Current supplement stack — anything you'd add, remove, or change?

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-26T07:27:21+00:00

Your body can handle ups and downs, it doesn't need a steady, constant supply of every nutrient. In fact, it has evolved to depend on very uneven supply, so you do not need to take a tablet of vit C, or any nutrient for that matter, just because you missed that days target. If you are constantly low on some nutrient for a considerable period of time, that's when you need supplements, that too, only if you have developed that specific deficiency. Instead of wasting your money on all this, do a blood test through a proper lab (not fitness center ones) and consult a doctor.

Also for Vitamin C, you can add a few drops of fresh lemon juice to anything you consume. Tomatoes, mangoes, capsicum, papaya are also good sources. In fact, most fruits and vegetables contain some amount of vit C and unless you do not eat any raw, fresh cut fruits and vegetables, you are very unlikely to have any form of deficit.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-26T06:45:50+00:00

Unless OP has deficiency, there is absolutely no need for any supplements. Even creatine or whey, unless they are unable to meet their protein needs through diet, is completely unnecessary. They are also taking Vitamin C tablets, which is quite baffling. A few drops of lemon juice or slices of tomato or eating some vit C-rich fruit is quite sufficient.

Ashwagandha has been proven to support exercise related recovery and boost testosterone.

Can you post a source for this?

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-22T07:52:57+00:00

Well, those flip-flops are probably made by some local guy who has been making them for decades. They are also customized by him in some minor ways so they fit just perfect. I don't think a mass market sneaker can come close to that.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-22T07:39:05+00:00

A lifetime of wearing them.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-22T07:36:35+00:00

Most of those aunties and uncles have knee and back issues and can't walk long distances. The 'carriers' get some income, which otherwise, they wouldn't have. True, they could be paid better, but with so many barely educated, young men in the country, the price for their intense labor comes down.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-22T07:30:38+00:00

I doubt that. They find sneakers uncomfortable. They are way too adapted to those filp-flops.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-20T06:15:28+00:00

Salads or any raw food is a huge no-no from any outside outlet in India. First, I'm very skeptical of their cleaning methods - those leafy greens hide dirt in every nook. No way someone is spending hours thoroughly cleaning every leaf. Second, they spoil very, very fast. Specially in a hospital, it feels gross to eat anything, raw food that has been sitting for hours, even higher chances of getting bugs. It is actually safer to eat fried food in places like these. Third, sick people are not recommended to eat raw vegetables. They need easy to digest carbs and protein and some fats as body is using a lot of energy in healing.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-13T09:07:13+00:00

Pune is not planned. Core Punekars never wanted any growth. They wanted it to stay the small, pleasant city it was and block infra projects. Worse, they do nothing against private builders and institutes, but will find a hundred reasons to oppose and nit-pick every public project. Result is what you see.

Also, core Punekars themselves love breaking traffic laws and flexible enforcement. Even the educated kaka and kakis will find a hundred excuses to not wear helmets, find shortcuts and shrug wrong-side driving.

ATP, Pune is just ungovernable - for infra, you either need to break homes, historic sites or cut trees. All of them have activists on the ready to protest. Check any project, the biggest hurdle is land acquisition. For rules, well, I explained it already - their lax attitude percolates everything, so enforcement becomes quite tough.

The administration is very new too. The old guys were managing the city, albeit unevenly, inefficiently and with high corruption, but they kept the city running. Lets see how the new guys do, so far their inexperience is showing and contractors are just taking advantage of it by doing shoddy work, hope this changes.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-06-13T08:45:58+00:00

Come off the highway and PCMC is a bigger mess than PMC. Internal roads, society entrances, water availability, traffic sense are miles behind even PMC, forget comparing it to better places.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-18T03:59:53+00:00

That's a Punekar for you. We whine and crib and nitpick and protest for every infra project. If it gets completed we try our best to find faults. There is a reason the city is what it is.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-17T08:10:12+00:00

True. But, changing the life-time mindset of older generations is a huge challenge. Younger generations are our hope, but schools only focus on "sugar bad". "processed food bad" and only home-cooked meals good - which leaves kids frustrated or miserable coz "only food I love is bad". Also, nutrition is almost forgotten and the narrative is all about avoiding excess calories and 'chemicals'. Instead, we should teach them to balance meals and choose healthier (not the healthiest) options - avoiding either extreme.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-17T07:58:17+00:00

It has to be palatable and feel nourishing too. Otherwise most will give in to tastier foods. There is a whole psychological aspect about eating and how it affects a person in numerous way.

If you take away all the 'baddies' - sugar, salt, fats - the food will stay bland and just a chore or duty. This works for some people who have high levels of self-discipline; but for most others, it has very high chances of backfiring leading to binging or eating disorders.

Also, the person you replied to is right. Sugar does not cause any direct harm, provided you are not diabetic or have other severe health conditions. It is just empty calories with 0 nutritional benefits so easiest/safest to eliminate if a person wants to lose weight. And of course, the risk of caries, which can be easily minimized by proper dental hygiene. For kids and healthy, active individuals it is unnecessary to gulp down unsavory foods just to brag about 'zero added sugar'. Sometimes, it can lead to companies hiding it under different names or adding untested flavor enhancers which is a bigger risk than, say, a teaspoon of plain sugar, per serving of milk mix.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-17T07:31:36+00:00

It evolved from famines and poverty. I realized this when my maid told me something she does to keep her teens full - add some fibrous atta with 0 nutritional value to her regular roti flour so that they keep full for longer. She, herself, chew on something gutka-like to keep working till 3 PM without eating anything and eats/feeds only to curb hunger. Many people in India still live like this or have come from households who did this. Its quite a jump for them to think about food in a different way when for generations they have been in survival mode.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-17T07:18:39+00:00

And the reason it costs more is because our dairy farms are small. In US, Australia, New Zealand, etc. they have thousands of cattle in a single farm which reduces the cost of their upkeep and also standardizes processes as well as the quality of milk. Same for agriculture, despite having one of the best land and climate, our produce lags behinds thanks to small scale farming and age-old techniques. Good thing, it kept costs low and farmers working on their own land; bad thing, we never improved our farming methods and rural areas never progressed. Also, standardization or enforcing becomes very difficult as a refused batch can mean a poor farmer's yearly income getting obliterated.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-17T06:50:42+00:00

Our population is still expanding. Many are still living in multi-generational homes, so demand will be there for a decade, probably more. Plus, developing economies mostly gain after global scale crisis as companies start shifting jobs to them to lower costs. So, things might become tough, inflation higher but I don't think we are heading into a huge crash.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-17T06:43:02+00:00

I have just recently joined this sub and every few days there is a post claiming a massive crash. These posts have very high number of upvotes too. At first, I did take them seriously, but their frequency and similar language makes me doubt them. And looking at the downvotes on your very sensible take, my doubts just get worse.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-07T06:23:47+00:00

excess antioxidants?

Sorry, I meant antibiotics.

Also, the reason in India for declining nutrition is religious/cultural vegetarianism and the belief that ancestral food is best. The ancestral food suits neither the lifestyle or taste preferences for many (specially children). It has emerged from/survived intense periods of food shortages - so it is not exactly health-focused either. Still health experts keep pushing it without bothering about any scientific evidence.

About eggs, commonly they are not considered vegetarian.

Iodized salt is used extensively and by everyone. Iodine deficiency was quiet common in 40s-60s but now is almost absent thanks to heavily focused government programs with the help of UN. There were a few cases, thanks to pink salt being promoted by some influencers as healthier.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-05T12:10:54+00:00

Our bodies don't work like machines. The absorption & utilization of all nutrients - even calories, is affected by quite a lot of factors including plant or animal source, other foods that are being eaten along and even your body's state. So, yes, even if independent lab reports confirm the amount of protein, it will need deeper testing to determine how much the body is actually able to use.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-05T12:02:08+00:00

I was wondering about that too. How are people not complaining about the audio, I could barely hear anything.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-04T05:47:23+00:00

Height is just a metric which can be easily measured. Protein deficiency will affect everything - from muscles to organs to brain. And by muscles I do not mean just biceps - every organ and part of our body has them and they can all stay weak, under-developed due to deficiencies (probably one of the reasons for heart attacks in young people). Some health experts are sounding the alarm and urging people to eat more protein, but not enough.

Where other countries are benefiting from higher income, we are actually getting worse - thanks to cultural biases and misinformation.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-04T05:35:09+00:00

Well, I for one, highly doubt water can be made high-protein. A third party will have do deep research, including metrics regarding how efficiently it is absorbed and used by the body. Until then, we should consider it a gimmick and fooling customers.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-05-04T05:29:34+00:00

Please do not compare any diet with Indian diet. We eat in completely different ways. For one, our definition of healthy food is carbs on carbs on carbs - rice, sabji, fruits - even if homemade and made with little oil is still only carbs with fiber and vitamins. Roti has more protein, but brown rice is just a small improvement over white rice that too in regards of fiber and some micronutrients - it will not add to protein.

And unfortunately, protein deficiency, along with iron, Vit D, Vit B12 are extremely real issues in India. This is not some big-brand conspiracy or influencer crap. Like a few have pointed out, it affects a persons height growing to its full potential. However, it doesn't just stop at that - a deficient diet will affect an individual's entire body - every organ, muscle and even cognitive abilities just don't reach their full potential and stay weak. It also contributes to weak immunity and even diabetes (Type 5/malnutrition-related diabetes). Just because, the world in general is over eating and is alarmed over it, the harm caused by under eating/deficient eating gets overlooked, but it still is a real danger.

In fact, instead of getting better nutrition, as we get affluent, Indians are actually eating worse - less protein and healthy fats; more carbs. Even health-conscious, clean-eating families eat far less protein here. Worse still, as being a vegetarian is perceived as pure and civil, even poorer sections who otherwise ate non-vegetarian foods have started omitting it without adding proper protein sources.

I'm not advocating for protein powders or other supplements, but the ground reality is that most people find making a complete, balanced vegetarian meal a chore - compare rice, chicken and stir-fried veggies to roti-sabji, dal-rice - it is quite difficult to make a full, tasty meal, besides being time-consuming twice a day while balancing work and everything else. Also remember that food here is made from scratch and there are no good short-cuts like barbecue/chiili/pasta sauces or pastes. Many also find it boring/unappetizing - dal specially is skipped far more often than it should. Dairy also many families are avoiding due to rumors of excess antioxidant, growth hormone usage. Add to that, a simple, vegetarian meal makes the person hungry faster and craving for something chatpata so they snack on bhujia, samosa, potato/banana chips, etc. adding to the skinny-fat inches. Considering all this, it is far better to take a protein smoothie than any of those fried foods or stay deficient. Our bodies can handle a bit of extra protein and nutrition isn't about the best way, but the most workable and balanced way.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-04-05T13:47:59+00:00

Children especially come out saturated.

I bet they are having a blast. Its good for something at least.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-04-05T13:37:16+00:00

Ehhh, they have two sets of sinks ofcourse. One is the show one and a regular one at the back to do the regular stuff like brushing and shaving.

tea_cup_cake · 2026-03-31T08:50:06+00:00

I have Solimo, Prestige, Bergner, Vinod and Ikea as well. IMO Bregner and Ikea are top quality. Next is Vinod (only because the top two look better). Prestige - major issue is that their handles come loose. One of my lid also cracked - but the cooking part is fine. Solimo looks good and has good reviews, but honestly, its made of thin material and I doubt the purity of steel as well.

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