expert opinion

[Jay Ashman]

On these supplements and their usefulness to an athlete and if they are really needed...

• B-100
• Cayenne
• Ginkgo
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Acetyl L-Carnitine

I don't take a lot of stuff, but I am looking to keep my supplementation to the bare minimum to save money and cut back on usage.

I'm thinking my staples would be:

• Fish Oil (12 g per day, Costco brand... helps with inflammation and lipid profile)
• High Quality Multi (if anyone has a great suggestion that would encompass a good amount of B vitamins as well it would be great, I take a whole food vitamin but I want to hear if you guys have a great one that is low cost and good quality)
• B-12
• ZMA
• Vitamin D (5000 iu a day)
• Calcium

Help a brother out. thank you.

[Jay Ashman]

and if you have any suggestions as to what you guys recommend, it would be appreciated as well... I'm looking to simplify and add to my health without overdoing it.

[Jay Ashman]

I was checking out NSI's line of multis as well, they seem to be pretty decent for a good cost..

[Steven Low]

Everything in your staples is good.

Everything else you asked about is generally useless.

The only things you really need beyond that are whey and/or creatine if you're looking for better performance.

[Jay Ashman]

can you explain why you think that the asked about products would be useless? Isn't ALA and ALC two very beneficial supplements as far as fat metabolism and anti-oxidants go?

I'm looking for answers beyond google, because I do search and read, I want to hear people's opinions who train like I do.

Keep in mind I don't eat nearly as many veggies as I should so I tend to take the antioxidants to try to "make it somewhat ok"

isn't cayenne great for circulation as well?

[Robert Johnson]

Cayenne is a food. Put it on vegetables.

[John Alston]

Originally Posted by Jay Ashman

Keep in mind I don't eat nearly as many veggies as I should so I tend to take the antioxidants to try to "make it somewhat ok"

Maybe this is more important than the pills.

[Steven Low]

You can if you want. Well, the studies have been kind of like Vitamin D where there's some benefit whereas if you piece together the information with D you can find out it's very critical. The rest aren't, so it's up to you if you wanna shell out the bucks for a potentially small if any benefit.

[Ryan Secor]

Originally Posted by Jay Ashman

• Fish Oil (12 g per day, Costco brand... helps with inflammation and lipid profile)

Robb Wolf pointed out on Episode 2 of his podcast that Kirkland recently changed the labeling on their fish oil. It used to list the amount of DHA/EPA per serving... now here's what it says:

"Total Omega-3 (with EPA + DHA) 300mg"

The Costco website says even more:
"Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA and other omega-3) 300mg"

Plus, as Robb pointed out, now it contains soy - which I'm guessing is from soybean oil... which in my understanding contains omega-3 fatty acids (though not dha/epa). So, I have a feeling their "natural fish oil concentrate" is simply nothing more than a euphemism for some omega-3's from soybean oil and a actual very small amount of EPA/DHA.

I'm personally dropping the Kirkland and switching over probably to Carlson's from Vitacost. I know there's a number of other fish oil brand suggestions out there but the Carlson's seems to be the best choice for quality/price - someone broke it down by price on Robb's comments under Podcast Episode 2. I don't know if anyone else has information on this... but it seems as if the days of super-cheap but good Kirkland fish oil are over.

All that to say from your list IMO it may be a good idea to fork over a bit more $ especially for the DHA/EPA than shell cash out on other things.

[Jay Ashman]

son of a bitch... that isn't good news at all...