How to log vitamins I take every day?

Abby

How do I log the vitamins I take each day? Does it matter if I don’t log them?

Hilary

You can add supplements the same way you would add a food. From your Diary, select Add Food to search for the supplement in our database or use the barcode scanner feature in the mobile app.

For supplements missing from our database, create a custom food with these steps: https://cronometer.com/help/foods/#addfood.

If you take multiple supplements/vitamins every day, I would recommend creating a custom recipe and adding all the supplements to this "Recipe". Then you will only need to add one item each day instead of multiple items!

chunky

I use the recipe method Hilary described and it works well. Something I've found works well, in conjunction with that is: as the vitamins I take change over time, I manually "retire" the old recipe by just editing it to change its name to "retired - date - etc. and perhaps a description of the vitamins". Then you can chose "edit a copy" and change its name to something that indicates it is your current supplement regime and perhaps what is in it. Then you know you are choosing the current daily vitamin recipe reflecting what you are taking, without losing the historical data.

Hilary

Hey @chuncky; thats a great idea for editing! Have you explored using the "Explode recipe" feature to edit your daily entry without editing the recipe for future use?
Also... this is relatively new, but you can edit the recipe directly (Not editing a copy) and when you select save you will be asked if you would like this change to effect previous entries or instead to retain old diary entries as they are and only apply the edits to new recipes.

Susan_RD_101

@Abby ,

When I use Cronometer in my practice, I ask clients to log their supplements. Nutrients that are consumed from supplements are typically better absorbed (which can be a risk for over-consumption), so it's useful to me to see where people are getting their nutrients from.

Kind regards,

DawnieRotten

The 'Create New Recipe' is all well and good for supplements.....but what is one to do when there are several ingredients in the supplements that are NOT on the prepared list that cronometer has?? Things like, Bacopa herb extract; Alpha GPC; Yerba Mate Leaf Powder; Theobromine; Phosphatidyl Serine; L-Theanine; Black Pepper Fruit Extract and Huperzine A??

airzone

It is important to keep a schedule for taking vitamins and other medications so that you can be sure that you have taken a pill or not taken too many. I found that when I didn't keep a pill schedule, I often forgot to take my pills, and I started having some health problems because of it. Since I started taking my pills, dietary supplements have also been added to my diet https://www.healthcanal.com/supplements/260384-gundry-md-products.html . I started to keep the same clear plan for taking them, so I suggest that you still write down every pill you take