Summer Essentials: Best Supplements for Active Living

Summer Essentials: Best Supplements for Active Living

One of the main themes that show up in many of our lives during the summer is activity. Whether you’re juggling a packed work, sports, and social schedule or trying to up your fitness game this summer you’re going to need optimal nutrition. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of nutrients that can help fuel your focus, energy, and general wellness as you power through the days. In addition to optimizing your diet, we’ve gathered 5 supplements for an active summer lifestyle below. 

1. Greens Powders

Greens powders can be a valuable addition to an active lifestyle, providing a convenient source of essential nutrients that support overall health and performance. By nature, greens are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients that your body needs to thrive.1

In a convenient supplemental form, greens powders allow for a concentrated way to obtain these benefits to boost energy levels, enhance immune function, and reduce inflammation. Plus, greens powders tend to include more than just leafy greens, such as fruits, herbs, prebiotics and probiotics, digestive enzymes, and fiber sources. 

For example, our Raw Greens Superfood Powder, Organic Superfood Blend is a ready-to-drink mix designed to support healthy aging, immune health, energy, and a healthy stress response. It comes in wild berry or unsweetened and unflavored varieties, depending on your preference. 

2. Protein Powder

Protein is an essential nutrient for overall health and everyday functions, but protein needs increase to support active lifestyles and body composition goals. For instance, protein is essential for muscle repair and growth, recovery after a workout, reducing muscle soreness and fatigue, and increasing satiety to help prevent overeating.2 

Protein can be found in foods like meat, fish, dairy, nuts, seeds, and legumes. Sometimes it’s also helpful to boost your intake with the addition of a convenient protein powder. These can be derived from either dairy sources like whey and casein or plant-based sources to offer a quick solution. 

Consider our Organic Protein Plant-Based Powder which is made from a protein blend of peas and brown rice and provides 22 grams of protein per scoop with no added sugar. 

3. Probiotics

Probiotics are “friendly” bacteria in your gut microbiome, the community of microbes that live and thrive throughout your digestive tract. A growing body of evidence shows that having a healthy gut microbiome is linked to overall well-being, including improved mood, brain function, and immunity.3

Regular physical activity can sometimes alter the balance of gut bacteria.4 One way to help promote an optimal balance of healthy vs harmful bacteria in your gut is to increase your intake of fiber from plant foods and natural probiotics from fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, and kefir. Another option is to take supplemental probiotics. 

Our Vegan Probiotic Supplement with 50 Billion CFU and 11 Researched Probiotic Strains is designed to help repopulate your gut with friendly bacteria. They are delayed-release capsules, which help protect probiotics from stomach acids and deliver them safely to your gut, where they go to work.

4. Iron

Iron is needed for transporting oxygen throughout your body, which is essential for energy production and muscle function during physical activity. Maintaining adequate iron levels helps prevent fatigue and support endurance by ensuring that muscles receive sufficient oxygen supply.

Iron can be found naturally in things like meat, poultry, legumes, nuts, seeds, and iron-fortified foods. Note that supplemental iron isn’t appropriate for everyone as getting too much can be problematic for your health, but certain groups, like menstruating female athletes, may benefit from a little extra.5

If supplemental iron makes sense for your needs, our Vegan Iron Supplement with Vitamin C may be a good option. The addition of vitamin C has been shown to help boost absorption of plant-based (non-heme) iron.6 

5. Zinc

Zinc is an essential trace mineral involved in metabolism, protein synthesis, and immune function. It also supports muscle recovery and repair through its involvement in making proteins and enzymes. You can find zinc in foods like nuts, seeds, seafood, poultry, eggs, and whole grains. 

There’s no evidence that exceeding the established daily requirements for zinc has benefits. However, if you’re regularly engaging in strenuous exercise this summer, you may have a higher risk of not getting enough zinc, and a supplement may make sense for your lifestyle.7

Our Whole Food Vegan Zinc Complex Supplement combines 35 mg zinc as zinc citrate with vitamin C from organic acerola cherry extract, plus an organic vegetable blend with whole foods like asparagus, beets, green peas, broccoli, and spinach that typically contain naturally occurring zinc.

Leveraging Supplements for Success this Summer 

If you’re leading an extra-active lifestyle this summer, you may benefit from adding a few supplements to complement your healthy diet. While you’re enjoying the outdoors, traveling, or training for your next athletic event, be sure to continue prioritizing the important nutrients your body needs to thrive. See the rest of our summer supplement line-up here.

Sources

  1. Ayaz A, Zaman W, Radák Z, Gu Y. Green strength: The role of micronutrients in plant-based diets for athletic performance enhancement. Heliyon. 2024;10(12):e32803. Published 2024 Jun 12. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32803
  2. Cintineo HP, Arent MA, Antonio J, Arent SM. Effects of Protein Supplementation on Performance and Recovery in Resistance and Endurance Training. Front Nutr. 2018;5:83. Published 2018 Sep 11. doi:10.3389/fnut.2018.00083
  3. de Vos WM, Tilg H, Van Hul M, Cani PD. Gut microbiome and health: mechanistic insights. Gut. 2022;71(5):1020-1032. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326789
  4. Tzemah Shahar R, Koren O, Matarasso S, Shochat T, Magzal F, Agmon M. Attributes of Physical Activity and Gut Microbiome in Adults: A Systematic Review. Int J Sports Med. 2020;41(12):801-814. doi:10.1055/a-1157-9257
  5. Pedlar CR, Brugnara C, Bruinvels G, Burden R. Iron balance and iron supplementation for the female athlete: A practical approach. Eur J Sport Sci. 2018;18(2):295-305. doi:10.1080/17461391.2017.1416178
  6. Moustarah F, Daley SF. Dietary Iron. [Updated 2024 Jan 8]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK540969/
  7. Hernández-Camacho JD, Vicente-García C, Parsons DS, Navas-Enamorado I. Zinc at the crossroads of exercise and proteostasis. Redox Biol. 2020;35:101529. doi:10.1016/j.redox.2020.101529

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