Vegan chasing vitamin and nutrient targets

WilleCoyote

Hi all,

New to Cronometer.
I’m Vegan and working on my diet to eliminate all but absolutely necessary supplements.
One of the things I’m not able to gauge is what I’m getting from an unlimited supply of what we call “spa water” at work.
This is nonsparkling mineral water and fruits/herbs that is in large inverted bottles from which you can draw a full flask or glass as often as you want.
Each day there is a variety of versions - slices of orange, lemon or grapefruit with bunches of mint or rosemary etc soaking in the water.
The water you can see contains small fragments of the fruit - ie it is definitely “in” the water you consume.
They put little tags next to the dispensers like:
“Orange & Mint
Improves digestion & helps with detoxification”
I’m basically managing my daily hydration this way - I drink about 5L of these a day. As well as plain water and green tea depending on where I am working or training.
What I am trying to get my head around is how to know how much some of the fruit and herb will contribute to Vit C, fibre and such which is not being captured by my entries in foods or counting these drinks as plain water.
Any ideas. Or do I just accept it is impossible to know and therefore just treat it as hydration?

Susan_RD_101

@WilleCoyote

Those water concoctions sound amazing! In all honesty, I would say it's going to be quite challenging to know exactly how much vitamin C has leached from the fruit into the water (fibre in the water would be negligible). You could account for the vitamin C by adding slices of these fruits to your diary (provided you eat the slices).

I have yet to meet a vegan that's lacking in vitamin C, so you shouldn't have any issues getting enough. The absolute supplements I recommend to all vegans (and take myself) are:

• vitamin B12 (1000 mcg 1-2 x per week)
• vitamin D (I always wear sunscreen and live in Canada - 2000 IU per day)
• iodine (from my salt)
• DHA (500 mg per day; although flax/chia/hemp has some omega 3 fats, the conversion into DHA and EPA is very, very small)

Kind regards,

bracconiere

as far as vitamin c, that's one vitamin you can test for yourself! buy some providone iodine, boil some flour to make a gel. put it on a scale and you can calculate how much vitmainc c is in the liquid by when the color changes. you'd have to look up the percise detail of an iodine/starch titration for vitamin c..it's more than i can type, but that's the jist of it....i do it all the time for my mesquite, and pine needle tea!