Diet and Supplements

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Last Updated: Sunday, 19 April 2026 15:09

Published: Thursday, 01 February 2024 14:57

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Diet and Supplements

There are lots of things that we need in our diet to fulfill our body's nutritional requirement.

NOTE: a lot of sources online state calorie requirement of body in units of calorie, i.e 2000 cal per day, but in reality it's Kcal, i.e 2000 Kcal of energy is required. Similarly content of protein is listes as 4 cal/g of protein, but it's actually 4Kcal/g. I might mention calories somewhere below, but treat it as Kcal. I'll try to be precise, and only mention Kcal, but "copy and paste" may screw up my notes below, so bear with it :(

There are 6 essential nutrients that our body needs from food and drinks (our body can't make them):

1. Macronutrients (Needed in large amounts)
   1. Carbohydrates => Main source of energy. Each g of carb provides 4 Kcal of energy.
   2. Fats => Provides energy, and helps body absorb vitamins/minerals. Each g of fat provides 9 Kcal of energy. It's used a s long term reservoir of energy.
   3. Proteins => Needed for strong bones, muscles, organs, skin and nails. Each g of protein provides 4 Kcal of energy. 
2. Micronutrients (Needed in small amounts)
   1. vitamins => Body needs 13 different essential vitamins to fight infections, heal wounds, regulate hormones and more. There are two types of vitamins, either fat soluble or water soluble:
      
      1. Fat soluble Vitamins: meaning it dissolves in fat, and the body stores it in fatty tissues and the liver. Imp for muscle/bone. So, consumption of fat is essential, else these vitamins will never get absorbed by body. Hence, it's always advised to take vitamin pills with fatty food. There are 5 such vitamins:
         1. A,
         2. C,
         3. D,
         4. E,
         5. K
      2. Water soluble vitamins: meaning they dissolve in water and are not stored in the body. Imp for nerves/heart. All the B Vitamins are water-soluble. These are the 8 Vitamin B complex =>
         1. B1,
         2. B2,
         3. B3,
         4. B5,
         5. B6,
         6. B7,
         7. B9, 
         8. B12 => essential for nervous system function and red blood cell formation. 
   2. minerals: More than a dozen minerals are needed
   3. water: Water makes up > 50% of our body. It helps to carry nutrients and bunch of other functions.

There are few non essential nutrients that your body makes. Ex are vitamins as cholesterol, Vit D, etc.

Let's look at some of the nutrients and associated food/diet. A more detailed section is in "Biology" section. Brief summary is again presented here.

Proportion of Fat/Carb/Protein in Diet:

As per CDC data from 2020, people in US take their 2000 kCal requirement from 50% Carb, 35% fat and 15% protein in their diet. Calorie requirement for adult males with low physical activity is 2000 KCal per day, while for adult female, it's about 1800 Kcal per day. Ideally, below are the requirements for an adult over the age of 30 yrs (i.e when you not looking to gain weight):

1. Calories: Even though, it's usually mentioned to have a 2000 kCal diet per day for an adult, in order to lose weight, you need to have a calorie deficit. That is the single most imp thing to lose weight. Take your weight in KG, and multiply by 25 to get your calorie requirement, which gives you a 20%-25% calorie deficit, enough to lose weight. For ex, for an adult weighing 60 kgs, you should take 60*25=1500 kCal per day. However, if you do moderate physical activity, you still want to stick to 1800-2000 KCal per day. After the age of 40, a 60 kg man shouldn't exceed 2000 KCal per day, as metabolism slows down, and hence your body is not able to use up the full 2000 KCal in a day, causing you to gain weight.
   1. Protein: As I've provided details in protein section, you should get at least 15% kCal from protein. That implies about 250-300 kCal coming from proteins, which implies 60-80 g of protein per day for a 60kg weighing adult, which is just enough to preserve your muscles. Proteins keep you full, so you feel less hungry. You can even go to 100g of proteins which is ideal, but that's pretty hard with a veg diet.
   2. Fats: Even though fats get bad rep, they are essential. 20%-30% of your calories should come from fat. That implies 300-400 Kcal coming from fats, implying 40g - 50g of fat per day. Target 1g of fat per kg of weight. So, for 60 Kg adult, that's 60 g of fat intake, implying 500 KCal coming from fat.
   3. Carbs: Whatever calories are remaining comes from carbs. 40%-60% of calories should come from carbs. From our ex of 1500 KCal requirement, about 800 kCal came from protein+fat, so remaining 700-800 kCal should come from carbs, implying about 200 g of carbs in your diet. If you go to 100g of protein intake per day, then you can lower your carbs even further < 200 g.  
      • Fiber: Within carbs, we have fiber, which we need in our food. Recommended value is 30g fiber/day.

Meals:

• Breakfast: Try to get a heavy breakfast, as it keeps full for longer, and gets completely burnt. A typical breakfast that I take is shown below. It gives around 50g of protein and 800 KCal energy in the morning meal, which provides around 80% of protein requirement and 50% of energy requirement for the day. We also took about 100g of carbs and 
  • Bread + Peanut butter: Get 2 bread slices with peanut butter (PB) on it. This gives 450KCal with 20 g protein. Bread is rich in carb, while PB is rich in fat.
    • Bread: I take 2 slices of HEB "Essential grains" whole wheat bread (some with 7 and some with 12 multi grains are available). You should take a bread which has at least 5g of protein and 3 g of fiber per slice. 2 slices are 100 g, with 250 Kcal (carbs=50g, protein=10g, fat=2g => Calories =60*4+2*9=250kCal). 6g of fiber is present too.
    • Peanut butter (PB): 2 tablespoon of PB is 30g with 200 Kcal (fat=15g, protein=8g, carb=7g => Calories =15*9+15*4=200kCal). 2g of fiber is present too.
  • Milk + Protein powder: Drink a glass of milk (another 8g of protein in one glass) with Protein powder (1 scoop is around 20g of protein) in it. This gives 200KCal with 30 g protein.
    • Milk: 1 glass of low fat (1%) milk (250 ml) will will give you around 100 kCal (carbs=10g, protein=10g, fat=3g => Calories =20*4+3*9=100kCal).
    • Protein Powder (PP): I take 1 tablespoon of "ON Whey PP", which is 32g and provides 120KCal  (carbs=4g, protein=24g, fat=1g => Calories =28*4+1*9=120kCal). PP is mostly all protein source and nothing else. 
  • Nuts: If possible, add few nuts to your breakfast. 10 nuts will give you about 5g of protein. 
  • Banana: 1 banana will add about 100 kCal (carbs=25g, protein=1g, fat=0.5g => Calories =25*4=100kCal). 
• Lunch: For a vegetarian Indian diet, lunch comprises mostly of rice and curry. Rice is mostly carbs, roti and curries. I don't count too much on protein intake in home made curries, roti, etc. I assume you get at least 10-20 g of protein, bringing the total to 60 g of protein per day.
  • Rice:
  • Tofu
• Dinner: For a vegetarian Indian diet, dinner comprises mostly of roti and curry. 
  • Roti (Wheat flour)
  • Paneer curry: 
• Total: Total for the 3 meals turns out to be about 1800 kCal = 800 kCal () + 

Diet/Food:

Below are common food items along with their content:

1. Milk: Milk is produced by mammary glands of animals, and as such has lot of nutrients to support health of babies. Dairy milk is milk collected from farm animals, mostly cattle. Initially, humans didn't have the ability to digest mammal milk as adults, as milk contained lactose. An enzyme, lactase was needed to digest lactose, which was present in high levels in small intestine of babies immediately after birth but declined as babies grew. However a chance mutation 1000's of yrs back enabled production of lactase in adults, and we started consuming this milk directly. Before that humans converted milk to curd, cheese, etc to consume as those had lower levels of lactose. 
   1. Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk
   2. Production/Consumption: About 1B Ton of milk from 300M cows produced every year (~4000L/cow per year or 10L-15L ($10-$15 in milk assuming price of $1/L) per day per cow. That gives a total of $1T in milk production/consumption per yr around the world. Assuming 7B ppl, each person consumes ~0.5 litres of milk (or equiv dairy products) per day. About 1B ppl live in dairy farming households (10% of population). India is the largest producer and consumer of milk in world. It produced 200MT, followed by USA at 100MT. Cow and Buffalo milk are produced in largest quantity, with India and US producing 100MT and 90MT of cow milk, and India and Pakistan producing 90MT and 40MT buffalo milk. Goat milk is 3rd most produced milk with India and Bangladesh producing 6MT and 3MT. Milk yields per cow are highest in Israel at 12,000L/cow per yr, while India is pretty low at 1000L/cow per yr.
   3. Nutritional value: The values vary depending on src of milk, i.e human milk, cow milk, buffalo milk, etc.  Milk is about 90% water. Cow milk is thinner with 88% water, while buffalo milk is only 81% water. Apart from water, cow milk contain 4% each of fat, carb and protein, while buffalo milk contains 8% fat, and slightly more protein content. Unaltered milk with full fat content is called "whole milk". Milk is sold in reduced fat content too, where fat is reduced by 50% (instead of 4% fat, milk has 2% fat, and is sold as 2% milk or 50/50 milk). You'll also find 1% fat or even 0% fat (known as skimmed milk). Cow milk has roughly three times the protein content of human milk. Cow milk contains lower energy content compared to buffalo milk due to it's lower fat and more water content. 100 g of cow milk has 66kcal of energy (4*9(fat)+4*4(carb)+4*4(protein)=68kCal/100g). So, 1 cup of milk provides about 200 kCal of energy or more than 10% of daily energy requirement. That is why low fat milk (1% fat) is better as it 20% lower calorie. Apart from macronutrients, other micronutrients found are Vit D, Calcium, Potassium, Chloesterol, etc. There's no iron in milk.
      1. Protein: Cow milk has 20% whey protein and 80% casein protein. 
   4. Byproducts of milk: A lot of other things are derived from milk as yogurt, cheese, paneer, ghee, etc. These are more condensed form of milk, where water content is greatly reduced.
      1. Yogurt: 1 liter of milk makes about 2/3 kg of yogurt. So, if you prepare yogurt yourself at home, a gallon of milk will yield about 3 kg of yogurt, which is 3X cheaper. Never understood, why is there such a big differential in price b/w milk and yogurt, when buying yogurt from grocery stores. Make your own yogurt in 30 minutes, and save $10/month easily. Also, market yogurt has lots of added sugar (about 8%) to make it more appealing, which ruins the purpose of eating yogurt for health benefits. 
         • Steps to make your own yogurt => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxQdEl4EKk4
         • Nutritional Value: Yougurt is almost same as milk, rhough more dense, so whole yogurt also has almost same content as whole milk -  88% water and 4% each of fat, carb and protein (though more protein content at expense of fat and carbs). 1 Kg yogurt has 1 g calcium, 1 g Phosporus and 0.5g sodium. The bacteria that turn milk into yogurt digest the sugar (lactose) in milk and produce lactic acid, which is what gives yogurt its tart tang, this results in about 20%-50% of lactose than what is found in milk. Calcium and other minerals may also be reduced, if yogurt fermented for longer. Yogurt has probiotics due to bacteria and Vit B12. The most important nutrient missing from Yogurt is Vit D, which is present in milk
         • Greek Yogurt: This is another variation of regular yogurt, where whey and water, along with sugars such as lactose are removed from strained yogurt leading to more conc profile of nutrients in greek yogurt. It has 2X the protein of regular yogurt, and has become very popular among ppl eating healthier food. 
      2. Paneer (Indian Cheese): Paneer is made from milk, and though it looks like cheese, it is slightly different. 1 liter of milk will produce 200 g of paneer. Milk has 88% water and 4% each of fat, protein and carbs. Since 500 g milk makes 100g paneer, and paneer has 55% water, so in 100g paneer, 55 g is water, 2g-4g is carb and fat/protein are 20g each. So, paneer has very low carb (2%), and very high protein and fat content (20%) compared to milk. PAneer is considered very low carb and high protein food. Ideally all carb/fat/protein should be 20 g each in 500g of milk, and all of them should have retained in the paneer, but the process of conversion gets rid of almost all of lactose (carb) in milk. 100 g of paneer has 300kcal of energy (4*4(carb)+20*9(fat)+20*4(protein)=300kCal/100g).  
         1. So, 1 gallon of milk (~$4) should produce 700 g of paneer, or about $5/kg. Again, the price of paneer in grocery stores is 2X-3X higher than comparable milk price. Paneer sells for $5/lb -$8/lb or avg of $15/kg in American grocery stores as HEB, Costco, etc. Indian grocery stores sell it even higher. 
      3. Ghee: Ghee is also made from milk. It's another form of butter, and remains in solid/liquid form. Instead of preparing it from milk, you can buy butter quartz (unsalted) from American grocery stores, and melt them to make ghee. 4 of such 1 quartz blocks (costing about $3*4=$12) make about 2 litres of Ghee, while grocery stores sell it for 2X price.
         1. Nutritional Value: Ghee is almost same as butter, consisting entirely of fat, as all solids have been removed (inc protein and carbs) from butter. 2/3 is sat fat, while 1/3 is unsat fat. It has no lactose, as it has no carbs, hence suitable for ppl with lactose intolerance. It should be taken in moderation, as it's caloric value is pretty. Just a teaspoon of ghee (15g) will provide 150 Kcal.
2. Egg: Eggs have been consumed as food for millions of years. Most common is chicken eggs. Hens may live upto 10 year, but their peak egg laying age is from 1-3 years, where they lay 1 egg/day (200-300 eggs per year) under optimal conditions. By age 5 to 6, they stop laying eggs. In 2023, 90M tons of eggs were produced from about 9B hens (9B*200*50g=90B kg of eggs/yr). Each egg costs ~10 cents, so 2T Eggs (9B*200) cost about $200B per year, about 1/5th of milk's contribution to GDP. China is the largest producer of eggs at 1/3 of world production, followed by distant US and India at 8% and 5% respectively.
   1. Nutritional value: 100 g of egg contains following: water=75g, proteins=13g, fat=10g, carbs=1g (cholesterol=0.3g). It has 18 different amino acids, and various minerals and vitamins. It has 150 kcal per 100g. Since a medium egg is around 50g in weight, it has 6g of protein and 5 g of fat which is about 75 kcal (6*4+5*9+1*4=75 Kcal). Egg white is primarily water (88%), more protein and no cholesterol. Egg yolk (the center yellow part) has all the cholesterol and fat, and as such was considered not so healthy. However, research has found no evidence of this for people who consume about 1 egg a day. Consuming too many eggs a day may cause diabetes and other cardiovascular issues, though research is not conclusive. Better to stick with no more than 2 egg per day.
3. Banana: Bananas are a staple fruit consumed in all parts of world almost on a daily basis. They are sweet and have 100 Kcal each. They have lot of carbs at 25g, with much lower protein at 1g, and low fat at 0.5g. They are rich in Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C, and also rich in  minerals as Manganese, Potassium and Magnesium. Being sweet, ppl with diabetes should limit these. Eating 1 banana a day is very beneficial for health.
   1. Link => https://www.realsimple.com/what-happens-when-you-eat-a-banana-every-day-11901308
4. Rice: Rice is a staple 

Proteins:

A more detailed section on Proteins is in "Biology" section. Brief summary is again presented here.

Proteins are needed for body to build muscles. Proteins is in larger amount in meat products, but not so much in plant based products. So, for vegetarians, the big source of Proteins comes from dairy based products as milk, yogurt, cheese. For vegans, even dairy products are off the menu, so they have even limited things to fulfill their protein requirement.  It's also in lentils, beans, tofu etc for vegetarian and vegans out there. Our body needs massive amounts of protein to help build and maintain muscles. At a bare minimum, our body needs 0.5 g of protein per lb of weight or 1 g of protein per kg of body weight. Most people around 60 kg of weight need minimum of 60g of protein per day. Basically every year you need to consume about 20Kg of Protein, which is 1/3 of your body weight. This is huge amount of protein, and that's needed just to maintain what you have !!

Link below states 0.8g to 1.2g of protein per kg of body weight. Very active people as body builders, marathon runners may go up to max of 2g of protein per kg of body weight but that's the upper limit. Too much protein may put stress on your kidneys as the by product from protein breakdown is Nitrogen which needs to be excreted out via kidneys.

Link => https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-truth-about-protein-how-to-get-enough-at-every-age

However, new guidelines recommend 1.2g-1.6g of protein per kg of body weight. Link => https://www.npr.org/2026/03/30/nx-s1-5750384/protein-intake-grams-food-how-much

NOTE: for protein to work effectively in your body, you need to have both => exercise as well as protein intake. I would suggest taking at least 1.2g protein per kg of body weight, along with 30 min of exercise per day.

I'm listing below Protein products for a vegetarian diet:

Plants don't have too much protein. Each cup size serving may have max of 2g protein, which isn't going to suffice for your body, no matter how much plant you eat. Here are top vegetables rich in protein => https://www.self.com/story/high-protein-vegetables

Beans are another option for vegetarians, but lot of beans do cause gas and bloating (you might have heard that before from your elders).

Protein based supplements: You will have to supplement with Protein supplements. One of the most popular ones is whey protein. ON whey protein may be had for $10/lb (or $20/kg), which is a good price. It will cost you < $1/day in protein supplement, which is one of the best investments in your body.

 Isolate usually has higher protein concentration, but online videos claim there's not much difference b/w isolate and concentrate. FIXME ...

Calcium:

Calcium is needed for bone development, and 1.2g per day is the recommended amount. Basically you need to consume 1/2 KG of calcium every year, which is a lot of calcium. At one time, you should take < 0.5g of calcium, and that too with a meal, so that your body can effectively absorb it. Vitamin D and magnesium help your body better absorb calcium. Calcium supplements usually have Vitamin D in them, so taking 1 tablet a day will suffice for most people, as 0.6mg of Calcium comes from supplement, and other 0.6g comes from diet (milk, dairy products, vegetables, fish).

Walgreens Calcium supplement costs 1 cent/tablet. Regular price is $20 for 500 tablets, but most of the time it's BOGO offer, along with 20% off sale code, and WAG cash (i.e $10 WAG cash on $25 purchase). This results in cost around 1 cent/tablet. It contains 600 mg Calcium as calcium carbonate + 20 mcg (800 IU) Vitamin D, so 1 tablet/day will suffice. Link => https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-calcium-600-mg---vitamin-d3-20-mcg-(800-iu)-tablets-(500-days)/ID=300438454-product

You shouldn't exceed 2g of calcium per day, as that can lead to stress on kidneys, condition of too much calcium in blood (called hypercalcemia) and other possible risks.  => https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/calcium-supplements/art-20047097

Vitamins:

vitamin C: 

Vitamin D:

Vitamin B12: Very essential

Deals: 

2025:

01/03/2025: Amazon Dymatize whey protein for $42 (5 lb)

This is cheaper than Costco, but brand is different. Also, it's concentrate and NOT isolate, which usually has slightly lower protein content. People like their Isolate version. This is cheaper than even Costco ON Whey protein, but this price is only for 1st S&S order.

https://slickdeals.net/f/18036396-5-lbs-dymatize-elite-100-whey-protein-powder-chocolate-42-13-w-s-s-free-shipping

2024:

12/26/2024: Costco ON whey protein for $49 (5.5 lb) in store => expires 01/20/2025

Costco has 5.5 lb (2.5Kg) ON whey protein isolate for $55 online and $49 in store.  Prices are lowest for buying in store. It's 5.47 lb for Vanilla flavor, and 5.64 lb for Chocolate flavor, but both of them have same protein 24g per scoop. Vanilla has 24g protein per 31g, while Chocolate has 24g protein per 32g. Either way, price is < $20/kg which is as low as it can get. So load up.

https://slickdeals.net/f/18002616-costco-members-5-64-lbs-optimum-nutrition-gold-100-whey-protein-powder-55-free-shipping

UPDATE 03/20/2025: Amazon has the vanilla flavor for $93 (with 5% S&S discount) for 10 lb bag ($9.30/lb). This is still more expensive than costco, as costco is $49 for 5.5lbs ($9/lb). Only If you get 4 more items and get the S&S discount to 10% bringing total down to $87, it'll be able to beat costco price. Good thing is that there's an extra 5% on Chase cards starting Apr 1 (for their next quarter), so you can have the delivery set for mid Apr, so that you can get this additional 5% off.

Link => https://slickdeals.net/f/18190279-10-lb-optimum-nutrition-gold-standard-100-whey-protein-powder-vanilla-ice-cream-93-22-w-s-s-free-shipping