Current targets

• Algal DHA source? Cheaper and stabler than gel caps?
• Bit less coconut next time. Too sweet. Less palatinose next time. More fat to balance?
• Corn flour might be sensible new carb source
• Play with flax vs almond vs coconut until omega 3:6 ratios, values and fat balance is closer to whatever passes for a target, my gut seems happy, I like the flavour and texture
• Consider sourcing brown rice flour – similar fibre and a bit less manganese and iron than oats – would increase carb variety (vs dominant palatinose) as well as being a different protein source to whey (achieved with rice protein)
• Obtain complete nutritional tables/certificates of analysis where possible. Micronutrients aren't included in many of the labels for the macro ingredients.

Directions

1. Prepare several days worth of the dry mix (i.e. excluding the fish oil gel cap) in advance using the calculator above
2. For one meal (1/3 of the daily dose) put a pint of water in a blender with the fruit/flavourings of your choice
3. Add 149g of the dry ingredient mix and blitz for 30s
4. Stick one fish oil gel cap in your mouth and one Omnium in your mouth fur the first two meals of the day (so you get 3x fish oil and 2x Omnium each day)
5. Chug chug chug

Objectives

1. Use high quality mutlivitamins – in this case the widely available and well regarded [(according to this and this anyway)] Solgar Omnium tablets – to increase confidence in nutritional completeness, to deliver a few nutrients that I (as a pharmacologist) believe in, such as N-acetyl cysteine, and to deliver a bunch of phytonutrients for some of which there is a fair degree of support
2. Include a fish oil source to get some EPA/DHA into the mix rather than relying on conversion of ALA
3. Tailor the recipe to my needs. I want an 1800 calorie/day intake to hit my diet goals and a lot of fibre because my family has a cholesterol issue, and also achiev appropriate nutrition for a lightly active 188cm 38-year old
4. Aim for a roughly 50:30:20 carb:fat:protein calorie ratio. Lots of DIY recipes have heavily distorted ratios that will surely put undue stress on our systems
5. Replace liquid oil with ground seeds, mostly to simplify mixing up the drink and limit mess, but also because of a general desire to move towards natural sources, increase the range of fibre sources, and hopefully bag a few more phytonutrients

Nutrition notes

• Solgar Omnium contains 60mg NE (Niacin Equivalents) as nicotinamide which has a much higher daily upper limit 900mg in adults) than when taken as nicotinic acid (35mg)
• Solgar Omnium contains 15,000 IU as beta-carotene, for which there is no established upper limit - the body fingers to vitamin A according to its needs and there is insufficient evidence for toxicity associated with too much beta carotene intake
• Lowering LDL cholesterol is an aim for this recipe (so following general principles laid out in e.g. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013) so fibre (esp. oat fibre Nutr Rev. 2011 review) intake is set deliberately high but not all the way up to National Academy of Sciences 38g/day recommendation! Will modulate until dietary stress, flatlulence etc are all in hand – will be an evolving target through the releases.

Background

I enjoyed Liquid Cake 1.3 (it really is pretty tasty) but didn't like high protein and sulphur loads. Synectar is much more balanced and I could probably stick with it easily enough but I was having a few minor digestive issues with it (maybe because it relies on a lot of oil - 75gday). Also, I have a general distrust of cheap multivitamins such as the ubiquitous Kirkland ones that many recipes including these are based on. Although Kirkland and other cheap multivits meet the RDA target values, the formulations and individual ingredients used don't support sufficient bioavailability to deliver all of those nutrients into the bloodstream at RDA levels.

After tapering in Liquid Cake and then Synectar over a fortnight (until I was at 5/6 Synectar vs regular food) I found that I was having trouble with energy levels and having very mild headaches. May not have been related to inadequate nutrition – could be a result of the calorie-restricted diet kicking in, not enough sleep, stress... who knows... but whatever – I wanted to have a crack at making my own recipe so got started on the above.

Release notes

Fish Sood v0.1 uses rapeseed oil, which has a good omega 3:6 ratio and is very inexpensive.

To simplify formulation Fish Sood v0.2 replaces the oil with flaxseed, which also has a good omega 3:6 ratio and presumably numerous helpful phytonutrients but does increase the cost.

Fish Sood v0.3 replaced some flaxseed with almond butter to:

1. raise omega-6 into a ~4:1 ratio with omega-3 (per Japanese guidelines – no compelling evidence here but let's go with the great (pre-junk food revolution) CVD profile in that population)
2. decrease fibre load associated with so much flaxseed
3. decrease manganese load associated with so much oats
4. increase variety of carb, protein and fat sources Coconut flour added for most of the same reasons - it has no polyunsaturated fats, so brings down that value and has no effect on omega ratios, but instead is entirely medium chain saturated fatty acids, which may help with weight loss.(J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015 meta-analyses, J Am Coll Nutr. 2015 meta-analyses) Unexpected benefit: coconut and almond are much cheaper than flaxseed so brings cost down almost £1/day!