You Can't Out-Supplement a Poor Diet

When you see your doctor during pregnancy/postpartum, the main advice is: make sure you take a prenatal! Truthfully, that’s not bad advice. But, it completely lacks the nuance required and neglects the essential discussion on proper nutrition during pregnancy and postpartum.

The Standard American Diet is highly refined, stripping valuable nutrients from food and rendering it, more or less, dead. The quick-digesting carbohydrates void of naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals due to processing leave us with blood sugar imbalances. Fats are highly oxidized, contributing to inflammation and lacking the delicate omega 3s needed for brain health. Overall protein intake is typically fair, but much of it is not packaged with the nutrients that occur naturally in meat and seafood that is raised in a healthful environment, or is highly processed in the form of protein supplements. Now, I’m not saying that an indulgence now and again during pregnancy and postpartum is this detrimental thing, but when these processed foods make up the 90% instead of the 10%, that’s when we’re in trouble. A prenatal vitamin is not going to save you.

You see, there is no standardization of what is considered to be a “prenatal vitamin”. Typically, as long as the vitamin contains 600mcg folic acid, the “prenatal” label is slapped on there, but this doesn’t cover all the other essential vitamins and minerals for which your needs increase during the perinatal period! However, that is a discussion for another day. Just know that each brand of prenatal vitamin will contain different amounts of vitamins and minerals, many of which omit many micronutrients altogether.

What I don’t see anyone talking about, though, is the complexity required to actually support the body with supplements.

There are inactive and active forms of vitamins, minerals that are bound to different compounds and all perform different actions within the body. However, most supplements will only provide one or two forms of a given nutrient with varying levels of quality.

Let’s take selenium, for example. This mineral is a major player in metabolism, reproduction, and your immune system by working with the thyroid and as a strong antioxidant. Low intakes can result in low thyroid function, a dysfunctional immune system, and infertility. In food, it often presents as selenocysteine and selenomethionine. I looked up five popular prenatal vitamin brands. Forms of selenium included selenium glycinate, L-selenomethionine, and sodium selenite, and two didn’t include any selenium at all! The glycinate and methionine versions are optimal due to their absorption and utilization by the body, but the selenite version is poorly absorbed and requires conversion to be utilized. Those without any selenium at all are obviously the least helpful. So, the form of selenium matters. That’s simple enough.

Now, let’s consider that nothing works in isolation. When looking at thyroid function, iodine, selenium, zinc, and magnesium are all essential in optimal amounts. If you’re supplementing selenium to support your thyroid, you still need these other nutrients to produce thyroid hormone and convert it to its active form. Just selenium alone will not carry out all the enzymatic reactions required for optimal metabolic health. Therefore, if these other nutrients aren’t present in absorbable forms or adequate amounts (or if they’re not present at all), you won’t be supporting the thyroid properly which can potentially result in clinical or subclinical hypothyroidism. This is especially the case during pregnancy and postpartum where these nutrients are in greater demand. Food is another story though, and a really cool one at that.

Let’s look at oysters, for example. Oysters are considered to be a good source of selenium. They are also a good source of iodine and magnesium, and an excellent source of zinc. The ultimate thyroid-supporting food!

To take it one step further, zinc requires a delicate balance with copper in the body, in that supplementing zinc alone can deplete copper stores. Well, oysters are high in copper as well! Adequate zinc and copper are also required for proper absorption and utilization of iron in the body, and oysters are a great source of iron! Like I said, really cool stuff. Food delivers the nuance required with micronutrients.

If our diet is highly processed or lacks variety (ie, is missing major food groups, or is limited in which foods are eaten in each group), we are relying on the quality and integrity of the supplements we choose, hoping the colorful label and targeted branding indicate that it is providing what we need.

When we rely purely on supplements to provide our nutrition, we are at the mercy of what we are purchasing. Nutritional supplements are not regulated by the FDA. There is no standardization for what is a prenatal or postnatal vitamin, so each brand decides which vitamins and minerals to include, in which forms, and in which amounts. Plus, there’s nothing requiring the supplement company to actually include what is listed on its label, and poor quality supplements are known to be riddled with fillers and contaminants. Not something I want to rely on entirely for mine and my baby’s health.

Therefore, using a high-quality, robust prenatal vitamin as a support for a healthy, high-quality, and varied diet is essential to supporting your body and the health of your baby.