How to use Cronometer (vitamin A, RAE)

[DarlBundren]

How does your front page look? Mine has got several 'yellow' nutrients. This is an average day. I'm vegetarian, but this is a vegan diet, except for a glass of milk in the morning. It is not 100% accurate since i have no way of knowing the exact weight of my servings at the moment.

[brimstoneSalad]

Try to find a way to measure if you can. In volume, if not weight.

How does your front page look? Mine has got several 'yellow' nutrients.

The first thing that's concerning is your fat intake. It's nearly half saturated, and the other half is almost all Omega 6. This is a serious heart disease risk.

I would suggest quitting dairy (a large source of saturated fat, or at least avoid it except for when you don't have other options), and choosing healthier oils like canola (low erucic acid rapeseed oil). You can also eat nuts and seeds.
Your vitamin E is also low, so I recommend eating two large handfuls of sunflower seeds every day (with no shells, about 50 grams -- 25 grams is about the most you can hold in a hand without dropping them).

Instead of dairy, have fortified almond or soy milk for calcium.
That will help solve your fat and calcium problems.
If you don't want to eat canola oil then hemp, flax, and chia are other good options for Omega 3. Walnuts also provide Omega 3.


Yellow means you aren't getting enough of those things.

You may want to eat some nutritional yeast or mushrooms, which are rich in B vitamins.
100 grams of mushrooms (28 calories) have 43% of your daily B5. If you can find and afford them where you live.

Low B5 can also indicate that you just aren't eating enough. It's called pantothenic acid because it's in everything. But it's typically richer in whole foods than processed ones. If you're aiming for weight loss, mushrooms are probably your best bet to meet your nutrient needs without increasing calories.

You may want to get some "lite salt" for extra potassium; it's made with a potassium chloride and sodium chloride mix.
You may want to eat some more whole wheat products for selenium, sunflower seeds are also a pretty rich source though, so those may take care of your selenium and vitamin E at the same time.

You should set a target for your Retinol Activity Equivalent. I suggest 900.

[DarlBundren]

Thanks. Frankly, I was a bit surprised. That day I ate:

breakfast:
oatmeal
milk (a small glass)
a few sunflower seeds

lunch:
110 g of whole grain pasta
cooked broccoli ( a handful )
a raw tomato
a tea spoon of fresh extra virgin oil
oregano
a pinch of salt
an orange
a tea spoon of sunflower seeds

snack
carrots
a piece of bread
a tea spoon of flax seeds
a tea spoon of coconut milk ( I know, saturated fats)

dinner:
two whole grain tortillas
a whole can (240g) of kidney beans
bell pepper/salsa/tomato/onion/parsley/ a tea spoon of fresh extra virgin oil/ a squeeze of lime

green tea /b12 supplement

It does look like a good diet to me. Maybe I didn't eat enough.

[brimstoneSalad]

It's pretty good except that too many of your calories are coming from saturated fat (the sources of which are also otherwise pretty low in nutrients). If you cut the milk and coconut milk and eat more sunflower seeds, and have some unsweetened soy or almond milk (much lower calorie than dairy milk, but still lots of calcium), you should do pretty well.

Also, eat more carrots and broccoli (maybe double them, if you can). And probably increase the flax seeds as well (make sure they're ground up, or you get nothing from them since you can't digest the hulls).

[DarlBundren]

Thanks. What about B vitamins? Do you think that a whole can of beans a day is not enough?

[brimstoneSalad]

Thanks. What about B vitamins? Do you think that a whole can of beans a day is not enough?

Beans are good for protein and minerals, but are not high in B-vitamins.
Green veggies are much better for B-vitamins.

What's your food budget like?
B-vitamins come in their most calorically and physically dense form usually from fungi. Do you like mushrooms? Are they affordable where you live?
Can you find nutritional yeast?

[DarlBundren]

I don't really have a budget, I try to eat as healthy and as cheap as I can. I like mushrooms, but I think I wouldn't eat them on a daily basis. I already eat broccoli, so maybe I could try incorporate other greens in my diet. Unfortunately, they don't sell nutritional yeast where I live.

[brimstoneSalad]

I don't really have a budget, I try to eat as healthy and as cheap as I can. I like mushrooms, but I think I wouldn't eat them on a daily basis. I already eat broccoli, so maybe I could try incorporate other greens in my diet.

Maybe some days have some mushrooms, other days have more greens?

Unfortunately, they don't sell nutritional yeast where I live.

You should be able to buy it online. It's dry, so it ships well (and isn't heavy).

[Jebus]

I also added choline. Strange that this isn't included by default.

[cornivore]

Here's Norris' summary in that article:

Summary
Cooking foods (especially water based acidic foods like tomato sauce) in cast iron skillets.

I was looking into such statements that I'd read occasionally then forgot about, because I got stainless pots to cook with, and wondered if there was a big difference. A couple of studies that came up, which say that cast iron may release more iron into food (mineral migration), although it wasn't determined to be effective at changing one's iron composition (clinical trial).