What kind of vitamins/herbal supplements should I be taking if I convert over to vegetarian?

thanks,
unole

I take a multivitamin every day, though I'm not sure I need it. If you eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, plus soy products, nuts or eggs (if you eat eggs) and dairy (if you eat dairy) for protein, you'll be pretty covered.

I think iron and B12 are the supplements you need the most, depending on your diet. It's fairly easy to find vegetarian multivitamins and such online and in stores. I take Genuine Health multi+ complete, personally.

Most vitamins/minerals are easily obtained through food, but it's safe to take a few vitamins. Everyone, omni or veg, should take a multivitamin to ensure they get all these nutrients. B12 is only found in animal products, so make sure your multi has some and/or take a B12 supplement. Calcium is easy to get with fortified plant milks and other fortified foods, leafy greens, beans, broccoli, veggies, blackstrap molasses, sesame seeds, etc. I also take a supplement. Flaxseeds and walnuts have lots of omega-3s, no need to supplement if you include flaxmeal/oil and nuts in your diet. I also take iron from time to time. That's just what I do, but a lot of other people just take a multivitamin, or some take none at all.

It depends on your body type, and what you eat. :)

I'm not comfortable with taking multi-vitamins that have not been studied for health effects. Yes, all the individual vitamins have been studies, but we know that they interact with each other in complex ways - and that's not taken into account by most multi-vitamin manufacturers. Taking large amounts of calcium supplements, for example, inhibits magnesium absorbtion. Because magnesium is also necessary for bone health (though in smaller amounts than calcium), large calcium supplements can actually worsen bone health.

A couple more examples: calcium and iron do not absorb well when taken together - it's better to seperate them by at least a couple of hours. Not possible when they're put into the same pill. Vitamin B12 absorbtion is extremely dose dependant: if you get it from foods in three or four meals and snacks throughout the day, you only need 3 micrograms a day. If you take a pill for it (getting it all in one dose), you need 10 micrograms a day. If you take a pill once weekly, you need 2000 micrograms in that pill. Again, many mutivitamins don't take this into account and will only have 3 or 6 micrograms of B12 in each pill.

I take folic acid (400 micrograms on weekdays) because it's recommended for all women of childbearing age. I take B12 because I will sometimes go a few days without eating any animal products. I take iron (25 grams on weekdays) because I want to give blood, and I need the pills to be able to do that (I get enough iron for myself from food - my levels have never fallen below normal for a pre-menopausal woman - but I need the pills to be able to donate blood). Those three supplements are it for me.