Growing up, I always took a multivitamin, starting with the brightly colored, candy-esque Flintstones variety. We always ended up with a bottle full of orange vitamins at my house, given the pink > purple > orange hierarchy. These days, I’m not a big fan of pills. I believe our bodies are quite adept at assimilating nutrients in the proper amounts from whole foods, especially on a nutrient-dense Paleo protocol. In fact, taking nutrients and compounds in pill form often has the potential to cause more harm than good, considering the many added fillers abundant in supplements. (And don’t even get my started on folic acid. If you have the MTHFR gene mutation, for example, folic acid can be downright detrimental for your health.)
So my current supplement protocol excludes a multivitamin. From there you can supplement for special needs. Here’s my current protocol:
MORNING
Green Tea Extract: I cut out tea and coffee since those drinks in the morning coupled with wine at night proved to be be too much for my teeth. I also like being able to track my caffeine intake. Green Tea Extract solves all of these problems, providing a nice source of a measurable energy boost.
L Tyrosine: L Tyrosine is an amino acid which pairs well with caffeine for energy.
Milk Thistle Extract: Milk thistle is excellent for liver support. It just may be the one “holistic” herb even mainstream doctors easily recommend. Milk thistle’s active ingredient, silymarin, works as an antioxidant in the liver, protecting it from damage and even help stimulate the growth of new liver cells.
NIGHT
HCL: HCL aids food digestion, especially breaking down fat and protein. Our bodies can suffer from a lack of HCL production due to stress, lack of sleep, gut dysbiosis, and other causes.
Probiotic: For healthy gut flora. I order a new brand each time to vary the strains.
Joint Support Supplement: Since getting my wisdom teeth out, I’ve had problems with TMJ. This helps rebuild the cartilage. Osteo Biflex is great, although I’ve recently been using the generic version from Trader Joes
Vitamin D3: Thanks to our common in-door work environments, most people are deficient in vitamin D, which the body synthesizes from sunlight. Supplementing with Vitamin D can aid the absorption of other nutrients, and boost the immune system, heart, blood pressure, brain, and mood. I recommended a liquid Vitamin D3/K2 supplement.
Biotin: Biotin is B vitamin great for strong skin, nails, and hair.
Fish Oil: Fish oil is great to help balance the Omega 3/Omega 6 ratio, which is out of whack in our modern society, encouraging inflammation
