Calling all NUTS..Suppliment question please

Calling all Nuts!...Or all of you who know more than NUTS, I have a suppliment question please help.. 1.        Calcium Citrate I have purchased calcium citrate plus from Unjury,  1200 mg of calcium and 600 IU of vitamin D and 80 mg of magnesium if you take 4 large chewables a day. Do I need to space them out in the day or can I take all 4 at once? 2.       Flintstones twice a day I also am taking childrens chewable (equate compares to flinstones) one in the morning and one at night. Is this ideal? I read once that Iron and Calcium compete for absorption so not to take at the same time, wait 2 plus hours between taking them. Is this true?  3.       Iron supplement, Is this necessary and when would I take it? Anything else I should be taking? I’m self pay sleeve patient, surgery date Feb 10 and my insurance does not cover seeing a nutritionist.   Thanks!!!

If you really want to keep your levels at optimum and not just barely limping along, I'd go by Vitalady's schedule for VSG. But to answer your questions, it's better to space things out throughout the day than take them all at once. You take iron supplements with vitamin C away from your other vitamins, calcium, dairy, eggs, whole wheat, and caffeine.

Link to VSG basic plan: http://www.gblcreations.com/Resources/Gina/ProgramAGB&VSG2-2 010.pdf

Here's a link for chewable options: http://www.gblcreations.com/Resources/Gina/ProgramChewable2- 2010.pdf

--gina

Thanks a million.  I printed out the info from Vitalady.  So much to research!

You need to take the calcium citrate in doses of 500-600 mg at a time, at least two hours apart.  And the ASMBS recommends 1500-2000 mg a day, so 1200 is not quite enough.

Flintstones is not ideal at all.  They don't have all the nutrients we  need.  A good adult multi with 100% of the RDA of most things is what you need.

Yes, take the iron and calcium two hours apart.

Iron is probably necessary but you can go by your labs.  If your iron or ferritin levels drop, take iron.  Take it with vitamin C, 200 mg C for every 30 mg iron, for best absorption.

You probably need B12.

Kelly

My nut said to take the two Chewable Complete multi's at the same time, morning or night is your decision, and then space the Calciums throughout the day.  I'm using Centrum completes w/iron from Walmart online, and Calcium Citrate from Costco for now.  Will check out the higher quality non OTC's when the budget settles down.

multi's need to be taken 2 times per day, not 2 at a time.  Also taking a multi with iron is pretty much useless since the iron in multi's are the wrong type of  iron that we can't absorb and multi's have calcium, so the calcium also causes you to not absorb the iron.  So you are just better off getting a good multi with out iron, like centrum silver chewables or centrum silver.  Then take a good iron separately made with carbonyl iron plus vitamin C to help you absorb it.

hmmm... the nut said taking them together is the best way to ensure that 100% is absorbed.  Your remaining explanation surely sounds logical and nuts are not always right but  I'll research it some more because this is the first I'd been told of a wrong or right type of iron.  Thanks for the info!

It's not exactly that there is a right or wrong type of iron, it's that some kinds are absorbed better than others.

After RNY, we don't have a lot of stomach acid.  That's why we need calcium citrate instead of carbonate, by the way.  You need lots of stomach acid to break down calcium carbonate so it can be absorbed but we just don't have enough.

You need a fair amount of stomach acid to absorb certain types of iron, including ferrous sulfate, ferrous gluctonate and ferrous fumerate.  You'll absorb some of those, it's just hard to say how much.

You do not need much stomach acid at all to absorb carbonyl iron, though.  So we absorb it better.

Also, ferrous sulfate and similar types of iron contain a lot of iron salts.  That's why 325 mg ferrous sulfate only has 65 mg elemental iron.  Carbonyl, on the other hand, is all elemental iron.  Those iron salts cause a lot of constipation in many people.  Carbonyl iron is much, much less likely to interfere with your ability to poop.

Kelly

Thank you for setting it out in laymen's terms, Kelly.  I appreciate it.   So, since I picked up Calcium Carbonate by mistake at Costco, if they won't let me exchange it I can give it to my neighbor friend instead of leaving it on the counter and stomping out because I can't use it myself.  Oh good.  Except I was sort of anticipating the adrenaline rush of causing a scene.  rofl!

If you haven't opened it, they should let you exchange it I'd think.

The carbonate is pretty much useless to us so you do gotta get citrate.  Like, ferrous sulfate is not totally useless, it's just not as good as carbonyl.  But one study found people that lack stomach acid like us only absorb about 4% of the calcium from supplements that are calcium carbonate.  So it's pretty much useless.

Kelly