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aziaziazi01/21/20252 repliesview on HN

That may sense. Most of the folks here seems to track calories and other macro. In the meantime...

> micronutrients like vitamins are not functionally possible to be measured

... my concern is micro: I'm engaging on a full vegetable diet (+shrooms +minerals!) and am concerned about thinks like iron, selenium, calcium... I (got-used-to) love vegetable and eat a lot of them so I'm probably fine with most micros, however may miss some selenium for exemple. Some research seems to show that too much vitamins is usually ok but too much minerals may not be. The more I read the more I'm scared! What makes me feel safe is the three long-time vegan I know seems healthy and don't take any supplement appart obvious B12. Perhaps I should just focus on other thinks that doing mad about micros...


Replies

dkarl01/21/2025

Both supplementation and dietary strictness are scary because of the consistency. A quantity that is safe every day for a week or a month is not necessary safe every day for a year, and a quantity that is safe for a year is not necessarily safe for ten years. I've known two long-term vegetarians who were diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia in their thirties. One of them passed out while cycling home from work, which I'm guessing meant that she was suffering in small ways for a long time before she realized it. But if she took a mineral supplement every day for twenty years, how might she find out if she was getting too much of something? They sell the same supplements to people who are 5' 100 lbs and 6'4" 250 lbs.

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broof01/21/2025

Brazil nuts are so high in selenium that you aren’t supposed to eat too many of them