Monday, March 26, 2012

Supplementing Sun

One of the down falls of becoming vegan (ok, so it really doesn't have much to do with being vegan, it has more to do with living where the sun doesn't shine in the winter) is that you are recommended to take supplements for certain vitamins. One is B12, this is a big one. The other is vitamin D. 


I'm not a fan of taking pills - even vitamins. I had to force myself to take my pre-natals when I was pregnant. We have had multi vitamins sit on the shelf until they expired (or the jar melted from the heat of the toaster oven). I was looking to find some food based way to add these two essentials back into our diet. The B12 proves a little tricky, but nutritional yeast works (although we haven't really gotten used to the taste yet). I'm still looking for a better one for that. 


Here is the fun part! When I was puttering around online, I came across and ad on someones blog - an ad for a plant based vitamin D. Guess who makes it: DOLE! It's portobello mushroom powder - and its a food based source of vitamin D. Plus, it's like adding spices to your food - mushrooms taste good and add flavor. So its not like taking/eating a supplement at all! I was so excited. 


I haven't had it yet. Whole foods doesn't carry it, so I'm at the mercy of online shopping. But I can't wait to get it in the mail! I'll keep you posted on how it tastes, but I figure it has to be better than the Nutritional Yeast. If you want your own, click on the picture :) 



4 comments:

  1. Try adding the nutritional yeast to pastas, sauces, or dips. Then you can stir it in and other flavors may mask it till you get used to it.

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  2. Thanks for the info. A great help for me. I am severely Vit D deficient and get a yelling from Doc every now and then for not taking the pill supplement. I will definitely give it a shot.

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  3. Just make sure it is Vitamin D3 - too much Vitamin D2 can cause long term damage to your liver as your body does not absorb it very well. If you lack Vitamin D (like most of us on East Coast) you want D3. Most "vegan" forms of Vitamin D are D2 and NOT D3. Just check your label - D2 is basically useless to us. You want D3. D3 is key to improving your immune system, reguates blood pressure, helps with calcium control and metabolism managment etc. Oh and you can buy D3 gummies if you don't like pills.
    Man, I sound like an ad- sorry about that :)

    Good luck--

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