Maintaining vitamins and supplements while on the road

Vitamins

As any health conscious person may know, it’s actually pretty hard to get all of the essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs from food alone. Even for the most health conscious person, it is still a difficult task. So how do you maintain a proper intake of vitamins while traveling?

While I’ve moved countries several times, or lived between 2 countries for an extended period, I’ve never been on the road perpetually for longer than about 8 weeks. At home in Europe or the States, stocking up on vitamins is as easy as taking a trip to the local pharmacy or grocery store. The most difficult hurdle to restocking your vitamin supply is perhaps a stumbling language barrier. But what do you do when you’re backpacking across Asia for 6 months? Hitting the road with provisions for that long of a time would create a ridiculous burden. Especially if your vitamins aren’t sold in tiny pill-size caplets, but in liquid form, sold in glass bottles the size of a small juice box like they are popularly in Korea.

I feel, perhaps with some bias, that this issue pertains to women perhaps slightly more heavily than men. Calcium, for example, is essential to women who are taking a birth control supplement. I don’t recommend women take to the road without an adequate back up of their preferred birth control, but an equal supply of calcium is just as essential to one’s long term health when taking a hormone-based contraceptive. Why bring one without the necessary counterpart? What about those women who need a monthly artillery of B vitamins and iron on top of calcium?

Our concerns for long-term health shouldn’t go out the window or take a backseat simply because we’re hitting the road for a couple of months. However, it can be difficult to make room for things like vitamins and supplements in our baggage. Does it mean taking out that extra camera equipment? Shouldering a heavier load?

Where do you find your supplements while on the road? And how do you manage the inconvenience?

(image credit: affiliatedphysicians.net)

Posted by | Comments (8)  | July 12, 2010
Category: Female Travelers, On The Road, Travel Health


8 Responses to “Maintaining vitamins and supplements while on the road”

  1. Renato Says:

    Interesting post. Maybe the question should be, do you need those pills in the first place? “Stocking up on vitamins is as easy as taking a trip to the local pharmacy or grocery store” might actually be the problem. And a good thing if you cannot do it (yet?) everywhere in the world.

    If you have any specific need to me it should be considered as any other treatment/condition (supply before, know in advance where you can have them) but if you are helthy enough I don’t really see the point on running to the pharmacy or grocery for some “vitamins”. Just go the local market and enjoy some fresh food.

    Best,

    Renato

  2. Colleen Wilde Says:

    Right Renato. But, calcium is necessary to prevent bone spurring in women who take a hormone-based contraceptive, so yes we do need these pills in the first place, as your family doctor will tell you.
    And stocking up on vitamins is only as easy as going to the local pharmacy or grocery store “in Europe and the States”, but what about other parts of the world? Should people avoid these parts of the world? Why shouldn’t these areas have the same availability to supplements as the US and Europe?
    No matter how fresh the food, it’s difficult to balance a nutritional intake given the needs of one’s lifestyle. One’s road health is a very important element to one’s long-term health and also the quality of their travels.

  3. Renato Says:

    Hello Colleen.

    Never wrote that you should avoid those parts of the world or don’t take any pill with you.

    If (note the “if”) you need for whatever reason a supplement (calcium, etc), it’s nothing different than planning for other medicines and pills when travelling. If I need yxz tablets (for whatever condition I have) I carry them with me or check in advance where/if I can find them along the way. Sometime I buy them before, sometime not.

    What I question is that a “health conscious person” has to take pills and supplements when travelling. If U cannot fit those supplements in the luggage, well I mshould double check if possibly the issue is not the luggage…

    Best

    Renato

  4. Rebecca Says:

    You could always take a supply of vitamins and supplements with you. If you’re in Europe and are close to running out, go to the local pharmacy and stock up. Don’t forget that you can get nutrients from foods. Eat fresh fruit and veggies. Stay away from ‘junk foods’ when you travel and when you’re at home 🙂

  5. Susi Says:

    I always use my pill boxes by the day. I have 3 weeks worth so they last a long time. However – I would highly recommend keeping these in my purse as I have had them dumped out into my suitcase by inspectors who must have slipped and/or been in a hurry.

  6. Colleen Wilde Says:

    @Renato: Thanks for the commentary. I wouldn’t say that health conscious people *have* to take vitamins, though many of us do choose to do so. The question is where to find them in remote places and how to balance the burden in our luggage.

    @Susi: That’s a really good idea! I would imagine you can fit a lot of supplements into those, and it likely packs down better than what I use – refilling large vitamin bottles with an assortment of what I take. Great suggestion!

  7. Paul Says:

    I think that the first comment had the right of it… do we really need these supplements, and if you are needing to pack so many that it’s interfering with your ability to carry such things as cameras, you need to seriously look at your diet.

    I believe a diet full of fruits and veg and scattering of meats will easily supply the dietary requirements of the vast majority. Perhaps if you’re taking medication or other drugs you may need to “top-up” on a particular mineral, but it should by no means interfere with your packing allowance.

  8. Mela Says:

    You’re having problems stocking up on vitamins and minerals from Asia? You’re probably not in SE Asia, yet. You don’t need all those pills at all! Fruits and vegetables are always fresh and herbal supplements are abundant! Don’t be scared of oriental Chinese medicine and formulas because I am telling you, they DO work.