In the quest to find answers the questions are very important, and as the research into this topic shows, it is very easy to get lost. I started this journey by throwing everything at it as I could. Question when I found something of interest, like say Lycopene, what does it do for me with prostate cancer. Got a long list of potential benefits, some documented in larger studies. Next question was, how do I get it. Tomatoes was the answer. So, I started to implement tomatoes in my diet. But to keep tomatoes in my diet every single day became a bit too much, so now the question was, does there exist a way to get it through supplements? Indeed, there did. So, I started out taking supplements. Numbers were at this point not so relevant. But being at 300 mg lycopene every day and beginning to see an interest in cutting down on supplements and instead changing my diet to accommodate my daily need instead, the question now became, how much tomatoes do I need to get 300 mg lycopene. The answer was 15 kg. Needless to say, this was a bit more than I could chew every single day, just to get one single component, so it did justify the supplement. But……… then it started to get tricky, because while the question was answered correctly, the question was wrong. It is not a matter of how much lycopene I get from a certain number of tomatoes. Bioavailability is key. And when I asked that question 300 mg lycopene in supplements became more than 50 kg tomatoes. Now the question feeds into something more important. Vegetables has for most being breed into being edible over the past 10,000 years, and as such we have access to things like lycopene. Tomatoes were poisons to start with. But if it requires whopping 50 kg og tomatoes to get that amount, is 300 mg of lycopene then in reality not too much by nature?
Same discussion can be had with all supplements, but one that really stands out is Vitamin D3. Body produces it by exposure to sunlight. Production is about 5000 IU in 20 minutes depending on skin type, skin exposed and other factors. That means in an 8 our day, one could take up to 120,000 IU in a single day. This approach unfortunately motivated by Eric Berg on YouTube, had me convinced that 100,000 IU would not be an issue. I supplemented for a while with that, reduced it to 50,000 IU and thought all was good. But again, the question is not just conversion rate, it is also tolerance rate. The body can only make use of between 10,000 – 20,000 IU a day. If it gets more then it will cut off the production to avoid toxicity. But by supplementing beyond the 20,000 IU you bypass this natural function, and it can have serious consequences.
So, to give a better understand of whether I am wasting my money on supplements, taking too much or too little, then I decided to see how much each supplement equates to in a dietary alternative, taking bioavailability into account. List is below.
| Supplement | Dose (mg or IU) | Natural Source | Est. Quantity to Match Dose (considering bioavailability) | Notes |
| Astragalus | 1600 mg | Astragalus root extract | 5-8 g raw root | Moderate bioavailability; extract concentration key |
| Berberine | 800 mg | Barberry root (6.26 mg/g) | >1.28 kg dried root | ~1% bioavailability drastically increases needed amount |
| Black Garlic Powder | 1200 mg | Black garlic cloves | 600-750 g | Moderate bioavailability |
| Boswellia Serrata | 1600 mg | Boswellia gum resin | 5-8 g resin | 20-30% bioavailability |
| Bromelain | 200 mg | Pineapple stem | 0.2-2 g | Fairly bioavailable |
| D-mannose | 1000 mg | Cranberries | ~20-25 g | High oral bioavailability |
| Luteolin | 100 mg | Parsley | >10 kg fresh | Very low bioavailability and low natural content |
| Lycopene | 600 mg | Tomatoes | ~100 kg raw tomatoes | ~10-15% bioavailability, enhanced by processing/fat |
| Lactoferrin | 1000 mg | Cow’s milk | Impractical—systemic absorption minimal | Acts mainly in gut |
| Magnesium Citrate | 500 mg Mg | Spinach (magnesium content) | 1.3-1.7 kg cooked spinach | 30-40% bioavailability |
| Magnesium L-Treonate | 1000 mg Mg | Dark leafy greens | 3.3-4.5 kg | Similar bioavailability assumptions |
| Magnesium Glycinate | 350 mg Mg | Almonds | ~117 g almonds | 30-40% bioavailability |
| Melatonin | 400 mg | Pistachios | Impractical—>166 kg pistachios | Very low content and bioavailability |
| Milk Thistle | 500 mg | Milk thistle seeds | 2-3 g seeds | 20-30% bioavailability |
| Modified Citrus Pectin | 5000 mg | Citrus peel | Impossible | Native pectin not systemically bioavailable |
| NAC | 600 mg | Eggs (L-cysteine precursor) | Impossible | NAC is synthetic; no direct dietary equivalent |
| Quercetin | 1000 mg | Capers | ~6 kg capers | ~17% bioavailability |
| Reishi Mushroom | 1200 mg | Reishi mushroom extract | 8-12 g dried mushroom | Moderate bioavailability |
| Saw Palmetto | 1600 mg | Saw palmetto berries | >5-8 times weight | Moderate bioavailability |
| Shiitake mushroom | 1200 mg | Dried shiitake mushrooms | 8-12 g | Moderate bioavailability |
| Turkey Tail | 1200 mg | Dried turkey tail mushroom | 8-12 g | Moderate bioavailability |
| Turmeric | 2000 mg | Dried turmeric root powder | 13 kg fresh turmeric root | ~1% bioavailability; improved with enhancers |
| Vitamin D3 | 25000 IU | Salmon | 2.5-10+ kg salmon | Varies by wild/farmed type; broad range |
| Vitamin K2 | 200 mcg | Natto | ~70-100 g natto | High bioavailability |
| Zinc Picolinate | 22 mg | Oysters | ~300 g oysters | Zinc bioavailability ~30-40% |