all heard of the importance of Omega-3's for vegans, but we don't often hear that not all Omega-3's are created equal.

Omega fatty acids from flax or chia seeds — the "ALA" kind — are an amazing addition to your plate, but vegans may not adequately consume other forms — namely DHA and EPA, which are critical for cardiovascular and brain health.

Omega-3's play a key role in nearly every cell of your body. As such, a daily intake of these essential fatty acids is critical for optimal functioning — from regulating your cholesterol levels to powering your nervous system.

One of the most important functions — which we are just recently beginning to appreciate — is controlling the low-grade, systemic inflammation that is tied to many chronic diseases, like Alzheimer disease. Some of the strongest evidence, however, relates to the benefits in preventing and treating heart disease.

Why They Matter for Vegans

Fish consume micro-algae and other marine plants, and these species of seaweed are the root source of high-quality EPA and DHA. Those compounds are then deposited in the fish's fat deposits. That's why folks looking for a supplemental source Omega-3's take fish oil capsules. It's not that fish uniquely produce DHA or EPA; it's that fish eat Omega-3-rich seaweed.

How to Get Vegan Supplements: DHA & EPA on a Vegan Diet (And Why Walnuts and Flaxseeds Probably Aren't Enough)

Your body can produce all of the necessary fatty acids required for daily function, except for linoleic acid (LA), an Omega-6 fatty acid, and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the Omega-3 referenced above. We need to consume those compounds as part of our diet. When we do, our body uses them to synthesize other fatty acids, like EPA and DHA.

The good news is that ALA is abundantly available from plant-based foods, especially flax, chia, and hemp seeds. Just remember to crush or grind the flax seeds because our GI tract is unable to breakdown the shell. If seeds aren't your favorite food item, you can also find ALA in soybeans and walnuts, among other non-seed sources.

If we can create DHA and EPA from ALA, why not just focus on eating tons of ALA? I'm glad you asked, because this is one of the most common misconceptions among vegans I talk to.

The challenge is that our body is extremely inefficient at deriving DHA or EPA from ALA. Research suggests that less than 1% of ALA is converted into "physiologically effective levels" of DHA or EPA. A blood test can diagnose how well you convert ALA into DHA and EPA; the vast majority of people cannot do so adequately.

So yes, you're getting plenty of "omega-3s" when you eat walnuts and flaxseeds. It's just that, unless you're lucky enough to be someone who can convert ALA efficiently into DHA and EPA, you're not getting enough of the right kinds.

Now you might be thinking, "Seaweed is a plant, so I'll just eat that!" The problem with this idea relates to the actual quantity available to absorb.

Because seaweeds are so low in fat, they provide relatively low amounts of EPA and DHA on a per gram basis. So you would have to eat an extraordinary amount of seaweed every single day in order to reap a sufficient amount of Omega-3's.

Is that a theoretically plausible way of consuming an adequate amount of DHA and EPA? Sure. You could make an argument for eating copious amounts of seaweed, every day, along with a variety of sources of ALA in large quantities. That would be a thoughtful, evidence-based approach.

But practically speaking, most people can't or won't do that. That's why I strongly suggest considering ways to supplement your intake of DHA and EPA.

How Much Vegan Supplements Do You Need

If you don't regularly consume sources of DHA and EPA, you won't show signs of deficiency in the next year or two, at least not in the same palpable way as you could with B12. The damage is more subtle and corrosive, the sort that is imperceptible until it manifests in a chronic disease later in life.

But the potential benefits of increasing our intake of these compounds are considerable. For this reason, I complement my plant-based ALA with a purely produced, algae-derived source of DHA and EPA.

So how much should you consume?

The scientific community has not reached agreement in terms of a recommended daily intake for DHA and EPA. There have been numerous studies exploring specifically DHA supplementation in vegetarian populations. (That's because retroconversion of DHA into EPA is possible, so supplementing DHA is an effective way to boost EPA levels as well.)

These investigations offer a sense for the optimal intake, leading some experts to suggest that adults should consume 300 mg of DHA per day. Other dietitians encourage us to aim for a larger intake, like a combined daily dose of EPA and DHA near 650 mg.

Regardless, it's recommended that most vegans take a DHA/EPA vegan supplements. Check out our B12, D3, and DHA EPA supplement for vegans here.

Iodine

The Essential Background

Your body relies on iodine in order to create essential thyroid hormones. Without those, you would be unable to properly regulate metabolism and other vital functions. This process is even more important for pregnant women and children because a growing human relies on thyroid hormones for skeletal and brain development.

Iodine is similar to the Omega-3's in that this mineral does exist as part of certain plants — especially seaweeds — but may not be adequately consumed as part of a typical, Western plant-based diet.

Just ask yourself, do you eat a lot of kelp, hiziki, kombu, or wakame? Maybe at a sushi restaurant, but those are not daily staples for most of us.

Aside from these marine plants, there are land-grown iodine sources like cranberries and potatoes, but the iodine content largely depends on the cultivation practices, soil quality, and the iodine levels in that particular plot of land. It's therefore a bit of a gamble to rely on these as your iodine sources, and most research suggests that these plant-foods are insufficient to meet your iodine needs.

Why It Matters for Vegans

Much of the table salt sold in grocery stores is fortified with iodine, hence the name "iodized salt." But many vegans and other health-conscious eaters have upgraded to more natural forms of salt, like sea salt or himalayan rock (also referred to as "pink") salt, which don't have the added iodine.

Further, people who consume dairy get small amounts of iodine that's left behind by the products used to clean dairy processing equipment — one iodine source I'm quite happy to miss out on.

How to Get Vegan Supplements: Iodine on a Vegan Diet

If you decide to supplement your iodine intake, that doesn't mean you have to ingest the mineral in pill form. You can simply make sure to eat one of those sea-plants, like kelp, on a daily basis.

Another easy way is adding a dash of iodized salt to your meal, but remember that many natural salts do not contain iodine. And keep in mind that relying on salt as your "supplement" comes with drawbacks– the serving of iodine could also increase your daily dose of sodium, which some experts warn could increase your risk for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions.

If you worry about that, or just want to ensure an accurate daily dose, you might want to rely on a capsule or liquid form.

How Much You Need

Whatever your chosen form — seaweeds, iodized salt, or part of a multivitamin vegan supplement — try to reach the recommended daily intake of 150 mcg for adult men and women.

Vegan Supplements: Vitamin K2

The Essential Background

Most of us don't realize is that Vitamin K, like the Omega-3's, comes in multiple forms. One of those, K2, has only recently been understood to serve as a vital component of an optimal nutritional profile.

If you only take away one thing about K2, you should remember that it is critical to enable your body to properly manage calcium. That means moving calcium away from soft tissues, like your brain and your heart, and towards your bones and teeth.

The biological mechanisms by which K2 operates are the subject of many ongoing investigations, but the benefits and potential risks are already quite clear. K2 plays many diverse roles and recent studies suggest it helps prevent a variety of chronic diseases, like coronary artery disease. One way this is accomplished, similar to the Omega-3 fatty acids, is by combating chronic inflammation, which is linked to many of the leading killers worldwide.

But that's not the only way K2 impacts our body. By ensuring calcium is properly managed, K2 is critical in everything from preventing calcification of arterial walls to promoting strong bone density.

Why It Matters for Vegans

The critical realization is that Vitamin K comes in different forms. Many of us fail to recognize this, and assume we're covered because we consume lots of Vitamin K1 through a typical plant-based diet. Indeed, K1 is easily attainable through a variety of plants, especially green, leafy vegetables, but K2 is not. (K3 is a synthetic form, so I won't address that further.)

Since vegans are not consuming butter, egg yolks, or other animal-based foods that contain K2, we need to pay extra attention to our dietary sources of K2. Yet, since K2 is only found in a few plant-foods, which are not usually consumed in large quantities in the West, a supplemental dietary source of may be necessary to ensure your body is functioning at the highest level — and protected from chronic disease in the long run.

How to Get Vegan Supplements: Vitamin K2 on a Vegan Diet

The challenge is that there are only a few plant-based foods rich in K2. The notable examples are certain fermented foods, like the previously mentioned natto, a Japanese dish made from soybeans (which is a pungent and polarizing dish even in Japan).

You might be thinking, "Why can't I just eat miso and tempeh, since those fermented foods are frequently consumed as part of a Western plant-based diet?"

Yes, those are fermented, but they are not high in K2. That's the challenge with relying on foods for bacterially derived compounds: There's no real way to know how much you might be consuming in any given bite, and you may go days or weeks without adequate intake. That's why I strongly suggest considering supplemental sources of K2.

How Much You Need

While there are recommended intakes for Vitamin K generally (120mcg and 90mcg for adult men and women, respectively), there are not official recommendations for K2 specifically. Nonetheless, you can find experts offering advice, like Dr. Andrew Weil, who suggests 10 to 25 mcg of K2 is adequate to ensure bone health.

With regards to dosing in order to prevent chronic diseases, we'll have to wait for the scientific community to amass more data.

Vegan Supplements: Zinc

The Essential Background

Zinc is an important nutrient with a complicated story.

Our body utilizes zinc in a variety of ways. In fact, the mineral helps stimulate the activity of more than 100 enzymes. It also supports proper immune function, plays a role in ensuring normal growth, enables processes like gene regulation, and even helps neurons communicate, thereby enabling memory formation and learning.

Studies have even shown that zinc can help stave off age-related chronic illness by combating systemic inflammation.

Why It Matters for Vegans

Zinc can be a confusing topic. You probably know that many plants contain zinc, but you've likely also heard that vegetarians might not be getting enough. To understand why, the critical point to realize is that, just because you're ingesting a nutrient, doesn't mean that you're absorbing it.

There are innumerable factors regulating how much of a substance actually enters your bloodstream: the amount of gut acid available to breakdown a food and pull out the active components; the specific chemical form of those nutrients; and even the other items consumed at the same time. There are also blocking agents that inhibit the uptake of specific nutrients, which brings us back to zinc.

Many vegan foods that are rich in zinc also contain phytates, which hinder our bodies' ability to absorb zinc. Some medical researchers suggest that, as a result, vegans and vegetarians may need to increase their zinc intake by as much as 50% in order to compensate for the diminished absorption.

How to Get Zinc on a Vegan Diet

To reiterate, zinc is available from a wide range of plant-foods, including legumes, tempeh, and tofu, along with many nuts, seeds, and grains. It can also be derived from a variety of fortified products, like plant-based milks, many cereals, and even certain meat-substitutes.

Just keep in mind, if you consume zinc from the whole foods listed above, be sure to learn about how to enhance zinc absorption by reducing phytates — like roasting nuts and soaking or sprouting beans and grains.

How Much You Need

How can you tell if you're consuming and absorbing sufficient amounts of zinc?

The easiest way to start is by looking for the symptoms. But be careful for false positives — "dry skin" is not necessarily a symptom of a zinc deficiency. But of course, a more accurate method is to simply ask your doctor to draw blood and check your serum zinc levels.

Before you jump off the couch to schedule an appointment with your doctor, though, keep in mind that research suggests vegans do not have much lower zinc status compared to the general population. A 2013 meta-analysis found that zinc levels in vegans were only slightly less than those of their non-vegetarian counterparts, and the difference was even less when comparing populations in developed nations.

That should be heartening news for us vegans. Nonetheless, given the importance of zinc in so many diverse bodily functions, and the potential complications with absorption, I try to be mindful of the amount I consume each day.

The recommended daily allowance for adults is 11 mg for men and 8 mg for women. When you look at plant-foods containing the most zinc per serving, you realize that your natural dietary habits may not allow you to reach the daily goal.

If you decide that you might be consuming too little — or are diagnosed with a deficiency — the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests taking a supplement of 150% of the RDA, though other experts suggest a more modest supplemental dose of 50% of the RDA. Since the upper tolerable limit is 40mg per day, either dose is unlikely to pose a threat over time.

Other Vegan Supplements & Minerals

Finally, there are other minerals that may or may not be needed as supplements, depending on your definition of "supplement."

Selenium is important to help protect against neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer and Parkinson's disease, mood changes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, as well as reproductive problems in men and women. It's not in many plant foods (thanks, soil depletion!), but it is in one, and in abundance: brazil nuts. If you want to get selenium this way, one nut day is the right amount for most people.

Magnesium is another one that we can blame soil depletion for, and deficiency is a problem in vegans and omnivores alike. Magnesium also helps with the absorption of iodine, so if you're going to supplement with iodine, it probably makes sense to also include some magnesium, in the appropriate ratio.

So, in summary…

What vegan supplements do vegans need?

At a minimum, I think you should aim for the following:

• 300-1000 mcg vitamin B12
• 1000-2000 IU vitamin D3
• 300 mg DHA
• 100-200 mg EPA

… per day.

And if you want to coverall the bases, add the following:

• 100-150 mcg iodine
• 8-12 mg zinc
• 50-100 mcg vitamin K2
• 30-50 mcg selenium
• 150-200 mg magnesium

… again, on a daily basis.

You can see these recommendations are pretty similar to Dr. Greger's.

Other supplements vegans might consider…

The above represents what vegan supplements I consider the essentials. But what about protein, iron, creatine, turmeric, and "healthy" oils?

In my view, these have narrower, targeted uses. Some people don't need any of them. Others — people over 55, or athletes — might benefit from vegan supplements, while others won't.

Here's a quick, casual look at a few other supplements for vegans to consider. And how vegan supplements can work for you.

Protein powder

A lot of people are surprised to hear that I don't use protein powder anymore. But I give it to my kids — young athletes looking to add some muscle — and recommend it for my parents, since people over age 65 need slightly more protein.

Protein powder is tricky. When so many people wonder "Where do you get your protein?", it's easy to think that if you don't take a protein supplement, something awful will happen. But that's not true, and there are plenty of good plant-based protein sources.

But when I was training for my 100-miler back in 2013, I happened to run out of protein powder. And, partly out of laziness, partly out of a growing skepticism, I didn't buy more.

A week passed. Then a month. Then two months. I didn't die.

Then I ran my 100-miler, and still didn't die. It's been seven years since then, and I'm still alive and kicking!

But this doesn't mean this it is completely useless: If time constraints prevent you from eating a diet based on whole foods (which have all the protein you need), then protein powder is a fast and convenient way to get a little more vegan supplements.

It's also useful as a psychological crutch. If you're a new vegan or going vegetarian and your friends are telling you you're being weird and reckless with your health, the reassurance that you're "getting enough protein" just by adding a few scoops of vegan protein powder to your smoothie is priceless.

And it's possible that the optimal diet for certain strength sports, say, bodybuilding or mixed martial arts, consists of more protein than the 10-12 percent of total calories that a diet based on whole foods can offer. In those cases, protein powder is again useful.

If you're going supplement with protein, I'll offer two important suggestions: be careful about what's in your protein powder (watch out for heavy metals, fillers, sweeteners, and common allergens) and don't take too much — it's quite possible that athletes and elderly people can benefit from slightly more protein than a whole-food, plant-based diet provides, but we're talking about 15 or 20 grams more per day, not 100.

Iron

Iron on plant-based diets is a tricky subject, because of issues like different iron needs for women and for men, heme and non-heme iron, and absorption.

We've got an entire article on iron for vegetarians and vegans, so check that one out for a more complete treatment.

Flaxseed oil

Back in college when I was heavy into weightlifting and trying to bulk up, I started adding flaxseed oil (or Udo's blend) to my smoothies and protein shakes. Mainly, this was to add calories and omega 3 fatty acids to my diet.

And it worked! As soon as I embraced dietary fats instead of avoiding them, my weight shot up, and a lot of it was muscle. Even after I was past this testosterone-filled phase of my young adult life, I continued to use the oil in my smoothie, thinking of it as a health food. (It does provide ALA fatty acids, but as we said above, this is only part of the omega 3 story.)

As I've moved towards a diet based more and more on whole foods — and oil is decidedly not a whole food — I no longer think of oil as a health food. More than simply not adding it to my smoothie anymore, I've recently removed it entirely from my everyday diet: at home, we no longer cook with olive or coconut oil, and instead simply use water for sauteing.

Why? It's a topic for another post, but in short, the caloric density is unbelievably high compared to even the fattiest whole foods you'll find in nature — oil contains 4,000 calories per pound, compared to around 100 calories for most vegetables. And if you're concerned about protein, you can immediately do better by removing the single food in your diet that packs the largest number of calories per ounce, calories that are completely free of protein, making more room for the rest of the foods in your diet, those whole foods that do contain protein. The same goes for most micronutrients, too.

I'm not anti-oil. Just like with protein powder, it has some targeted uses (not least of which, for me, is a gourmet restaurant meal now and then). If you're looking to bulk up, sure, add oil to your diet for a little while. But as an everyday food for a typical person, I think it does more harm than good.

Turmeric

Turmeric is more food than supplement. In fact, it's one of my seven foods to eat every day.

Turmeric has numerous health benefits, most notably helping to prevent (or even fight) certain types of cancer. It's also been shown to reduce inflammation in the body, which is beneficial for both long-term health and potentially to athletes for speeding recovery from workouts.

Dr. Greger suggests a quarter-inch of the fresh root per day, or quarter-teaspoon of ground turmeric daily. The different forms offer different benefits, and a small amount of black pepper eaten at the same time is known to increase bioavailability by up to 20 times.

Creatine monohydrate

Creatine has always held a fascination for me, dating back to when I was a skinny kid and it was billed (by my friends) as a miracle supplement for bulking up.

When I used it in college, the results lived up to the hype. To this day, when I get too thin from running (not unhealthily thin; I just prefer not to look that way), I like to spend a few weeks in the gym putting some pounds back on, and when I do, I sometimes take creatine to help … and it certainly does.

I've seen interesting studies on other benefits of creatine, including a few that showed that when vegetarians take creatine, they perform better on cognitive tests.

Since most of the creatine human beings get (beyond what our bodies make) comes from meat, is it possible that, like vitamin B12 (see below), vegetarians and vegans benefit by adding it back in the form of a daily vegan supplement? I haven't seen enough evidence to go that far, especially because the long-term effects of creatine supplementation still aren't completely known.

Creatine is interesting to me, but I'll wait for more research before I start using it on any sort of consistent basis.

The Only 2 Supplements I Take Now

1. Complement Plus Vegan Essential Nutrients

After I learned about the handful of nutrients that most vegans should supplement with (detailed in the first part of this post), I was frustrated to find that there was no way for me to get all of these nutrients — and only these nutrients — from a single source.

Sure, I could take a normal multivitamin and add a DHA/EPA supplement, but I don't want any more of what's in a normal multivitamin than I get from my food! Even vitamins which were long thought to be safe in high doses have turned out not to be; as an example look at vitamin A, which has been linked in large doses to cancer.

My plant-based diet provides me with plenty of most nutrients; it's just the ones detailed above that I'm missing. Specifically:

• B12
• Vitamin D3
• DHA/EPA
• Zinc
• Iodine
• Vitamin K2
• Selenium
• Magnesium

Since a single source of all of these, and only these, didn't exist, I invented one. It's a vegan multivitamin called Complement Plus (remember, the "complement" idea?). Check it out and consider whether it could help you like it has my family, and thousands of others.

2. Turmeric

I try to get a mix between fresh and ground. So each day, I'll either eat a quarter-inch slice of fresh turmeric alongside my salad (sprinkled with black pepper to increase absorption) or a basic ground turmeric capsule.

Supplement your vegan diet to help it last

I've made it my mission, ever since I started No Meat Athlete, to remove the ideology, preaching, and dogma from healthy, plant-based eating — and instead let evidence inform our food choices.

Veganism has been around a long time, but until the early 2000's it really hadn't succeeded in reaching the mainstream. What made it take off?

To me, it's when it people began to believe that this diet is one that's good for THEM, not just for the animals and environment ("what's in it for me," right?). It's when Brendan Brazier, Scott Jurek, Hillary Biscay, and Rich Roll started doing their thing, standing on the podiums at the finish line with (and above) omnivores. It's when I started No Meat Athlete, and when Forks Over Knives hit the mainstream with the health message.

And it's when the "weak, scrawny vegan" image began to be replaced by "vibrant, thriving, plant-based athlete."

Plant-based, evidence-based is the future. And for a lot of unhealthy people, it represents hope, a solution to our health, environmental, and economic problems (and that includes the animals, of course).

It's the smarter form of veganism. Veganism built to last. Veganism for the future.

So there you have it. But for all I've learned about vegan supplements over the years, the biggest lesson is that they generate a lot of discussion (and often, disagreement)!

The comments section is the place for that, as long as it's friendly and productive. Let me know what you agree with and what you don't, and what vegan supplements you take (or don't!), so we can all learn something from the discussion.

Nice post! I am in a state of confusion about Vitamin D. I seem to always be low, unless I supplement every day, according to blood tests. But then I've read that just raising blood levels doesn't necessarily provide the same benefits as getting your body to make it from the sun or a tanning salon. Do you have an opinion? It seemed like I felt better after taking supplements, but maybe that was just the placebo effect.

1. Susan, I have had low vitamin D lab results multiple times. I origanally to my drs advise and took the prescription. After starting this way of plant based eating over a year ago I started getting off all of my medications. After taking Vit. D for a few years, I stopped taking it last year. Just got my labs back this week and my Vit D levels are somewhat low again: 26. The dr wanted me to go back on the supplment again. I did some research…Dr. McDougall states 20 or better is acceptable to him. He also recommends getting sunshine, not taking supplements. I am going to skip that supplement and keep working on getting pleanty of sunshine. I only take B12 now.

   1. Thanks for the reply. Mine has tested as low as 18. After that reading I took D supplements and it tested as high as 36. Then I stopped taking the supplements after reading all the advice and it tested 19. So now I'm taking a supplement again 🙁 Not really sure what is the right thing to do.

      1. Susan,
         Did you try getting more sun when you went off of the supplement? I would recommend researching on how to get Vit. D thought sun exposure.
         Karen

         1. Karen,
            Yes, in general. It was during the summer. Yard work, dog walking, you know. I guess I wasn't out at the right time of day? Hot and humid isn't when I want to be out at noon, but it's not like I was avoiding sunlight either.
            Susan

2. I take Vit D3 daily after I had a blood test that showed it was very low and my liver function was really bad. 3 months in and all has returned to normal. I've read that you can't overdose on D3, the body just exctretes it if there ts too much. But if it is a very sunny day I might not take it as the sun can do the work as I prefer natural solutions.

i have done multi day races plus many 100 milers and i like beans w/cheese and brown rice; or lentils or quinoa if none of that is appealing i do eat fish sometimes.

Matt, thanks for your thoughts on supplements. I am a 73 yo cyclist, love your website and proudly display my No Meat Athlete sticker on the back of my minivan. I have been following a whole foods plant-based eating style since 2007. My first guru was John McDougall, M.D. and I also have been following Joel Fuhrman, M.D. since about that time. Three others that I rely on are T. Colin Campbell and his son, Tom and Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. Of this group of gurus, only Dr. Fuhrman recommends supplements. Tom Campbell's recent book, The Campbell Plan (which is excellent) recommends against most supplements. I respect all these professionals, but am still confused about supplements. Dr. Fuhrman sells his brand of supplements, so to some degree, he has a conflict of interest. To me, this is all further confused by the recent publications, such as Vitamania by Catherine Price, which cast serious doubts about the integrity of the supplement industry, and the fact that the industry is mostly unregulated. All that having been said, I still hang on to my supplements because I am not sure. I take Dr. Fuhrman's multivitamin and a DHA/EPA supplement in my daily smoothie. I am very sure about the wonderful health benefits of a whole foods plant-based diet. I am less sure about the wisdom of taking any supplement, except possibly for B12.

1. Hello Howard.
   I study this stuff. It doesn't relieve my confusion.
   The best thing I can suggest is that you follow the work of those scientists who study specific supplements, often just the main active ingredient. Try to determine who is funding the research.
   Then check on quality. Certain brands, like New Chapter, MegaFood and (by and large) Life Extension are good. When it comes to mushroom extracts, Paul Stamets company – Host Defense — is excellent. There are many others.
   A good resource to determine effectiveness is Examine.com. I wrote about them here: http://www.garmaonhealth.com/your-better-health-supplement-cheat-sheet/
   -jg

   1. Matt, thanks for your thoughts on supplements. I am a 73 yo cyclist, love your website and proudly display my No Meat Athlete sticker on the back of my minivan. I have been following a whole foods plant-based eating style since 2007. My first guru was John McDougall, M.D. and I also have been following Joel Fuhrman, M.D. since about that time. Three others that I rely on are T. Colin Campbell and his son, Tom and Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. Of this group of gurus, only Dr. Fuhrman recommends supplements. Tom Campbell's recent book, The Campbell Plan (which is excellent) recommends against most supplements. I respect all these professionals, but am still confused about supplements. Dr. Fuhrman sells his brand of supplements, so to some degree, he has a conflict of interest. To me, this is all further confused by the recent publications, such as Vitamania by Catherine Price, which cast serious doubts about the integrity of the supplement industry, and the fact that the industry is mostly unregulated. All that having been said, I still hang on to my supplements because I am not sure. I take Dr. Fuhrman's multivitamin and a DHA/EPA supplement in my daily smoothie. I am very sure about the wonderful health benefits of a whole foods plant-based diet. I am less sure about the wisdom of taking any supplement, except possibly for B12.

Looks like John Lennon…….

Thank you Matt. I have been searching for a trusted, high quality vegan multi vitamin for a very long time. I am going to look further into both supplements you suggetst and use. Thanks again for the helpful information. I realy enjoy listening to your podcasts!

Yeah, this is one of those "charged" topics… pretty strong advocates on both sides, for (pro) and against (con) supplements.
In last week's blog post, I wrote:
"Generally speaking, it could be that most of your supplements are unnecessary and thus are a waste of time and money, if the following conditions apply:
– You're young and healthy.
– You eat only real food (aka, right off the farm) that has been organically grown in pristine environments without any degradation of soil or air, and is consumed within a day of harvest.
– You breath air unsullied from any vehicle exhaust pipes or factory belching.
– You spend most of your time in a parallel universe circa 1889.
If you meet those conditions, you go write a book, and I'll rip mine apart."
(source: http://www.garmaonhealth.com/do-you-need-antioxidant-supplements/)
(That last reference was to "12 Ageproof Biohacks", a book I'm currently writing.)
So, you see my point: None of us get what we need from sensible eating, particularly if we put extra demands on our body, such as the extra oxidative stress caused by vigorous exercise.
And, if like me, you're committed to living as long and strong as possible, you get a bit mesmerized by the long list of very tailored supplements in terms of what they do to address specific aging factors.
It's true that many of the supplements are hogwash, but as long as serious scientists like Drs. Sinclair and Pierpaoli tout supplements like , respectively, Niagen and Melatonin, I'll consider my supplement habit an insurance policy.
-jg

Thanks Matt.
This post was very timely for me. I was out riding this morning and thinking about supplements for vegan endurance athletes and whether I should take (more) supplements. At the moment I take B12 and use a scoop of protein powder in my morning smoothie.
This was just the reassurance I needed to remember that I don't need supplements, I just need real food.

1. Carnosine is a supplement that I have been taking lately, it has helped my endurance a ton, and its frustrating because nobody has mentioned it thus far. I take a zinc carnitine to cut down on supplements.
   Here's the deal though. I have done a lot of reading in actual books about this stuff and I would highly recommend the read Healthy at 100, which amazingly talks in depth about the cultures who live to be the longest, all of which have 99% vegan diets, and grow their own food (so their food is definitely fresh!)
   After reading up a bit and using myself for a bit of trial and error I have established that indeed there are supplements are a good idea when eating a whole foods plant based diet, protein is not one of them.
   1. Omega 3s , preferably from algae as dha omegas do not need to be converted to be utilized by the body. This is important! The body functions optimally when there is an equal balance of omega 3s, 6s, and 9s. MOST nuts and grains and oils are high in omega 6s and especially when eating meat and dairy free it ish ash to go overboard, setting your whole body's ratio of omegas off balance. This can lead to eczema, lack of concentration, all sorts of bad shit so trust me when I say this is important!
   2. Probiotics, high quality that promotes intestinal health and improves elimination of waste.
   3. Iron supplement, plant iron (non-heme) is not utilized by the human body as easily as heme iron, so in order to be sure you are getting enough I would recommend supplementing.
   4. Zinc, not easily found in plant foods
   5. Carnosine, helps with endurance and muscle building, I take a zinc carnosine so I am getting two of these nutrients in one supplement! I swear by carnosine. I have never! Ever! Wanted to exercise my whole life. I would exercise because I felt like I should, but not because I actually wanted to… Carnosine completely changed that. I have much better endurance now than I ever have my whole life thanks to carnosine.

   1. I am surprised to see that you (Tessa) are the only person on this string to mention Iron. I took a college Nutrition class last semester. We learned that Americans consume more than enough protein and do not need to supplement it in most cases, athlete or not. However, Iron is globally the most common deficiency, including in the US. We had a former Olympic athlete, who is now a sports nutritionist, come speak to our class. She stressed how very important it is for female athletes to get enough iron, especially since it can take 6 weeks or more to build up enough iron in your system if you are deficient. I have been active all of my life, but have always tended to get really tired and quit workout regimens as a result. Now, at 44 years old, I am in the best shape of my life and I attribute it to the fact that I make sure I get plenty of iron.

2. Oh yeah and I forgot to add, b12 is important!
   I would recommend going off wheat and most grains if going vegan. Veganism is what first opened my eyes to the fact that I wasn't properly absorbing b12. The moons in my nails have been going away with time which is an indicator or low b12. Since I was vegan and supplemented with it, I found it odd that I wasn't getting enough.
   This pointed to a problem with absorption. I researched problems with absorbing b12 and found that a wheat or gluten intolerance can lead to that. I looked t my family history since these problems can be hereditary and realized that my father's thyroid problems and my grandma's gallbladder problems could both be related to wheat intolerance.
   Honestly though many health advocates agree that wheat should be cut out of the diet as most people are intolerant of it to some extent.
   Since cutting wheat and most grains out ( save quinoa and raw soaked oats) I feel much better, though I'm sure I till have much to learn…
   Have a lovely day, and a healthy, alive life!

   1. You can get sublingual B12 which is held in the mouth and absorbed there rather than having to go through the gut which is a bit more hit and miss, so this could be a solution. In the UK, Solgar do both cyanocobalamin (which is cheaper) and methylcobalamin – more expensive but supposed to be better utilised, both in a vegan pellet form and also a liquid with other B vitamins. Not sure if they are available in the US but they must be available somewhere. I've been using the liquid and a recent blood test showed a good medium range level.

      1. I live in the U.S. and buy sublingual B12.

Thanks for the excellent article. It is easy to read someone who has done a hundred-miler, who is still learning, experimenting and shares in a humble, open-minded way.
I'm an avid student of T.Colin Campbell (and others referred to above) and love his book: Whole.
Apart from a daily struggle to reduce oil intake (a reoccurring weakness), I only supplement with B12 injections, monthly, and blindly trust that I am receiving all other necessary nutrients from a wide variety of whole, plant-based foods, primarily raw. Some testing is imminent.

This just in: Muscle-Building Supplements Linked to Testicular Cancer. "Further analyses suggested that using MBSs containing creatine and proteins significantly increased the risk for TGCC (OR = 2.55; 95% CI; 1.05 – 6.15)."
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/843199?nlid=79803_2863&src=wnl_edit_dail&uac=236436SV (requires free registration)
Yes, these data are by no means a final answer, but since creatine supplements are not necessary for robust health I would err on the side of avoiding them.

Power Foods for the Brain, Neal Barnard, M.D. – vegan eating book, of course, and limited oil, as Campbell, Essyelstein, etc. recommend – but Dr. Barnard has a great chapter on supplements – and since he is a researcher I give him lots of credence. Folks may want to check out the book and see what you think.

1. Margie, can you tell us…what does Dr. Barnard recommend for supplements?

Thanks for the article, I like reading things that reinforce what i am already doing 🙂
I followed the link to the impact of creotine, interesting read. I follow a mainly vegan diet – that is vegan for 99% of the time but after a long event I add a little meat (by long I mean longer than 50 miles or so). Also in the run up I introduce small amounts of meat in case that is all that is available at the aid stations. My theory (and it is only my theory!) is that this is the equivalent, in terms of evolutionary process, of running down an animal and then feeding off the catch immediately until it runs out for the group then resorting to eating fruits and vegetables again until another catch can be run down. Using this approach I have successfully completed many long distance endurance events:AlpeD'Huez long tri, Bob Graham, Fellsman, UTMB, Tour De Helvellyn etc and I am getting faster and stronger each year. I am 41, have been exercising for 5 years, mainly vegan for 3 years and am just getting, stronger, healthier and fitter year on year. I am aiming to peak when I'm fifty and seem to be eating myself younger every day 🙂
Keep up the good work.

I disagree with the notion that these "are several nutrients that are commonly deficient in 100% plant-based diets". Where I live every diet is deficient in iodine, that's why we add it to salt. Since most people eat bread here bread is commonly made with high iodine salt and that's the source of iodine in most people's diet. Most bread here is vegan. People who do not eat a lot of bread are at risk for iodine deficiency, but that's the same for both vegans and die-hard meat-eating paleo people. So why make it look like this is an issue specific to vegans, since everyone gets the iodine from a kind of supplementation anyway? (If you're getting it from milk, you're also getting it through supplementation of the cow or because some of the cleaning product that contains iodine ends up in the milk – either way, that's also supplementation, just with a middle-cow)
Vitamin D possibly also depends on where you live, but there are very very few foods that are rich in it. Basically you'd have to eat a lot of fatty fish to get your needs from food.More fish than most health organizations recommend. Eggs and butter etc. do contain some vitamin D, but it's by far not enough. We are made to get it from the sun, but since that's not always safe anymore, a supplement may be a wise choice (though ideally I would still get a blood test first – and there are also other options like special lamps that help your skin make vitamin D). But again, this is not specific to vegans. And vegan foods that contain D do actually exist (sun-exposed mushrooms) so just like it is technically possible but unlikely for most people to get enough D from food on an omni diet it is technically possible but unlikely for most people to get enough D from a vegan diet.
Zinc is strange too. In Super Immunity Fuhrman says: "Those on vegetarian-style diets that are not ideally designed to include sufficient seeds and beans, and those on diets with low calorie intake, should consider taking a zinc supplement on a regular basis". I am on a vegetarian diet that includes seeds and beans, and it's not particularly low-calorie, so based on the book I should be fine. I don't understand why elsewhere he recommends that everyone supplements with zinc. Fuhrman often says that studies "show" that vegetarians had deficient zinc levels, but I find it strange that he would refer to studies like that to prove anything because he (rightly) dismisses them when the conclusion is that vegetarian diets do not have much benefits. A generic vegetarian diet could not be more different from the diet that he prescribes, and it's not surprising that a junk-food-vegan diet will result in deficiencies.
I think the jury is still out on DHA, but it's probably prudent to take at this point. I still think the argument that vegans who eat a healthy whole foods diet are better in converting ALA to DHA and therefore may get an adequate DHA level by taking flax-seeds, chia-seeds and hemp seeds makes sense too, but I'm not sure. Regardless, Fuhrman recommends DHA for both vegans and non-vegans because in order to get enough DHA from food you would have to eat a lot of (again) fatty fish, which is problematic for other reasons (like mercury) so it is strange again to point this out as an issue specific for vegans.
I agree with the necessity for B12 supplementation. I will note though that the IOM recommends that every American aged 50 or over gets B12 from fortified foods or supplements because many older adults do not absorb B12 well anymore.
To make it look like healthy whole food plant-based diets are deficient in quite a few essential nutrients makes veganism look less attractive because it seems like it would cause many deficiencies and that can't be good. And as I have said: it is simply not true.

I take a daily DHA/EPA supplement and vitamin D, weekly I take B12, and sometimes I'll add a scoop of protein powder when I feel like I didn't get enough from whole foods.

This is a doozy of a topic. Howard's point is really important: the supplement industry is largely unregulated and risk of contamination, including with banned performance enhancing or masking substances, is substantial. Potential medicine interactions are another big concern, since they're not generally investigated. If anybody here has a good resource on what brands deliver the effective ingredient advertised without adulteration, that would be useful.
All the vitamin research that's been making the news is about megadoses in the "regular" (i.e., largely sedentary) population. I haven't seen anything negative about modest doses (~100% of RDA) in endurance athletes, who put substantially greater stress on their bodies and blow through more calories (not always high quality). Nor have I seen anything positive! On balance, I seem to do better with a supplement. Placebo's always a possibility, but everybody's body is different, too.
I take glucosamine since, again, it seems to help. The evidence is very fuzzy, although most studies are based on relief of osteoarthritis pain in the short term. I've seen suggestions that Glucosamine Sulfate is more likely to be effective than Glucosamine HCl. It may take some looking to find a source that meets one's ethical considerations. (I know Matt was commenting on avoiding chalk awhile back, but he doesn't seem to avoid coal and oil…gotta draw the line of practicality somewhere.)
Creatine's a really tough one. It's probably safe, definitely ergogenic, and minimal in animal-free diets. Since as far as I can tell the only natural sources are animal, the vegan supplements have some serious chemistry going on and, for my preferences, are getting pretty far from real food even for a supplement. As a low-meat omnivore, I've concluded it's probably best for me to continue to get my creatine from appropriate doses of as ethically-sourced meat as I can. The essential amino acid involved in self-synthesis of creatine is methionine, so I have thought about trying to increase dietary methionine intake. Good sources are eggs and fish (drat), also supposedly brazil nuts, sesame seeds, spirulina, soy.
Everything here IMO, from reading news reports and trying to poke through the actual studies they're based on. My only medical training is backcountry emergency; my education is physics.

This is purely coincidental that I was just listening to a podcast of yours from quite a while back with Matt R where you were talking about how you thought people cutting oil or sugar out of their diets entirely were doing more harm to veganism than good and that you thought such a decision would be unsustainable, including for yourself. I really enjoyed and related to what you and Matt were saying in that podcast! Then just literally after listening to the podcast, I happened to check my email and read this post. I'm totally not meaning to critisize or anything and I know people can change, but am just honestly curious to hear what caused your shift in thinking about oil and decided to restrict it to such an extent as opposed to just limiting it a bit more?

1. Hi Rob, great question. I think if you look back far enough on my blog, in the comments section of one of the posts from when I was vegetarian, I wrote something like "I could never be vegan; I don't even know if it's healthy." 🙂 That's pretty much how every step of this journey has been for me, starting even with going vegetarian (I thought it would never work for marathon training, and would be too hard to do anyway).
   I don't know for sure that "no oil at home" is a permanent decision for me. Right now, it's something I'm trying, and finding very easy to do. But the reason I decided to give it a try was really because of the all the speakers I heard on the vegan cruise (Holistic Holiday at Sea) we went on a few months ago — Campbell, Esselstyn, Greger … they all advocate not eating junk food. The main reason seems to be its caloric density — at 4000 calories per pound, it's totally unlike any whole food, even the fattiest of them. So to me, in a diet based on whole foods, it seems no longer to fit.
   Limiting it, rather than eliminating it, is better than nothing. I'm still eating it at restaurants, so in that way, I'm limiting it. But I found that without a rule like "no oil at home," I'm not very good at NOT using it in every meal I cook. For me, personally, hard lines are easier to follow than blurry ones, but that's not true for everyone.
   Hope that clears it up a bit!

Hi Matt! Thanks for this post, as supplementation is always a nebulous area. I am curious, if your wife Erin is willing to share, whether she takes Dr Fuhrman's women's multivitamin? Thanks!

1. Hi Cass she does!

Thanks Matt. I always wonder what others do. I have a friend who is part of a family that owns one of the largest vitamin companies. She takes 1/2c of various vitamins 2x/day. Her family looks super healthy. (Granted there could be any reason for looking healthy.) Personally, I take a modest multi, iodine, vit D, and Magnesium. Magnesium is the only one I notice if I skip. I'll get leg cramps, irregular heartbeat, and random ear ringing. If I'm up on it, that stuff doesn't happen. I went to someone who practices Nutritional Response Testing to have that figured out. I felt like Magnesium saved my life! BTW, I've been 95%plant based for 6 years. I think I had those symptoms even before going plant based.

1. Same here! I would go out on a limb to say that most people are magnesium deficient. Had to go to the ER recently because of severe stomach pain and cramps. I was having heart palpitations and random muscle spasms. I learned that I was deficient in iron (common for menstruating women) and vitamin D. If your vitamin D is low, most likely your magnesium is too. Hard to test for it since it is stored in the organs, but noticed that the muscle spasms and other symptoms went away after taking magnesium citrate. I've been mostly vegan for the more than five years, and just started eating some shellfish and organic grass-fed meat to increase my zinc and iron levels naturally. It's like my body wasn't absorbing the iron in the multivitamin, because ferritin stores were low. I'm feeling much better, but would like transition back to vegan again. The biggest thing I noticed from eating meat was my hair got softer and shinier. Not sure if it's from the creatine or extra protein!

I'm actually quite surprised that you take little or no nutritional supplements. Those discrediting the natural supplement industry are its main competitors, namely Big Pharma. One cannot get all the nutrients a no meat athlete needs by food alone. The quality of our soil has been so depleted over the decades that foods have lost a lot of their nutritional value. I doubt that I could be running 70+ miles a week at 50 years of age without the quality supplements I take daily.
Anyway, keep on running Matt. Peace and good health.

1. I think you're spot on, larryz.
   It could be that if a person is meticulous about diet/nutrition and sources the great bulk of his/her food from fresh, organic sources, and puts little stress on his/her body, then not supplementing may be OK.
   But for most of us, and those of us who stress our bodies w/ lots of exercise (it does increase cellular oxidative stress) and/or the general stress from living a hectic life, then smart supplementation is key, IMHO.
   Don't take my word for it… some real smart integrative/functional doctors such as Drs. Weil, Hyman and Mercola advocate supplements.
   As someone who seeks to push the envelope on widening the delta between biological and chronological aging (which is what my blog is about), I know that certain supplements that address the biochemical/physiological deterioration of the body/mind that constitutes aging are very important.
   Anyway, this is a BIG topic. Suffice to say that if you do some Internet searching you can get a sense of what's useful or not. Examine.com is a good place to start.
   jg

2. Why does everyone keep repeating the urban myth of how depleted our soil is. If you understand modern agriculture, soil is tested before planting to assess any deficiencies and the necessary fertilizers are added. Try growing crops on depleted soil and see what you get. They won't look like the fresh produce found in your grocery store.

Hi Matt, just found out about your blog (i know i'm late lol) and as a "new" vegan, i gotta say i'm impressed.
Awesome stuff you have in here 🙂
Love the supplements talk, i'm probably going to take your advice and start with those 2 as well!
thanks 🙂

Loved this post. Recently became a vegan from Paleo. Supplemeting is something I have been searching 1. because while I feel great, not weak, I do sort of feel dizzy or woozy. 2. Because there is no one not even the drs could answer the supplement question. Would you recommend I run lab work to find my deficits?
I do strength train Monday through Friday and CrossFit a few times a week and while in the morning when I awake I feel great, towards the late afternoons and nights I begin to feel it in my head and body.

Taking supplements is obviously very personal. I've been vegan for a decade, do high intensity short duration exercising every other day along with light weight lifting and supplements greatly improved energy. It sounds like "Supplement Goals Reference Guide" by Dr. Bryan Chung (examine.com) might be a good, objective resource to research the effectiveness of supplements..

Hello Matt,
I am newly vegan and have been researching like crazy to find the best multi and/or supplements for my new lifestyle. I've been researching B12 supplements for weeks and I cannot seem to make a decision. It is very important and I do not want to make a poor choice. There are so many opinions out there (methyl or cyno, dosage for methyl vs. dosage for cyno, dosage in general, brands, fillers in B12 supplements, sublinguals, sprays, injections, I could go on and on.) I was interested in Dr. Furrman's multivitamin (even more so after I read that is what you take), but I was wondering if you still feel that 200mcg of methylcobalamin is sufficient for B12 needs?
Thank you!
Elle

why not taurine and retinol?!!

Consider Choline too. It is challenging on a vegan diet too.

Interesting post. Dr. Fuhrman does not agree that soil is depleted. I like his supplements because they don't have folate added. Folate outside of food can encourage tumors to grow. Dr.Furhman's multi contains taurine I believe. I am not a member of Dr. Fuhrman's anymore but I like his vitamins.

Thanks for the post – I have been a no-meat – whole food athlete for 8 months. At 45, I lost 15 pounds without any effort and I feel muscle mass is hard to keep on. I was happy to read everyone's responses and yours too. After about 300 hours of research, I have landed on the same multi, fish-oil (but prefer ground flax seed), and B-12. I am going to try liquid B-12. My journey has lead me to creatine supplements being something to consider.
I came to this creatine point when I was researching Dr. Michael Greger's Daily Dozen, and found where in an interview he suggested vegans take B-12 & creatine… I was surprised he recommended this as so much research on creatine is undecided… and like you, I prefer not to take anything un-natural therefore, because protein levels seem to be hard achieve and creatine is good for you, I am planning to experiment with the 95% vegan route and consume 3 – 6 oz a day to get my creatine and greater ease for protein levels. In summary, this would be 95% whole plant based diet, with 5% meat sources with 100% organic sources, and 0% dairy of any form. Please note my motivations with this choice of lifestyle is to live a long life and keep my LDL 70 or below.
I am open to feedback..and I sure I can get some here. Feel free to provide input.
Thanks,

Hello,
Is there anywhere in the U.K. I can get the Dr Fuhrman multivitamin tablets from?
Shipping from US is $25 for just that one item which is very expensive.
Many thanks

Hi Matt,
Any advices on vitamin K2? Recently my cavities got worse since I mostly eat plant based and run a lot. I read one article that one should take this vitamin too when taking D3. I take regulary vitamin A&D3 supps and magnesium, sometimes B12.
Best regards,
Leila

1. k1 sublingual 100 mics 5 cents once a day

Yes, MK7 is worth looking into. Jarrow is the brand.

Can I ask how you give dha/EPA to kids? I've been having a hard time finding a good quality one to give to kids (and me; for that matter!)

1. cold pressed wild caught Alaskan salmon oil, 4-5 cents/gram

   1. All fish including wild caught salmon is contaminated and full of saturated fat.

I appreciate this clear and concise article. No BS like other articles. You have truly helped vegetarian athletes. Thank you.

Good Day,

Love your No Meat Athlete Cookbook. Am vegan looking to add a multivitamen, which one would you recommend so many on the market..

Happy Trails
Al

What supplements do you recommend for women over 60? Thanks

I have had gastric bypass surgery 11 years ago and still have some Vitamin deficiency issues…how can I properly manage this plant based diet and still be healthy?

This is exactly what I need. It's really helpful. Thanks so much for your information.

Excellent article not short nor long. Appreciate.

Why is your vitamin over 70 bucks?

Hello. Are the complement supplements safe for celiacs?
Thanks.

Thank you for the important info. Interestingly I was severely deficient in both my omega 3 and D3 when I was still eating meat and dairy many years ago, plus I was slightly anemic. So I've had to supplement for years. My iron levels have actually gotten better since becoming vegan – go figure. :)- Unfortunately I also have a "weirdly small" esophagus (my doctor's words) so swallowing capsules / pills is especially difficult and I've always had to find ones that are either extra small or that I could open and add into a smoothie or yogurt (vegan now, of course). Are the Complement capsules still effective if opened and mixed in to something? Thanks!

Hello,
I was diagnosed last year with colon cancer; my kids thought why you, Mom? You're so healthy….but I ate so much chicken and eggs, in addition to the other healthy foods. Anyway, I'm a survivor…..YAY!
I've gone vegan, but don't have a lot of energy…..not nearly as much as I did when I was exercising all the time before and became vegan.
Can you inform me of a company that designs vegan meal plans for athletes, please? I don't eat too many different foods and I'm okay with that…..just need a bit of help. Thanks.

I have been using Complement plus since it came out. I cant say enough good things about it. However, it has been out of stock. We are currently trying to find a different brand. Heartbroken because Complement is the only one that didn't upset stomachs! But we can't continue if we can"t rely on getting the product.

Wow… thank you very much!
I was doing right but now I can do better! 👍🏻👍🏻

Thank you for this article; very informative. One question: You mention linoleic acid in addition to ALA as the two fatty acids that the body cannot produce, but then only address ALA and not LA. Can LA somehow be derived from ALA? If not, how do you recommend acquiring it?

I can't tell if you are actually a vegan that doesn't know a whole lot about health and nutrition, or if you aren't a vegan, pretending to be a vegan, trying to scare people away from veganism by being dishonest about what supplementation is required.

Regardless, this is ridiculous and vegans need 4 supplements max:

Vitamin D if you aren't getting it from the sun.

A DHA supplement if you are at the age where you brain is going to start shrinking. DHA aren't necessary for people with healthy brains however, because the ALA from plants has an adequate conversion rate for most people, and for the people that it doesn't, they can take a DHA supplement too.

Iodine, cause kelp and seaweed tastes terrible. And iodized salt isn't particularly healthy.

And b12 if you don't like mock meat, soy cheese, plant milk or nutritional yeast. But you can get it from all of those options so its totally unnecessary.

This idea that you need to or should consider supplementing zinc, magnesium, selenium, iron, protein AND k2 is just completely ridiculous and i can't help but think you're trying to paint veganism as an extreme fad diet. Some nutritionists think vegans may need to supplement zinc cause it has a low absorption rate, but iron and protein and all that? Come on man.

k2 is totally unnecessary because k1 converts into k2, and k1 is easily acquirable. k2 supplementation is a waste of money just like selenium and iron and all those other nutrients that are ABUNDANT in plant food. Plants contain SO MUCH nutrition, it's just that they are missing b12, iodine and vit D, so those likely need supplementation. Plants don't magically lose they're amazing properties and health promoting nutrition just cause they are the only foods being eaten. There's no magical animal product that leaves such an immense nutritional deficit in your body that plants just can't fill. And no one should have to explain that.

I suggest that veganism actually "took off" more in the 2000's because of 2 things:

1. More people finding out about vegetarian diets on the internet. (Including prosthelytizing about veganism – which is not the same as a vegetarian diet).

2. Science had advanced enough to provide more accurate and detailed information about human body functions related to nutritional analysis PLUS the development of better supplements so that people can safely eat a vegetarian diet.

Let's be real: there is no way for anyone to survive and stay healthy on a vegetarian diet without consuming chemical substitutes for the nutrients needed by the body.
Primitive cultures always consume living creatures in some way to supplement their diets. Even societies that consume mostly plants also have periodic rituals where they all consume meat, or they regularly eat insects (which are high in B12 and other nutrients).

Not everyone can eat a vegetarian diet and be safe, healthy and happy. Yes, it can be done, but those people are the exception and it takes extraordinary effort. (It's nice if you are a paid, professional athlete and can spend time eating 30 oranges and 50 bananas, but try that with a full time job and kids at home.)

I respect the individuals I know that eat mostly vegetarian diets, but are not fanatics about it. Every once in a while, I see them eating meat and they just shrug and say they felt like their body needed it. No big deal.

I've listened to your podcast quite a few times. Please stop saying that you can't get B12 from a plant-based diet. You say it as if it's 100% and the statement is untrue.

B12 is available in fermented foods that use lactic acid. Kombucha, plant yogurt, traditionally made pickles, miso, sauerkraut, kimchi are all plant-based sources of B12.

Hi,
I am new to the Vegan Diet – so thanks for the info. Do to stomach issues, I only take supplements in liquid form. Have you folks considered producing a liquid form of Complement Plus?

Hi I am reading your site to support my vegan diet. I have automimmune arthritis triggered by the lyme vaccine from 20 years ago when I got it so my immune system is so delicate. I got 50 blood makers done when i lost 8 lbs in 6 months and feel so tired all of the sudden and
my functional medicine doctor said i need to eat eggs and fish because i lost weight that my body is not absorbing all the whole food good nutrients i am eating and said i need bone broth to help my gut heal for at least two months – she also put my on many supplements including Omega and I am on D3/K3 and other gut health repair supplements. I don't want to eat animals what are your thoughts?

What you write is totally wrong and you are purposely misleading people. I am absolutely convinced that you work for PHARMA and selling vitamins. This is the purpose of this article. All vitamins which allegedly vegans are missing could be find in plant based diet, including B12.

For all the people who are getting mad because they are recommending all of these supplements, keep in mind that they specifically say to keep in mind what you are consuming, and to consider these supplements. Deficiencies in many listed are certainly likely on a vegan diet and good to keep in mind. Some information is definitely a little misleading, but still a helpful article overall.

Brilliant!

You can take in Vitamin B12 by living in close contact to animals – walking around in close to 'Cow Pats'; a walk beside The Ganges or similar. Some vitamins/minerals need to be balanced by another. Zinc needs to be balanced by Copper, for example. This article is good for the 'starter vegan' with little doubt. This Vegan ran almost 80k in The Algarve in high Summer; didn't make it to 80 because of being hauled off by the GNR after straying onto a newly built first section of the A22! M.

Excellent info! Thanks!

Thank you so much for all the incredibly helpful information! I am completely changing my life (thanks to seeing my awesome 25 year old son who has been vegan for a couple years and is loving life)
I def appreciate the supplements suggestion. My main concern is that I have had eating disorders my whole life and unfortunately (as a result of a meditcation I was put on the past couple months) I was suffering from chronic severe daily facial/sinus/oral/migraine pain, nauseous, had no appetite no sense of smell or taste and kept losing weight. Thanks to my God and the Universe, yesterday I (not one of my many Drs ) figured out the new med had done all this to me. So I am titrating off all my pharmaceutical meds and detoxifying my body. I am just concerned 1. I do not digest nuts well (diagnosed with colitis however I do hope this as well as all my other dx will be eliminated) and 2. I do not do well with soy. So my question is may I still create a vegan food list/plan and is it possible that I will not lose weight? 🙏🙏

What about calcium? Would you recommend supplementing that as well? Thanks!

Vitamin D has been a major stressor for most of my family–mine runs low constantly (likely because I'm a night shifter), my daughter's runs very low (as low as 8–likely because she is celiac and low Vitamin D is extremely common in celiacs), and my oldest son's has run badly low (10-20) since he had to have surgery to remove a mass on his pituitary 5 years ago. Both of them get more than adequate sunlight through walking their Huskies and sitting outside in the sun specifically to absorb sunlight.
Vitamin D is a hormone–there is no food source for it (though it is added to several foods with questionable absorption rates). Supplements of it do not absorb well for celiacs like my daughter and my son post-pituitary surgery just does not appear to be able to absorb it to any reasonable degree in either pill or sublingual form (supplements 15,000 iu daily just to keep levels hovering at 20). His doc recently switched him to prescription of 50,000 iu twice weekly to eliminate any question of poorly controlled OTC Vitamin D quality. We'll see if that works.
Someone commented here that a couple of the more major whole food promoting docs feel that a level of 20 is adequate. I would disagree, based on my own research–it is partly individualistic, but for most, the minimum levels should be in the 30's and the sweet spot areas (where all symptoms resolve for many folks) is usually in the 40-60 range. Vitamin D deficiency is somewhat insidious, as many folks don't recognize their symptoms as such until they start taking vitamin d and the symptoms start resolving.
Americans in general are chronically low in vitamin D (which can cause a range of significant health issues) for a variety of reasons (not always related to how much sunlight they get). Don't assume that because you are taking a supplement for it or get a lot of sunlight, your levels are fine. You may not absorb supplements well and/or your body may not convert sunlight efficiently. The Vitamin D council has an at home test you can do to check levels as well as some excellent supplements (for most people who don't necessarily need very high levels in a supplement) or you can just ask your doc to order a simple lab to check it and order a supplement your insurance will cover.
I'm a nurse and not a fan of Big Pharma or taking any pills that aren't absolutely necessary, but we don't pull punches with Vitamin D in this house.

Guessing this should be iu not mcg…

At a minimum, I think you should aim for the following:

300-1000 mcg vitamin B12

Hi, can we buy the complement plus in the UK?

My 12 year old grandson is not growing and is a head shorter than his 12 year old friends.
He is probably 4'11" and very thin. He does eat well, mostly vegan. What would you advise for a supplement?

1. Hi Penny. Have they tested his thyroid? My cousin's daughter has always een really small. She's 12 now, and they recently checked her TSH. It was over 100! The poor girl!

Vegetarian Diet Do I Need Supplements

Source: https://www.nomeatathlete.com/supplements/

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