I could speak for many on the confusion surrounding nutritional science for those who are trying to optimize their intake for training or other purposes. Getting fats, carbs, and protein is simple enough, along with general recommendations on supplementation like using powdered whey.
The real confusion are when it comes to supplementation, and everyone seems to disagree. For example, I was personally told to avoid whey isolate as it’s apparently mostly not absorbed with other foods, or not utilized after having 40 grams worth of protein. On the other hand, I’ve heard of no such limit on eating chicken breast or pork loin. I still do use it, but seeing similar sentiments on other supplements makes this worse: I eat Vitamin D3, Zinc, and a generic multivitamin but apparently since my multivitamin was pill form it wasn’t utilized (told this by GP). I then got the gummy form of all 3 supplements but it’s impossible to know how it makes a difference. For reference, my new GP says the pill forms are ‘better’.
What made me think of this was learning that “fortified” cereals and other breakfast meals, despite advertising, say, iron as a nutrient in the food actually provide no available iron… I just need someone to explain this mess and where to find accurate information. Of course, all supplements aren’t evaluated by the FDA.
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I don’t mean this to be too short, but you should really try to get a referral out to a registered dietitian or find one local. This entire post exemplifies why PCPs should not be providing nutritional advice.
Your question needs an hour or two of dedicated one on one time with an appropriately trained professional.
Examine.com years ago set itself up to be the go to resource for supplemental science research. I imagine it still is. I would start there. *edit*: Most supplements are absolute snake oil. Fish Oil, D3 during winter months away from the sun, and occasionally a multi if your diet has been lacking. It gets much worse moving into supplements aimed at the weekend warrior gym goer and athlete.
The bioavailability of iron is simple: meat sources provide more absorbable iron than other sources, and Vitamin C intake alongside any iron intake improves said absorption. Generally speaking, unless you’re anemic I wouldn’t hyperfocus on iron bioavailability.
Whey isolate is more expensive than concentrate and isn’t necessary for most consumers. The body can only utilize so much protein intake at once, but it doesn’t just discard the rest. The 30-40g/meal is tossed around pretty often but isn’t something I’d fret over unless you’re an athlete or bodybuilder seeking to maximize muscle protein synthesis and the sort. It’s *best* to spread your protein intake about the day but isn’t more important than simply hitting your macronutrient/kcal goals.
A few questions going on here:
1) “Fortified” cereals are so called because they are fortified with folic acid, a nutrient critical to the formation of a fetus’s spinal cord in the first 6 weeks of pregnancy. Many women do not know they’re pregnant until they miss a period which is week 4 so they don’t have a chance to take prenatal supplements in that critical window. To get around that, the US adds folic acid to all breakfast cereals since they are/were commonly eaten everyday by the majority of the population.
2) While there are some nutrient uptake conflicts (calcium and iron for example) where it’s recommended to not have both in the same meal, the “bioavailability” thing is mostly marketing hype. Unless you are eating a severely limited diet or have a specific health condition, you are getting all the vitamins, minerals, and proteins you need. The supplement industry, like the diet industry, subsists entirely on making people think it’s very complicated and thus for some vaguely described reason my Vitamin D3 is better than my competitor’s Vitamin D3.
The truth of the matter is your body has a digestive system that will grind up and break down any food you eat into tiny little molecules that it will then rebuild into whatever vitamin or protein it needs at the moment. Eating beef does not mean your body is using cow proteins, it breaks it down into single amino acids and rebuilds them into human proteins.
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