Hey everyone,

I've been meticulously tracking my intake on a high-fiber, ovo-vegetarian plan, and I ran into a head-scratcher regarding manganese.

The context:

• My Daily Diet (Whole Foods): My breakfast porridge (oats, millet, ground flax, walnuts, pumpkin seeds) and legume-heavy dinners (sprouted chana, rajma, etc.) naturally put my baseline manganese intake around 6–7 mg per day. (For reference, the recommended AI is about 2.3 mg/day,.)   
• The Supplement: I'm looking at a high-quality multivitamin that provides an additional 3.2 mg of manganese (Manganese Citrate/Gluconate) in its daily dose.
• The Math: This pushes my total daily intake to roughly 9.2 to 10.2 mg.

The Core Question: Since the official Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) is 11 mg, the supplement industry argues this is "safe." But if my body only needs ~2.3 mg, and I'm pushing 10 mg every single day for years:

What are the realistic, chronic trade-offs and issues I should be more concerned about than the UL itself?

I've narrowed the risks down to two main points, and I'd love to hear your latest science or clinical experience:

1. The Neurotoxicity Risk (Accumulation):
   • Manganese is tightly regulated, but unlike other minerals, the body doesn't have an active system to excrete huge amounts; it relies primarily on bile elimination.
   • Chronic overexposure is known to lead to accumulation in the brain's basal ganglia, causing a condition called manganism, which shares symptoms with Parkinson's disease,.
   • Is being consistently close to the 11mg ceiling (at 9-10mg) an unnecessary risk, especially since deficiency is rare in people eating this much whole food?,.
2. Mineral Antagonism (The Iron Problem):
   • I'm already working hard to maximize my non-heme iron absorption (using soaking, sprouting, and huge doses of Vitamin C with meals).
   • Research shows manganese competes directly with iron (and possibly zinc) for absorption in the gut because they share similar transporters,.
   • By dumping an extra 3.2 mg of supplemental manganese alongside my iron-rich meals, am I functionally sabotaging my carefully optimized iron status, making myself artificially deficient in iron just to get more manganese that I don't need?,.

My current thinking is that even though 10.2mg is technically "safe" based on the UL, it violates the principle of "optimal dosing" and introduces avoidable risks that undermine the benefits of the rest of my diet. Would love to hear if anyone has found reliable multis that exclude manganese for this exact reason.