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Do you take supplements? Should you? Is Vitamin B12 really that necessary and elusive? Is it better to take pills or eat fortified products?

I shamelessly copied the below text from another site, and I'm not going to give a credit back to is becuase nobody ever credits me. This is interesting reading, though:

Protein You need to eat a variety of foods that contain different amino acids in order to make complete proteins. You want to eat things like grains and beans or pasta and beans, because the combination of the two foods has all the amino acids to make a complete protein. Here's a list of stuff you should be eating regularly: green leafy vegetables, grains, beans, tofu, nuts, nutritional yeast, seeds, legumes, organ meats.

Calcium The average teen needs about 1200 milligrams of calcium per day, and adults need about 800 milligrams per day. We recommend a calcium supplement. You should note that calcium is listed on supplement bottles in two ways, and one way can be rather deceptive. If you see that your supplement contains 650 mg of calcium carbonate, that means that you are getting 650 mg of the source material, namely carbonate, which might contain only 200 mg of pure calcium. If, however, the label says that it contains 500 mg of calcium (carbonate), that means it really does contain 500 mg of calcium, and the source is merely mentioned in brackets. Look for the brackets.

Vitamin B12 There are very few non-animal sources of this essential vitamin. You only need about 3 micrograms per day, so any multivitamin will probably supply you with enough, but there are other options as well. Vitamin B12 is available in fortified soy milks, nutritional yeasts, and in vitamin supplements. The best kind of supplements are called sub-lingual, so called because they are to be dissolved under the tongue instead of swallowed, so the vitamin goes directly into your bloodstream.

Iron Most vegans do not have a problem with iron, contrary to popular belief. Green, leafy vegetables, beans and legumes, and whole grains all contain iron, so if you're eating the stuff we told you to eat to get your protein, you should be doing OK on the iron front.

i take iron, but only because i'm a bad vegan and need to eat more veggies. i took b12 for a while but stopped because i read it wasn't really necessary. besides all of the stuff that's fortified with b12, extra is stored in your liver for when you need it.

When I went for a checkup several years ago and told my doc I was vegetarian she suggested I take a B-complex and nothing else. I take a Calcium because I've always felt I've never gotten much calcium (always stayed away from milk...bleh).

Nowadays I feel more educated and am eating a healthier, more varied diet. Still keep up w/the B-Complex and Calcium (when I remember).

I take a vegan vitamin with Iron because I'm anemic when I don't. I hate being turned away at the blood donor facility for being anemic.

I don't take calcium because my understanding is meat eaters are sucking the calcium out of their bones because they eat too much protein, not because they aren't getting enough calcium. So people think we aren't getting enough calcium if they aren't. I walk and run since studies have shown you need to do some pounding exercises to build strong bones.

The protein section is wack, all plant foods are complete proteins meaning they have all of the essential amino acids. No need to combine anything, that info is just not correct.

I personally do not take any vitamins or supplements, unless you count Nutritional Yeast which I use mainly to flavor certain foods. I guess you can take a B12 supplement if you want, since that's the only thing you could make an argument for that would be lacking in a vegan diet. Though, as others have said B12 is fortified in just about everything. Supplements and vitamins are mostly just expensive and a poor substitute for what would be naturally found in foods.

In some instances I can see how taking supplements may be helpful, such as in the case with my brother who is traveling a lot and has a difficult time getting good nutrition on the road. If it makes you feel better then go ahead and take them, but if omni-people don't need to take supplements then certainly vegans do not need to. I guess this is basically my point; I don't like people thinking that vegans are lacking any kind of nutrition by avoiding animal products.

I take a multi-vitamin for the extra vitamin C, E and antioxidants. I try to get all the nutrients I need from food but it doesn't always work out that way, plus I live in toxic L.A. so my immunity does better with some extra help.

Other than that I sprinkle nutritional yeast on just about anything it will work with, mostly because I've become a little addicted to the taste. I also add ground flax to my morning oatmeal for the omegas and fiber, though I consider that more of a food ingredient than an actual supplement.

Hi everyone! Well I must say that I HATE taking supplements or any medicines (which is crazy b/c I am a doctor), but after being vegan for 17 years... I definitely know that if I don't take B12 supplements, I become very anemic..
B12 stays in your system for a very long time.. so I did not develop any symptoms of deficiency until about 7 years after stopping to eat any animal products. But when I did, the symptoms were pretty severe. I needed to get injections for quite a while, but now I am pretty stable by taking oral vitamins.
So I seriously recommend that all vegans do take Vitamin B12 supplements. Especially women who may become pregnant (crucial for infant neuro-development) and children who are still growing.

Before, when i heard about supplement, first thing comes to my mind is a stuff of medicine but since I was introduced to a healthful diet, my perception changed. Supplement is a preparation intended to provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids or amino acids, that are missing or are not consumed in sufficient quantity in a person's diet. It is also defined as dietary supplements in form of foods, while in others they are defined as drugs.
For vegans, acquiring nutrient deficiency is taking foods above listed. Just bare in mind that it's better to stay healthier from the proper food intake than to take a risk in taking medicinal supplements currently available elsewhere.

I eat a wide range of foods.... vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans, soy products, grains etc. I cook most of the meals I eat at home and office and try to have a good mix of different food sources. I avoid added salt and refined sugar and the all pasta vegan diet that my friends follow and get fat on.

As for supplement, I get some of my calcium from vegetables, the other from fortified soy milk. I do take 1tbls of flax seed oil w/DHA and one Omega-Zen-3 DHA daily. About once a week I take a B-12 just in case. I don't take multi vitamins since I feel I get everything else from my food.

Overall I feel great and don't feel I am missing anything nutritionally. One thing since going vegan is my BP went form 130/90 to 112/67 and my cholesterol was close to 200 and is now in the low 120's.

the only supplement a vegan need take is b12 and only because we don't eat our plants with the dirt still on them (b12 comes from bacteria in dirt, animals don't make it, just accumulate it by eating it). A lot of people are obsessed with super nutrients, omega 3s, etc, but really our problem is that we get too much nutrition. We haven't had a diseases like scurvy or berry berry in 100 years or so (lack of nutrition diseases). You can get all the nutrients you need to live a long healthy life from a simple white potato or rice. Osteoporosis is a disease that is caused by eating TOO MUCH protein, especially sulfur containing amino acids, which cause the body to loose calcium from the bones PH buffering system. People also make the mistake thinking a nutrient stripped out of the original whole food package is just as beneficial as it was when consumed in its whole food form, which study after study prove is not the case.