Vitamin/Mineral Guidelines

[pixelfrau]

Is there an online resource for general AIP vitamin/mineral guidelines? I'm not looking for supplements, but rather a general guideline for how much of each vitamin/mineral we should be eating a day.

I'm assuming the AIP guidelines differ from the standard dietary guidelines in the US and UK. Using standard nutritional guidelines, eating offal 4x a week as recommend by AIP puts me 'dangerously' high in vitamin A. I use dangerously in quotes because it's their word, not mine.

[EJ]

So this doesn't answer your question, but I think it includes some interesting information: paleoleap.com/supplementing-on-paleo-diet/

For instance, that the RDAs are based on the Standard American Diet. And that people who less of one thing (carbs) need less of another (Vitamin C). Many vitamins and minerals work in conjunction with each other-so as long as you're eating lots of Vitamin A WITH something else (and not to the exclusion of something else), you should be fine. And better, since I'd assume most people don't get a lot of it since they're not eating offal.

I personally try to eat a variety of things. If you feel like you're missing out on something in particular, research that particular vitamin/mineral and figure out how to supplement (with whole foods first). Or maybe work with a practitioner. There's always www.thepaleomomconsulting.com/

[MindyK]

Pixelfrau, are you concerned about getting enough nutrients or are you worried about getting too much of certain nutrients?

[Carolyn]

Good question, MindyK.

Regarding Vitamin A - Sara Ballantyne, PhD explains the importance of nutrient synergy in real whole foods when it comes to fat soluble vitamins, specifically A and D. "When these vitamins are consumed as whole foods, even from large servings of the most concentrated food sources of these vitamins (like liver), there is very little reason to be concerned about toxicity." Nature is pretty smart, so it packages real foods with the vitamins that help prevent overdoses of certain other vitamins - for example, "vitamin D strongly protects against vitamin A toxicity, and vitamin A strongly protects against vitamin D toxicity."

In The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf, there are several charts that compare a SAD with a paleo diet regarding micro and macro nutrients. There might be an online version if you google it. Or you could always check the book out of your local library - or go copy the pages the old fashioned way ;-)

I hope that helps!

[pixelfrau]

Thanks for the info. Now that I'm in the swing of things with AIP, I started tracking my food to make sure I was getting enough vitamins/minerals. A and B12 are consistently off the charts, and Calcium and D are consistently low. Before I start reducing foods or taking supplements, I wanted to check how much of these nutrients I should actually be getting. I figured there must be different guidelines for AIP because I'm following the protocol almost exactly (liver/offal 4x a week, bone broth daily, leafy greens daily, etc).

Off to check out The Paleo Solution...

[robinf]

In Part IV of the book Perfect Health Diet, Paul Jaminet, PhD discusses micronutrients -- vitamins and minerals. This part of the book is titled "How to be Well Nourished", and includes information about the optimal amount of vitamins and minerals we should be consuming, based on reviews of literature. Jaminet also talks about which vitamins and minerals can be toxic at certain levels, and which should be combined to be effective. He writes about how to get micronutrients from food, including the required quantity of food needed to supply the optimum quantity of a micronutrient; and includes recommendations for supplements for those micronutrients that are difficult to get using food alone. The second edition of the book was published in 2012, so it's quite current. I think most recommendations can also be found on the PHD website.

I've found this book to be a very helpful addition to The Paleo Approach. You will probably recognize this book as one that is frequently recommended and quoted by Katherine on the TPA Facebook page.

[saragrambusch]

I agree that Perfect Health Diet is a great, detailed resource for meeting your requirements through food first, and supplements when you can't/don't want to meet food requirements. I will say that people's vitamin/minerals needs are all so different and change constantly that I think the best we can do is make sure we aren't drastically low in anything, and just vary food intake, preferably with the seasons. Also, we are what we digest and absorb, not necessarily what we eat so gut health will go a longer way to assimilate a small amount of a vitamin as a opposed to taking in a large amount with a struggling digestive system.

[robinf]

Sara, what a good point about digestion and absorption. I was amazed at how fast my vitamin D level increased -- after months at a low level, despite supplementation-- after my gut health improved.

One thing that I learned, though, is that following a restrictive diet meant that I was not getting enough of certain vitamins and minerals. Oftentimes, restrictive diets by their very nature mean that we don't get the variety you're talking about. My diet was basically AIP, with additional restrictions for blood sugar issues and for a time, FODMAPs. Unfortunately, I did not realize that my dietary restrictions were leaving me short of essential micronutrients until I made a thorough study of it. I feel much better overall now that I am not "nutrient starved". Three examples: I avoided bananas for blood sugar control, but did not make sure I had an alternate source of potassium; I avoided bell peppers, tomatoes, and citrus fruit (except occasional lemon) but needed to make sure I had an alternate source of vitamin C; I wasn't eating eggs but wasn't getting choline from another source. I guess this is one reason why Sara Ballantyne and others encourage trying reintroductions and expanding one's diet beyond AIP after healing!

There's a discussion of micronutrient deficiencies and gut health in The Paleo Approach on p 318, but no levels, as pixelfrau requested, are included there.