Supplements: The Extra 1%

Adding To The 99%, As A Treat

Let me be completely honest with you upfront: you probably do not need to supplement anything in your diet. In fact, I probably do not need to supplement anything… but will that stop me from trying to optimize the last 1% of my life when the other 99% is not exactly in order? No, no, it is not.

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The 99%, the stuff that really matters, is so straightforward: do resistance training five times a week, get 10,000 steps in a day, eat clean and whole foods for most of your meals, and sleep eight hours a day. You can’t write entire books and support an entire cottage industry of lifestyle optimization off the 99%, though. I would guess roughly 95% of the “health and wellness” industry is actually about the 1%. Supplements, how exactly to do your cardio, ice baths, sauna, macronutrient arguments, and on and on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the 1% stuff. I can spend hours reading about what happens to the body when it is deficient in magnesium and how that disrupts our ability to sleep properly. Every day with my lunch (when I get done fasting), I eat four Brazil nuts with whatever else I eat. Why? Brazil nuts are the best natural source of the vitamin Selenium, and selenium is responsible for regulating our thyroid. In turn, our thyroid regulates almost everything in our body because it releases hormones into the bloodstream. If your thyroid is messed up, you will have a bad time. Would I be deficient in selenium if I did not eat these Brazil nuts? Probably not, but now I definitely know that I’m not!

It’s fine to acknowledge that supplementing anything is on the edge of what really matters for your health and longevity, and also enjoy knowing that you are doing things to maximize around the edges. If you aren’t exercising and not sleeping right, there is no amount of vitamin D or fish oil that is going to make you feel better. Working the main parts of the program and supplementing on top of it have had awesome results for me personally.

The Top Five Supplements That Matter

If you ask 100 people (who know or care about this stuff) this question, you will probably get 100 different answers. I can’t answer for anyone else, and this is my newsletter, so I will answer for myself.

Vitamin D is crucial for immune function. It also helps your body absorb calcium, which promotes stronger bones and reduces the risk of fractures. It is a critical factor for anyone engaging in high-impact activities or strength training. Additionally, having the right Vitamin D levels (from my understanding) is essential to mood. It is not an accident that we get depressed in the winter and look forward to the summer. Obviously, you can get Vitamin D by just going outside, but I supplement it with a 2,000 mg capsule per day.

If you are doing any sort of training at all, Creatine is an absolute must. Creatine is the most well-researched supplement on Earth. It enhances strength, muscle mass, and exercise performance. By increasing the availability of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), creatine allows you to train harder and recover faster. Nothing will benefit your physique more (other than actual steroids) than supplementing 5 grams of creatine daily.

Probably the most surprising thing I have learned in this journey into the 1% stuff is how important gut health is for our overall health. A simple probiotic supplement, or even fiber, does a ton to keep our metabolic health on the level. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that promote a healthy gut. I notice a marked difference in how I feel after eating when I am and am not taking any sort of probiotic supplement. Anecdotally, I would say that probiotics are the most notable in my day-to-day life.

Magnesium is involved in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, including energy production, muscle contraction, and relaxation. It’s weird to think of a chemical helping us perform and sleep, but from my understanding, that is how important magnesium is. For whatever reason, it is also lacking in the Standard American Diet. A simple 300 mg capsule of magnesium threonate has done the trick for me.

Finally, Omega-3 Fish Oil is a pretty well-accepted supplement that even some Western doctors will co-sign. The body needs Omega-3 fats for proper heart and metabolic function. Our diets are full of other kinds of fats while lacking the Omega-3 fats that we need. I don’t really like to eat a lot of omega-3-rich foods, so the easiest way to get them in my body is through supplementing 2,000 mgs a day of Fish Oil.

Do you NEED any of this stuff? In my opinion, absolutely not. I have no link for you to purchase these supps through (yet!) and I get the sort of eye-rolling nature of “here is this extra shit that costs money when I can’t even create the time I want to exercise” nature of health/wellness coverage focusing on said supplements. I find a perceptible difference in my mood and performance when I am both 1) checking off the boxes for the 99% and 2) adding in the extra 1%. Sometimes, it is just nice to have something to nerd out and obsess with like I do with fantasy football but about something that can make me better!