Our allergic reaction or sensitivities to supplements: my rough hands and my son's rashes. How do we supplement our diet properly if we react to the exact nutrients that we need?
Every year, around my birthday, I take my family to our naturopath to have an annual check up. What did we find this year? Not exactly the news I wanted to share with you. I wish I could say that our families have all the nutrients they need in a Raw Vegan Diet, but this simply is not true. I’m sharing what my family found out about our food deficiencies with you, because I think it is important for Vegan Mamas to know that we need to supplement our family’s diets.
The Good:
We are all healthier than last year. This was great news considering my kitchen turned fully Vegan this year and my husband and son now only eat Vegan at home ( and at least 50% of their diet still remains raw).
The Bad:
We all have difficulty in handling sugar. And, we still need more B vitamins, iron, zinc, iodine and protein in our diet.
A Raw Mama’s Reality Check
1. Just because it’s raw doesn’t mean we can over-indulge. Too much of a good thing…
This means decreasing our fruit (in breakfast puddings, smoothies) and raw sweetener intake (honey, maple syrup, dates in our fave raw oatmeal).
A surprising and wonderful discovery: My son sipped his cup of Pooh Bear Smoothie clean without even noticing that the 2 additional dates were missing!
2. B Vitamins is a must!
Nutritional Yeast is back on our table. We prefer the fortified Red Star brand. I don’t know why but we react to Bragg’s. I also have Hawaiian Spirulina sometimes with breakfast. I’m on a mission to look for a supplement too that agrees with us – especially after reading that nutritional yeast should NOT be our only source of Vegan B12!
3. Trying to find Supplements
Our iron, zinc and iodine levels are low and have hardly improved since last year (and we were consciously eating foods high in these)… so we really need to supplement this time. My big problem is finding the supplements that actually agree with us! We’ve been trying a few supplements and I have been suffering with rough hands and my son with eczema on his.
4. Protein
As for protein, I decided it would be best for me to add cooked legumes to my diet and cook more for my family. Maybe this will help with our iron levels too!
Mama’s Supplement Information and Support from Gabriel Cousens
Mama’s Brainstorming
Oooh, I just looked at all the Vitamin Code products from Vitacost. They’re very expensive and I don’t know if my family might be sensitive or react to them. But, they’re RAW. I guess it’s the best bet we have in supplementing right now.
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Hi,
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first of all let me say I love your blog!! I am not a full raw vegan but I am a very active vegan-yoga & Pilates instructor and Zumba and dance fan so I need lots of calories and little bit more protein. I love Vega Complete Whole Food Health Optimizer I am not sure if it is 100% raw but it might be. It comes in 3 flavors I think I find the berry flavor the most “drinkable” one, I usually put it in my morning smoothie. Another great mix which is completely raw is Raw Meal Beyond Organic Meal Replacement Formula by Garden of Life again not very tasty but o.k. in a smoothie and I can tell you I notice a big difference on the days I take either Vega or Raw Meal and on days when I “slack”. Thy are not cheap but you pay for a high quality product and truth be told I use only 1/2 of the serving size, it is too filling for me. Good luck and keep blogging
Kat
Thank you for reading Kat! And thank you for commenting!!! I will look these up!!! We exercise a whole lot too and I’ve been looking for ways to add more Vegan protein into our diet (which our tests showed we needed more of). Thanks!
Thanks so much for sending me a note about this Carissa! I started supplementing with B12 again today and will continue daily to see how I feel. I also plan to have a blood panel workup after the end of the year to make sure my vitamin levels are within the ‘normal’ range.
QUESTION: Are you using the USDA’s standards for protein? According to T. Colin Campbell’s research, the USDA standards are grossly overstated. Either way, eating quinoa, kale and lots of dark leafy greens, nut butters and such should provide plenty of protein even for an athlete.
Thanks again for your informative blog!
You are right about protein Darris!!! Thank you for the reminder.
Hope you are happy with your blood panel workup!
Hello, Thanks for sharing! I’m not a raw vegan but I try to incorporate raw food as much as I can. I just tried out your avocado sundaes for desert tonight:p. Delish! Yummy food without the guilt. I gave up sugar so that was perfect. As far as the supplementing goes have you ever tried pro biotics? You need these to synthesize alotof vitamins and minerals. Reuteri helps with eczema…my friends baby had it and this strain cleared it up. I hope everything works out for you!
Katie
Hi Katie! So glad you liked the Avocado Sundae! Probiotics… We usually take some when we are sick, but not on a daily basis. I’ll find out more information for you though. Thanks for the reuteri tip!
Dr. McDougall’s books Digestive Tuneup has a chapter on probiotics: http://astore.amazon.com/mamainthekitchen-20/detail/1570671842