There is no one-size-fits all diet or supplement regimen for everyone, but you can meet the needs of most people with just a few items. If you asked me, “If I budget less than $200 can you tell me what to buy to cover all my bases?” The answer is yes. If you want to invest in yourself or the health of someone you care about, here is a nutritional care package designed to cover gaps in the average diet.
Putting together a nutrition care package that isn’t excessive is hard. Each manufacturer wants to give you too much of everything, and that can make it difficult to get what you need and exclude what you don’t. Nevertheless I took the time to put this together intelligently and I think it will help a lot of people.
The Nutritional Care Package is an Amazon Shopping List
View the Nutritional Care Package List on Amazon
How this kit is put together:
- The kit is designed so anyone can buy every item on the list give the package to someone else without the giver or the receiver understanding nutrition.
- Covers the widest range of nutrient deficiencies one would experience even with a “healthy” diet. Most likely to result in the user saying “Wow I feel better” or “Wow where did this energy come from” across the board. I want you to be happy with the selections I’ve made.
- Extremely practical. Lowest prices without sacrificing efficacy. No unnecessary expensive gimmicks. It costs exactly what it has to cost.
- Most bioavailability. The correct forms have been chosen and in amounts that should be easy on the stomach.
- Multiple genetic polymorphisms were considered in product selection.
- Retinol is included to overcome polymorphisms preventing conversation to active form of Vitamin A
- L-5-methylfolate is included to overcome polymorphisms related to creating the active form of folate
- Common deficiencies were given extra attention, such as thiamin.
- Where possible, doses come in multiple capsules and can be taken as needed. For example, I track my nutrition in cronometer and if I’m only slightly low in certain minerals I will take less capsules.
What is missing from this kit:
- Potassium. We need about 4.7g of potassium daily but a very small percentage of the population has a medical condition that requires them to avoid potassium supplements, even though the rest of us should ideally should get plenty of it. Because of this limitation, the only cost effective way to get enough potassium is bulk potassium citrate powder, which has a salty taste and should be sprinkled on your food or hidden in soups. Because this doesn’t come in a capsule, I decided not to include it in the kit, even though it is very important nutritionally. Potassium is not a perfect replacement for salt flavor, so I recommend mixing it with pink salt because the combination just tastes better.
- Glycine. Ideally we should get up to 10g of Glycine per day but the only cost effective way to supplement is with bulk glycine powder, which is sweet and can be used as a partial sugar substitute when making Kool Aid for example.
- Food. You still need to eat. For example, this kit does not contain any choline which is found mostly in liver and egg yolks.
My criticisms about my own selections:
The following are some gripes I have about how the list turned out.
- Vitamin C only needs to be 120mg daily. I selected the best I could find.
- Vitamin B12 should be split into 3 doses 5 hours apart for maximum absorption. The capsules I selected can be twisted open and taken in thirds. Although inconvenient, this step is highly recommended.
- Vitamin B3 should be limited to about 35mg daily. There is a little overlap between the supplements, and in combination with diet this may sneak past this amount. It may become a mild concern long term.
- Folate only needs to be 400mcg unless pregnant. The capsules I selected come with 1000mcg. If you only want to take a third of the capsule long term, that may be a reasonable decision, and an extremely economical one. Just note above what I wrote about B12 and absorption.
Where to go from here:
If you want to know more about nutrition without spending a lot of time, or you want to understand how you can improve your own diet, grab a copy of Testing Nutritional Status: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet. It condenses a career of nutrition into about 70 pages. It is appropriate for doctors, nutritionists, clinicians, and everyone.