CRON vitamin and mineral levels

[Tom E]

Hi all,

I've been tracking micronutrient intake and hitting over 100% for all vitamin and mineral levels. However, copper and iron are quite high (over 300%), as well as copper to zinc ratio almost 2:1. Has anyone optimized these micronutrients to be closer to 100% RDA rather than 3x RDA? Diet is mostly vegan, lot of nuts, seeds, legumes which is where the higher copper and iron levels are coming from.

[Michael R]

Hi Tom,

First, this appears to be your first post: welcome.

Yeah, I have the same problem with copper. I've had no real success lowering it, and I do think this is an issue — see my thread on supplementation for vegetarians/vegans. I use the quite imperfect solution of supplementing a full RDA of zinc (as picolinate, which appears to be superior tho' it's not clear; citrate may also be a very good choice).

I also get close to 3x RDA of iron, but I don't worry about that too much: it's all 'vegan' iron, its bioavailability is low, and I get blood tests to ensure that my iron stores are low-normal. The latter is the main thing (which everyone should be doing anyway): get tested annually for (at least) ferritin, and at least once and occasionally thereafter do Transferrin and Iron-binding Capacity (TIBC, UIBC), to make sure your iron stores are low-normal. (If you've been genetically tested, you may know about Wilson's disease and hemochromatosis, respectively).