What Supplements Do We Use at My House?

I often am asked what specific supplements we use — e.g. “what magnesium do you use/recommend?” So I’m going to try to put those together here. We’re attempting to balance quality with cost and, in some cases, tolerance (either actual body tolerance or “will the kids actually take it?”).

Multivitamins (for Adults)

Everyone in my household has MTHFR “mutations.” When it comes to vitamins, that most directly affects folate (and to a lesser extent, B12). You probably have heard that our bodies need folic acid but, strictly speaking, that’s not true. Our bodies need folate; folic acid is the synthetic form used in supplements and enriching food. For many years the terms were used interchangeably, but they’re not really the same thing. While folic acid is not great for anyone, it’s particularly difficult for those with MTHFR “mutations” to process, clogging up the works so we then have trouble using any of the other folate we get, too.

Consequently, it’s better for everyone — but especially those with these gene variants — to get the methylated version of folate, and of vitamin B12. However, some of us also have other gene variants that can make it difficult to process methyls, too, which presents a significant challenge when looking for multivitamins.

Since Seeking Health caters specifically to people in such a situation, they have a lot of good options. Their regular multi is the one folks in my family take if they can do methyls. The methyl-free is what the rest of us take — or the “sensitive” option, and supplement folate and B12 separately. These are what I also take during pregnancy, because I’m not crazy about the fact that Seeking Health adds a bunch of herbs to their prenatal. (Note that these lack magnesium. I’m not sure why.)

Seeking Health Multivitamin One Seeking Health Multivitamin One MF Seeking Health Multivitamin Sensitive

I’ve recently discovered these new ones from Three. They’re really expensive, but they’re glycolated for absorbability and have a really good spectrum of both vitamins and minerals, and might be a good choice for those struggling to tolerate other options.

Vitalité daily supplementShop Now

Multivitamins (for Kids)

These are not “the cream of the crop” among kids’ vitamins; I’ll just be honest about it up-front. But I have three kids taking kids’ vitamins, in a single-income household, and we can only afford so much. So what we take is good — and it’s affordable, and my kids will take them. (We tried one that was a little “stronger” an option, health-wise, and my kids hated it.) Animal Parade multivitamins from Nature’s Plus are chewable tablets. They use methylfolate and methylcobalamin (B12).

Natures Plus Animal Parade Children’s Chewable Multivitamin

Digestive Enzymes

Enzymedica Digest Spectrum are (is?) the digestive enzymes I take. They’re a standard size 0 capsule. They do have what I consider a good spectrum of enzymes for digestion, without “extra” enzymes that bump up the price.

Enzymedica Digest Spectrum, Digestive Enzymes for Multiple Food Intolerances

Vitamin C

You’ve probably heard that you should take vitamin C “to bowel tolerance.” Thing is, my bowel tolerance is quite low, so it’s difficult for me to take a solid enough dose of regular vitamin C to be worth anything. For that reason, I prefer liposomal vitamin C. Liposomal nutrients basically are contained in tiny bubbles of fat to help move them easily into the cells. I can take a lot more liposomal vitamin C than I can “regular” vitamin C. This one from aSquared Nutrition is the one I usually buy, although I’ve bought other brands on occasion when I found one for an exceptional deal. (We used to also get Nutrigold Vitamin C Gold, which is food-based, but it has unfortunately been discontinued.)

The kids can’t take pills, so I have to find chewable for them, and it’s a bit of a challenge to find options that are decent but aren’t so tart they can’t stand them. These are a couple we’ve tried recently. I prefer the 500mg for them, but haven’t been able to get the Tahoe/Carlyle ones in that dosage lately. The Windmill ones are probably a little better, but my kids dislike them more.

aSquared Nutrition Vitamin C Liposomal Complex – 1500mg Supplement Carlyle Vitamin C Chewables | 1000mg | Natural Orange Flavor Windmill Natural Vitamins Vitamin C 500 mg, with Rose HIPS and Bioflavonoids, Chewable, Acerola Berry

Magnesium

What form of magnesium is best? There are a lot of potential answers to that. Some forms are particularly beneficial for particular purposes. But there are a handful that are all good quality options for general purposes. One of my primary purposes in a general-purpose magnesium supplement taken orally is that it not be a form that tends to cause loose stools.

The adults and almost-adults in my house take Tri-Mag from DaVinci Labs, which includes magnesium taurinate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium malate. These are capsules, so the littles can’t take them.

For the younger kids, we use MagSoothe from Jigsaw. This is a fizzing powder you mix into water or other liquid. It contains magnesium glycinate, along with sodium and potassium. It’s more cost-effective (and eco-friendly) in the canister, but in our house we found it rapidly solidified into a chunk we can’t break up and get out of the jar, so we’ve switched to the individual-serving packets. It hasn’t hardened on us yet, but we figure even if it does, it’s a lot easier to put a single serving into a glass to dissolve than try to break a chunk out of the larger container.

DaVinci Labs Tri-Mag 300 – Chelated Magnesium Supplement with Glycinate, Taurinate & Malate Jigsaw Health – MagSoothe – Magnesium Glycinate Powder Supplement

(If you do want stool-loosening, magnesium citrate is probably your best bet.)

Activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal is not a supplement you want to take on a daily basis. It “adsorbs” things — which essentially means it has thousands of miniscule nooks and crannies that “grab” things. This makes it a great supplement for adsorbing nasties — it adsorbs a variety of toxins, including toxins produced by bacteria, enabling them to be “neutralized” and carried out of the body. It’s useful to have in the first aid kit in case of poisoning, to take during times of stomach upset, etc. However, it also adsorbs some of the minerals you need, so it’s not something you want to take on a routine basis. (You also want to take it with plenty of water, whenever possible, because otherwise it can clump up or sludge up in your guts.)

I don’t really have a favorite brand. We most often buy Best Naturals. As long as it doesn’t have any additives, most activated charcoal is just…activated charcoal. However, I understand if you want the best quality, “cleanest” option, activated charcoal derived from coconut is the ideal; I’m going to be trying these next time. (If you have sensitivities, pay attention to the capsule ingredients. Best Naturals uses gelatin capsules; Nature’s Craft uses vegetable cellulose and rice hulls.)

You can also get activated charcoal as a powder (not encapsulated). Children can take this orally if you stir it into a slurry in water. It doesn’t taste like much, but the texutre is gritty — and it’s black. Putting it in a dark-colored cup can make it seem less “icky” to kiddoes. Powder is also helpful if you want to brush your teeth with it, use it as a face mask, put it on bug bites or for other topical applications that need toxins drawn out.

(We use it for topical purposes rarely enough that we most often just empty out capsules, but that can get messy. It’s an option, though, if you don’t want to buy both. And speaking of messy, it’s usually cheaper if you buy it in a bag, but a canister is easier to use without “puffing” the stuff everywhere. And you really shouldn’t inhale it.)

Best Naturals Activated Charcoal Capsules Activated Coconut Charcoal Capsules 12 Oz. Coconut Activated Charcoal Powder

Folate, B12, and B-Vitamin Complexes

So what do you take if you can’t take methylfolate? There are two basic options: plant-sourced folate and folinic acid. (Note the extra syllable and don’t confuse folinic acid with folic acid.) Folinic acid is an active form of folate, but it’s only one of the active forms of folate, and it’s not the “beginning” of the cycle (that converts various forms into others) so it doesn’t serve the full spectrum of functions. Still, if you supplement this, it can help — well, supplement — what you get from food.

I’ve used a couple different options. One is the hydroxo-B12 & folinic acid combination from Seeking Health (sublingual dissolvable tablets). This is good if you want an all-in-one option, or for kids who can’t swallow pills.

The other, good if you want more control over your folate and B12 separately, is Source Naturals’ MegaFolinic (small swallowable tablets).

I prefer this route, because I prefer to take Seeking Health’s hydrox-adeno B12.

Seeking Health Hydroxo B12 with Folinic Acid – Lozenges Source Naturals MegaFolinic, Tablets Seeking Health Hydrox-Adeno B12, lozenges

There are also B-complexes that avoid folic acid and cyanocobalamin (the crappy mainstream forms), as well as methylfolae and methylcobalamin (the good-quality forms that some of us, nevertheless, don’t tolerate well). Seeking Health has one that uses folinic acid, adenosylcobalamin, and hydroxycobalamin. Our favorite is Swanson’s Real Food B-Complex, which is food-based, but it’s been out of stock a lot the last few years. Both of these are capsules, so if you need something for someone who can’t swallow pills, these won’t work.

Seeking Health B Complex MF Swanson Real Food Vitamin B-Complex

Vitamin D

Vitamin is one of the more important vitamins to “get right” if you’re supplementing. It functions partly as a vitamin, but also partly as a hormone. Synthetic or poor-quality vitamin D has more potential to do more harm than good than poor-quality versions of most other vitamins. So don’t skimp on this.

You want D3 (not D2) from food sources, so it’s natural. I personally stick to Nordic Naturals or Carlson’s, because I trust these brands, and vary the specific product based on who’s taking it and what dosage we’re looking for. If it has K2 along with it, that’s typically even better.

I don’t typically love gummies for vitamins, because gummies are unavoidably sugary, but gummies are more viable than chewable tablets for fatty vitamins like this, so if you’re getting these for someone who can’t swallow pills, this is where I’d make the exception and do gummies.

Nordic Naturals Vitamin D3 5000 Nordic Naturals Vitamin D3 + K2 Gummies Carlson – Vitamin D3, 10000 IU Carlson – Super Daily D3, Vitamin D Drops, 1,000 IU