by jpowell » Sun Jul 29, 2012 5:14 am
[quote="custerdome"]jpowell:
hemp seeds (I buy them in bulk straight from the farmer)
- bananas (get them cheap from my local fruit market)
- dates and figs
- green lentil sprouts (your post reminded me how much I loved to sprout lentils way back)
- miso paste (yum!)
- green tea and yerba mate
Is there a risk I would run into serious deficiencies by blending various combinations of the above items for a couple of weeks? I also supplement with a multi pill, containing most vitamins and minerals (including D and B12). As a nice coincidence my new 1200 Watt blender should arrive early this coming week.
I am not a dietitian but in my opinion, absolutely, there is a big risk. I understand your motivation for it (many on here will not) but an ultra restrictive diet like that needs to be extremely well planned, and should probably be for a relatively short duration (say 1-2 weeks max unless you are very, very sure about it).
In my opinion:
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[*]This diet could be a bit deficient in fibre, but maybe not critically so. Green veges or seaweed could fix that.
[*] On this diet, you may well NEED a B complex supplement in addition to your general multi
[*]This diet will almost certainly be deficient in magnesium, manganese and selenium as well as carotenoids (pro vitamin A and good antioxidants, found in green and orange veges), and very likely iron, calcium and potassium, and possibly zinc, even allowing for the multivitamin. Absorption of minerals from food is not the same as from synthetic sources. A study found people who take multivitamins may live on average up to 17 years less than those who don't. My interpretation from what I could find was not mainly inherent problems with the supplements so much as over-reliance on them. All sorts of co-factors in naturally occurring foods as well as more varied forms of the nutrients, affect uptake. It's what we've evolved over millions of years as animals, and even up to the present day, to process. Supplements and fortified foods can help, but they didn't even exist until about 100 years ago, which is certainly not an evolutionary time frame, and in this case, that's not a specious argument or paleofantasy, it's a valid factor for consideration. If you eat lots more calories of low nutrient density foods, some minerals and vitamins will add up (maybe inadeqaute, but some). If you eat a smaller amount of nutrient dense foods, they will also add up. Supplements are generally designed to supplement, not replace food, anyway, so they assume you have a poor nutrient intake from food, not a negligible one. If you top it with supplements, it could help. If you tend to rely primarily/exclusively on supplements, IMO this is a really, really bad thing.
[*] Could you at least add a large plateful or two of steamed green steamed green veges (perhaps with lemon juice, garlic and pepper as a dressing), and plenty of seaweed, some onion greens and grated carrot to your miso, and maybe a little bit of shitake or other mushrooms? Calorie contribution will not be large but nutrient contribution will be!
[*] Maybe while we're at it, you can also ration yourself to at least 2-3 pieces of fresh whole non-sweet fruit per day to boost vitamin C and antioxidants? Tangelos, kiwi fruit, grapefruit, tamarillos, green apples, etc. The only reason I emphasize non-sweet is that you can get more nutrients per whatever amount of fruit you decide to eat.
[*] Cinamon, nutmeg, mace, cardamon or cloves could also be good antioxidants to add to your smoothie. Minimal calories, great health benefits, great taste, all natural. Cinamon in particular may help you absorb the sugar a bit more slow and steady, and if this is all/most of what you're eating, that's probably a very useful thing.
[*] I still think you may be a bit low on some aminos from your protein consumption, even with heaps of hemp and as much sprouted lentils as you can consume (from the top of my mind, most likely lysine, methionine and tryptophan). Would it be possible to at least add some rice protein or powdered oats to your smoothie, 50-100g dry weight of cooked brown/green lentils with those veges once a day, and maybe some wheat germ somewhere, even a little bit on top of your smoothie? The wheat germ will also provide a possibly much needed additional source of vitamin E.
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Again, I am not a dietitian and cannot guarantee that will be a good/adequate diet, but I'm sure it's a big improvement, and I hope it's in the spirit of what you're trying to do and in some way helpful.
