Thanks for all the replies to my questions about supplements.

Yes, vigilance would be a good characterization of what is required.  That
and a lot of research.  I guess I could take the time to look up all the
foods I usually eat on the USDA's nutrient database, and compare that to
typical values in supplements.  I see why it may be easier to grab a bottle
of pills and not worry about it.  Problem is I hate to pay for them, and it
seems like once you are on that slippery slope, there is all type of
conflicting info about how much of something you need, and new science
(probably paid for by a consortium of supplement producers) that tell you
why you need this latest and greatest thing.

Of the people that do take supplements, what do you recommend?  I am
following a paleo diet very much like the one in Dr. Cordains book.  Any
links to some good science on supplements?  'Good' meaning unbiased, which
in an ideal world all science would be (but that's another story).

Tim Rowell

>anyway the wild plants are more nutrient dense than selectively bred
>ones, and eating edible weeds etc and a wide variety of them too is a
>good practice.  i used to feel the same way you do, tim, about not
>taking supplements, but there is no doubt that we have a lot of
>powerful tools available to us if we DO know what we're doing
>(antioxident vitamins, for example, and essential fatty acid
>supplements, acidophilus, etc.)  i hope some day to be able to get
>nutrients from my diet, but i think it takes a lot of... vigilance
>might be the word i am looking for.
>
>Jana