My question is, if one is taking a multivitamin (which of course will contain ZMA’s vitamins), wouldn’t taking ZMA really lose its point? Also, wouldn’t there be a chance to overdose on some fat soluable vitamins? Any information on this topic would be helpful.
Zinc and calcium, both of which are in multi-vitamins, compete for absorption. Many athletes are also zinc deficient and don’t eat zinc-rich foods. Chance to overdose is, for all useful purposes, 0 provided you take the recommended dosages. I might get some people pissed here, but I think most multi-vitamins supps are worthless as a healthy diet should fill most of the micronutrient needs. While a multi-vitamin would still help, most of the vitamins are in poorly absorbed forms and the ones that will actually show a difference are expensive–not this one-a-day crap.
EDIT: Do a search on this, there is a lot of info on this board.
I agree that most multis are useless, but to say that eating a balanced diet will take care of all your needs nutritionally may be a little misguided. Most foods are grown on mineral depleted earth. Farmers cannot possibly afford to put proper fertilizers back in the ground due to high expense. At best you get NPK fertilizers. I think it is much cheaper to spend $40/ month on a good vitamin than to try to buy properly grown organic food. I know that I have been on USANA for 8 yrs and can count the number of times I have gotten sick on one hand. My recovery is greater. Sleep is more sound. I have given ZMA to manyof my athletes and they liked the sound sleep although some said they had vivid nightmares. If I was your coach, I would recommend both. Not disagreeing with Davan, but that is my 2 cents.
Question about multivitamins then, since we are on that. I believe I get why people are against the well known brands, because they are sinthetic and many times not thought out in how they put the vitamins in there. I still think something is better than nothing though.
I heard, though, that centrum put some thought behind how they put vitamins and minerals in theres, so they would interact properly, although I could be wrong.
Anyways, about USANA, I saw there sight, but didn’t really see any vitamins. I saw “essentials”, but where can one get there multivitamin?
You gotta be part of the magic USANA family :rolleyes: I would just go with something more available like SuperNutrition’s Opti-Pak
most of the guys on this forum who know me will tell you i am one of the most anit supplement people around, not that they are bad just that people use them at the wrong time for the wrong reason, but a multivitamin/mineral is a must simply because the food produced in this country and most of western society is nutritionally defecient. this is caused by growing practices, soil defecieny, pesticides ect.
I think much of what is on the market as far as supps go is at best nominally beneficial, but you better have a very strong anti-oxidant base. When you consider training load, environmental toxins, and stress of everyday life, you are constantly bombarded by free radicals. As they say, an ounce of prevention…
Speed,
I think you missed my above question, but where do you get your USANA multivitamin? I saw there site, but there isn’t any multivitamin on it from what I saw.
Also, I’m with you all about the multivitamin, I don’t know if I came off as disagreeing with you all for some reason.
How much do you really need though if you are drinking green and white teas multiple times daily, eating organic blueberries/pineapple, eating plenty of veggies, etc.? I doubt there are many supplements that would be better than this (only exceptions are products like Frost or Greens products)?
you are right the bulk of my nutrition comes from veggies. a matter of fact i try to eat a diet of 70 - 80% veggies. so my influx of nutrients is far greater than the average person or even the average athlete but i still take a multivitamin to fill in the holes… and there are holes because of how the food is prepared and how it is grown. so simpley its an insurance policy.
I suppose you’re right. I just find my general health is best when I am regularly eating plenty of fruits and vegetables (which doesn’t count iceberg lettuce or those red apples they artificially color) vs just supplementing to try and fill gaps.
What are your thoughts for people in college who are at the mercy of a dining program that may or may not have quality food (nutrition wise)? Also, what multi-vitamins do you like?
your perfectly right supplements should be just that, A SUPPLEMENT to a sound diet. im glad to see someone realize this.
as for college dining i reccomend getting an off campus apartment and learn to cook lol thats what i did. but if thats not an option the best thing to do is just make wise choices with what you have. all we can ever do is the best with what we have. so if this is the case for you or anyone else rest easy knowing that you are doing the best you can. get as many veggies in you as you can i cant stress that enough and maybe you can go to a gorcery store and picked up some canned veggies (no salt added if possible) and eat those in your dorm room.
as for multiivatims go the best i have seen is the costco kirkland multivitamin/mineral. they are cheap and you get like 500 for 20 bucks. your not shooting for anything fancy here just a good multivitamin/mineral.
James, not to change the subject, but could you clear your PM box, I wanted to ask you a question about college, if you wouldn’t mind.
Yeah I plan on doing that next year, but as a freshman we must dorm on campus and use their meal plan. :rolleyes:
sure … didint know it was full
yea, just do the best you can your kinda inbetween a rock and a hard place but if you choose food with veggies and lean protein youll be alright. try not to indulge to often in starchy carbs and simple sugars.
James–
What kind of snacks would you eat inbetween meals and at night?
What canned veggies and how would you prepare them?
unsalted nuts are good but if you eat right u shouldnt really snack all that much. but dont feel bad if you do cause i do just ideally you wouldnt. u really shouldnt eat anything 6-8 hours before bed. but its not gunna kill ya if you do just best if you dont. as for veggies i get pretty much everything, string beans, kael, mustard greens, collard greens, spinach, corn, so on and so forth. just try to get it with no salt added because they put an assload of salt in if you dont. for cooking just dump them in a saucepan and heat nothing can be more simple. it wont when any cooking awards but it will give you the nutrition you need. i dont know how good your cooking skills are (i was raised to cook and often cooked dinner for the family) but if your better you can do a quick stirfry with some olive oil which is good for ya. try to stick to 3 portions of veggies for every one portion of protein.
Not eat anything 6-8 hours before bed??? What do you say to the common recommendations to take at least some casein protein before bed or even wake up at night to feed (to prevent cataboic state, keep positive nitrogen balance, etc)?
I am pretty decent with cooking, was just curious how you prepared them in the dorm setting.
No food 6-8 hours before bed? What is the reasoning? Wouldn’t this end up being nearly 16 hours w/o food?? I could never sleep with that starvation! lol