Gain HP: A Fitness Adventure - Tonics (Supplements)

Certainly not for everyone, tonics can be found in many item shops across the kingdom. Most of them bare the labels of amazing mystical powers, but the truth of the matter is that most of these potions and pills are either placebos or potential for poisoning your character. You should understand that Gain HP is not and will not ever be responsible for your choice to take any type of vitamin, supplement, or herbal product. Every body is different, so please consult your doctor before trying anything new. And remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it most certainly is.

I do not condone use of magical “weight loss” formulas or items, but I do promote responsible use of vitamins and proper supplements. I will also attempt to educate you on the worst of the worst when it comes to scams and dangerous gambles in pill form just in case you were hoping to visit your local Witch or Shaman in hopes of instant results.

A typical, herb-selling, snake-in-the-grass Shaman. Also known as the last boss in Ninja Gaiden.

Vitamins? While not guaranteed to help level up your character faster, they will make it easier for you to control the body and mind while going about your adventure. Not every player gets the adequate amount of certain types of minerals and dietary ingredients, so I do have a few recommendations for you to bring up your health a bit.

First of all, know that you can indeed overdose on vitamins if you’re going overboard. Only take the instructed amount per day, and don’t pile a whole bunch of pills together and top it off with a multivitamin in hopes of really boosting your body’s production of “good stuff.” You could accidentally build up excess and your character may be poisoned by a toxic slime creature. Also, never take vitamins or any other type of pill if the expiration date has passed – At the point of expiration, the medication has started to break down and is not stable anymore. Toss them and get new ones.

Multivitamins can be a good idea if your diet is all out-of-whack, but only in the instructed amount. There are many different kinds based on your gender and age range, and it’s the smartest to pick which one suits you best. If you decide to take a multivitamin, please know that the following additions are not necessarily important in general, so low doses or no doses at all are fine: Lycopene, Vitamins B and K, and fish or animal oils. In fact, you should shoot for the lowest among those supplements as possible. Many boosts in said ingredients are un-needed with proper diet. Then again, as your diet gets healthier and you proceed to normal weight, you will no longer have a need for most vitamins as you will already be receiving them from the food you eat.

Supplements? There are a few basic pieces of the puzzle that most of us aren’t receiving enough of – Calcium and Vitamin D.

Calcium. Ooooh-oh yeah-ahhh, a badass motherfucker!

Calcium is obviously important to keep good bone / tooth structure and health as well as helping the neural system and muscles. You can grab calcium from dairy products, fish, beans, dark-leafed greens, raisins, and soy beans. If you’re not getting a good amount of a mixture of these, feel free to supplement with calcium citrate or calcium lactate in an instructed amount. If taking a multivitamin, make sure you’re not already getting a good dose of calcium before adding another pill to the mix.

Vitamin D is important, and a vast majority of us do not get enough of it. That’s because you can get a nice dose of it from the sun, and most of you are raiding dark dungeons throughout most of your day (torch light does not count). To get a good dose of Vitamin D, shoot for a level of 1,000 or slightly less IUs per day. Fortified foods might also contain Vitamin D, but this is the one category where it may be easier for nerds to get their dosage from a supplement since a lot of our blood levels are almost completely untouched by the sun’s presence. Two bits of warning, however – as with calcium, make sure that your multivitamin doesn’t already contain adequate Vitamin D to avoid taking too much. Also, some calcium supplements already contain Vitamin D boosters because they work hand in hand in the body. Read your labels!

A lot of people think Vitamin C pills are an amazing cold fighter, or that taking a whole lot can prevent symptoms from happening in the first place, but don’t believe the hype. There’s not much evidence of either. Vitamin C is a good thing to have around if you’re not getting a lot of it in your diet, sure, but never ever will you need to go over 1,000 milligrams per day. Instead of gulping one of these pills every day, try eating a good amount of broccoli, oranges, grapefruits, peppers, pineapples, strawberries, tomatoes, papayas, peaches, or melons.

A fish. While it looks goofy and disgusting, it provides good nutrition.

Are you a female adventurer of childbearing age? Make sure you’re getting 100% of your daily recommended dose of Folate or Folic Acid through your foods or multivitamin. It will lessen the chance of birth defects, especially spina bifida.

Remember this above all else: Supplements are just that – supplemental things. They are there to step in for vitamins and minerals you aren’t normally getting, and in are no way to be considered a better idea than just getting the nutrients you should from a healthy diet.

As far as herbals go in the dietary department, beware, hero! Several of these can make you lose weight, sure, but the vast majority of it is water weight. That means it dehydrates you and forces the water from your body. This completely becomes useless as you gain the weight immediately back after stopping these pills or having a normal day of drinking liquids. The other portion of these herbal weight loss products are only appetite suppressants. That means it forces your body to not think it’s hungry when it actually is. That might sound useful, but they are very habit-forming, mess with other areas of your body’s systems, and you will start gaining weight again just as soon as you stop taking the pills. In short, weight loss pills not only work very short-term, but they are nothing but harmful.

And now, without further ado, a list of ingredients to watch out for. If you see these, please don’t hesitate to drop your sword, shield, warhammer, or bow to flail your arms whilst running away. Some of these ingredients have been proven nothing but harmful to the average person, some are passable for the average yet randomly lethal to some people, and some are just additional bullshit that does absolutely nothing but build up in your bellies: