EPISODE 86

Supplements

Some people swear by their daily supplements — for energy, vitality, immunity, mood, and more. Others insist that all vitamins do is give you “expensive pee.” So what’s the reality? Here, we break down the most essential bits of wisdom we’ve picked up over the course of decades as health-industry insiders, from what supplements you might want to take, to what you’d be wise to avoid, and why.

This week, we’re talking about Supplements — why you can’t rely on pills and powders for all your nourishment, and why you still might want to take some anyway.

We cover the value that both multis and targeted nutrients can have in filling dietary gaps, and why what works for your friend or partner might not work for you.

We both share the supplements we take (or don’t), and we offer you some recommendations on the supplements that most of the smart doctors and nutrition pros we know suggest as basics.

Finally, we offer some counsel on picking high quality products, and some recommendations for adjusting your own supplementation strategy in ways that work for you.

“Supplements” Episode Highlights

  • Dallas’s three supplement questions: how much potential good can it do, what’s the risk that it can cause harm, and how expensive is it?
  • Pilar’s philosophy on using supplements in the context of a modern diet — even a “healthy” one — that diverges from our diverse seasonal evolutionary nutrition sources
  • The importance of understanding not just which supplements to take, but why
  • Basic supplementation: high quality broad-spectrum multi-vitamins and multi-minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, magnesium, and probiotics
  • A healthy microbiome’s role in absorbing nutrients (and what the microbiome is)
  • Tips for choosing high-quality supplements, recommended brands, and ingredients to avoid
  • Following a good practitioner’s nutrition protocols for particular health problems like migraines and arthritis
  • The benefits of digestive enzymes

If you’re currently taking supplements and aren’t sure that they’re really helping, take a month off from all of them. Notice how you feel without them. Then reintroduce them and again take note of how you feel.

If you’re not taking any supplements, try the recommended dose of a high-quality multi-vitamin and multi-mineral for a month. If you don’t want to try one of those, try an essential fatty acid supplement. Notice how you feel.

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