Officially Dumb Vitamin Question

Tarragon
on 10/5/11 3:32 am
Some vitamins malabsorb much less than 50-60% and some much more.  For example, I'm taking 225,000 IU of vitamin A, because when I was taking 150,000 IU of it, which is fifty times the recommended daily allowance, my vitamin A levels were dropping like a rock.  I figure that puts my malabsorption of vitamin A at above98%.
PattyL
on 10/5/11 3:43 am
 A is a tough one for some.  Mostly because it travels with fat.  What we malabsorb the most.  You may find this improves down the road.  We do have less malabsorbtion as time goes on.

To the OP, you won't have much room for spinach and garlic for quite a while.  By the time you get the protein in, you will be full up on most days.
Elizabeth N.
on 10/5/11 3:51 am - Burlington County, NJ
Food will never EVER be a complete source of nutrition, never again. ESPECIALLY not plant source iron.

This is a huge aspect of how the DS "medicalizes" us. You will be just as supplement dependent as a diabetic is insulin dependent. Life or death.

How foods sit is a totally individual thing. I can eat all the raw greens I care to grow, but my cooked green consumption has limits. I can eat garlic, raw or cooked, until the vampires die. Other people can't.

Twi light
on 10/5/11 4:07 am - NY
Lets say to maintain lab levels you require 100,000IU of Vitamin A

100g of spinach contains 9400IU of Vitamin A

You would need to consume 10.6 cups of spinach to get the benefit of 100,000IU of Vitamin A that you need.

I see 2 problems with this: 
1: It is hard to consume that much spinach in one day, every day .
2: If you did consume this much spinach you would not have space for  much else and you would with a high degree of certainty have diahrea.


You could juice 11 cups of spinach but then again you would stil have an upset stomach.

So while eating spinach, garlic, and other good for you high nutrient veggies (foods) is the way to go, you will not for a good long time be able to eat enough of them to compensate for supplemntation.


Garlic ends up being high carb very quickly- and it may be too spicy for you to tolerate for a while as well. I believe it is 1 carb per CLOVE, so eating a head of roasted garlic is +/- 12 carbs
        
no_more_rolls
on 10/5/11 4:29 am - Jackson, MI
Well stated Twi light!   I would have never thought to look at it that way, but it's very enlightening.
Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.  
DONT BE AFRAID TO FAIL......BE AFRAID NOT TO TRY! 
highest weight 313/ surgery 255 / current 185 / goal 135  Height 5'6"
       
mel1964
on 10/5/11 4:26 am

it took more than a year before i could comfortably eat any fruits or veggies, they made me go to the bathroom or irritated to my stomach! everyone is not the same but since you are pre op, dont worry you will be able to go back to your favorites provided they are still your favorites after the surgery, a lot of things i used to love before the surgery i dont like any more or just dont eat, fresh fruit and veggies included.  to add to the earlier posts, they just take up too much room, carby and you will be hungry later anyway...PS, i cook garlic or onions with my steak now , very little veggies or salad and no potatoes.

    
Amy Farrah Fowler
on 10/5/11 4:42 am
I eat a lot of spinach salad, and I make my own hummus with about 50% smashed roasted garlic (it was a recipe mistake initially, that was awesome). 

I suspect I get by with less iron because of how much spinach I eat, but there's no way I can eat enough to not supplement. I take less iron than most post-ops, but that may just be my system, or from eating iron rich foods. There no way of knowing. 

I did wait quite a few months to go back to these foods though, and have to say they didn't even sound good for a long time. Many foods didn't appeal for many months, which I thing has something to do with anesthesia. Things are back to normal now.

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