Everything you need to know about vitamins and minerals...and why it doesn't have to be so complicated!

Disclaimer: Any decision to use supplements to support your specific needs should be first made in consultation with your healthcare provider. This information is just opinion and the statements made here have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
 
“Let food be they medicine and medicine be thy food”  -Hippocrates
 
These days we’re quite lucky. Blood work can quickly identify whether we’re deficient in a particular vitamin or mineral. But things weren’t always this way…

The mystery disease
Take the example of sailors a few hundred years ago. It’s believed that approximately 1 in every 2 sailors died from a mysterious disease each time they set sail. Mind you, these were strong healthy men prior to setting off. But once aboard, their symptoms began. Their gums would start bleeding, skin changed color, teeth and hair would fall out, their eyes would bulge out and infections took hold easily. As you may have guessed, these are not your typical symptoms of seasickness!
 
Oddly enough, the sailors that partook in consuming some of ship’s rats seemed to not succumb to this particular disease…
 
If you’ve heard of scurvy then you’ve probably already guessed that this was the mystery disease inflicting sailors with horrible, premature (and easily preventable) deaths. Scurvy is caused by Vitamin C deficiency. Little was known back then about balanced diets and the importance (or even the existence) of vitamins. Given this, we can certainly say that we’ve come a long way with regard to educating the general public. We’ve come so long a way actually, that we’re almost too informed now!
 
Over-informed
Paralysis by analysis happens when we are given so many options that we become simply incapable of determining which is best. So instead, we do nothing. We’re bombarded with information about which supplements to take. What’s worse is that often times this information is conflicting and contradictory. The end result is that many of us end up not even bothering, despite wanting or even needing to supplement.
 
Added to this is the fact that many of us are just speculating as to which vitamins and/or minerals we may be deficient in. Some of us may have had a deficiency diagnosed by blood work. But the rest of us are just going by what advertisers tell us we need more of. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to shell out tons of money on supplements that I may not even need. Healthy food can be expensive enough!

Food first
I am a big believer in getting all the nutrients that you can from your food before relying on supplements. A supplement is just that. It supplements your diet. No supplement can replace a rich, varied diet. The digestion of food and the resulting absorption of nutrients is a very complex process. It’s a process that is far beyond the scope of this post to discuss.
 
But here’s a quick example as to what I’m talking about:
 
You should always take iron at the same time you take Vitamin C so the iron can be better absorbed. You should also take magnesium and calcium on the same day, but just be sure you don’t take them at the same time because then you may not absorb either! If you want to get enough copper in your diet, be sure not to take it with zinc! And you may not be absorbing enough calcium if you’re deficient in vitamin D!
 
I don’t know about you but there are far too many rules here to commit to memory. Trying to abide by all these rules can get overwhelmingly frustrating very fast.  Trust me when I say that nature has already done a phenomenal job at combining nutrients for optimal absorption. So no need to reinvent the wheel!
 
I am a minimalist by nature. Simplicity is what works best for me. Through years of research, I’ve been able to find a healthy balance between diet and minimal supplementation. It's what works for me. More importantly it keeps me from going nuts from all the information out there!
 
But wait…then why supplement?
Conditions for food cultivation have changed as a result of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Overuse of land and poor soil management has caused some of our food sources to be lacking in nutrients. Crops used to be rich sources of magnesium, zinc, and B-vitamins, to name a few. But today it may be harder to get adequate nutrients from these same foods that we used to rely on to meet our nutrient needs. If the soil is depleted then the crops themselves are deficient. They can’t give what they don’t have!
 
Additionally, the foods our ancestors consumed were often in their natural forms. They were not yet cultivated or engineered for large-scale consumption. A trade off happened along the way. We now have tastier versions of fruits and vegetables but their wild counterparts may have been more nutritious. Today we prefer fewer seeds and less pulp/fiber than the wild versions. We prefer sweeter and larger varieties that have more sugar but end up being more diluted in terms of nutrients. Some claim the wilder versions can have up to 10 times the mineral content than their domesticated cousins on our supermarket shelves!
 
Of course, fruits and vegetables still do have nutrients in them, as well as antioxidants. It’s still important we consume enough of them. We just may not be able to rely on them as much as our ancestors did to meet all of our nutrient needs.

Can't I just take a multivitamin and call it a day??
Well, the short answer is yes, you could. The reason I don't is because often times I've found that either there isn't enough of the vitamin/mineral that I need in that one pill or the type of vitamin/mineral they use is not absorbed best in the body. As mentioned, there are also some nutrients that need to be spaced out and not taken together for maximal absorption. When I follow a nutritious diet I find that I don't even really need the majority of vitamins/minerals in a typical multivitamin. So for these reasons they personally just don't appeal to me.

The basics
A vitamin is an organic substance. This means that a plant or animal made it. A mineral on the other hand comes from the soil or water. Animals must consume minerals to stay alive.
 
Fat-soluble vitamins (take with fat!)

• Vitamin A

Sources include: Fortified foods (cereals, milk), orange/yellow fruits/vegetables, liver, eggs, dark leafy greens

• Vitamin D

Sources include: Fatty fish, fortified foods, liver, cheese, yolks and of course the SUN!

• Vitamin E

Sources include: Sunflower seeds, almonds, spinach, asparagus, salmon, avocado, berries, hazelnuts, prunes, kiwis

• Vitamin K

Sources include: green leafy vegetables, cheese, liver, avocados, chicken
 
Water-soluble vitamins (take with water!)

• Vitamin C

Sources include: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green/red peppers, tomatoes, oranges, sweet potatoes, papaya

• B Vitamins

Sources include: whole grains, meat, eggs and dairy products, legumes, seeds, nuts, dark leafy greens
 
Minerals to ensure you get enough of:

• Calcium

Sources include: dairy products, dark leafy greens, fish, fortified foods

• Chloride

Sources include: table/sea salt, seaweed, tomatoes, celery/lettuce, olives

• Magnesium

Sources include: green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains

• Phosphate

Sources include: meats (poultry, fish), nuts, beans, dairy products

• Potassium

Sources include: bananas, oranges, cooked spinach, cooked broccoli, potatoes, beans, edamame, avocados, coconut water

• Sodium

Sources include: pizza, breads, sandwiches, cold cuts, soups, chips (found in many packaged, processed foods)
 
As you can see, many of the foods appear more than once on this list. This means you can meet most of your recommended daily allowances if your diet consists of enough fruits, vegetables and fortified foods.
 
Minerals we’re good at storing and only need trace amounts of:

• Chromium
• Copper
• Fluoride
• Iodine
• Iron
• Manganese
• Selenium
• Zinc
• Molybdenum

 
Most of us get enough vitamins and minerals that we need in order to survive. But merely surviving is not the same as thriving. Even mild deficiencies can cause uncomfortable symptoms that can adversely impact quality of life.
 
So what to do?
First, take a close look at your diet. Start reading food labels if you don’t already. Take a look at the Percent Daily Value (listed as "DV" on food labels) to get an idea as to how many nutrients you are currently getting out of your diet. By the end of the day, you want to get as close as possible to getting 100% of your daily value of the recommended vitamins and minerals.
 
Some of the healthiest foods don’t come with labels. In this case, familiarize yourself with those fruits and vegetables that are rich in certain vitamins and minerals. The more varied your diet the higher the likelihood of getting many of the required nutrients.
 
For the reasons I shared earlier, no matter how varied your diet, you may still find it difficult to consume enough to reach 100% of your daily need for certain vitamins and minerals. For me, this is when supplementation becomes necessary.  For example, I can only eat so many nuts and leafy greens in one day. I find that I can’t possibly eat enough food in a day to meet the recommended Daily Value of Magnesium.
 
*Please do keep in mind that you can get too much of a good thing! You can overdose with certain supplements and in some cases this can even cause death.
 
What I do
I am going to share with you a comprehensive list of what I personally supplement my diet with, at the time of this writing. It’s the result of many years of research. I may supplement with more vitamins if I am not adhering to a diet rich in green leafy vegetables and fresh fruits. But these are the basics.
 
But first, in case you’re wondering, the current FDA recommended daily intake of vegetables is 1-3 cups. The recommended daily fruit intake is 1-2 cups. Both of course, depend on your individual daily caloric needs.
 
If I am already meeting the recommended daily intake of fruits and veggies, I find this supplementation is sufficient for me:

• Vitamin D supplement (I supplement more in the winter)
• Magnesium (magnesium glycinate, because not all forms of magnesium are absorbed well)
• Iron (since I don’t eat much red meat)
• Vitamin C

 
In addition to these supplements, I am very mindful of consuming enough of the following in my diet:

• Omega 3 fatty acids (to balance out the overabundance of Omega 6 fats we all consume)
• Probiotic foods (yogurt mostly)
• Essential amino acids (obtained with a balanced diet of meat, eggs, dairy, tofu)

 
Keep in mind that your need for supplementation may vary greatly from mine. This is especially true if your diet is very different from the FDA’s current recommendations. It may also vary if you’ve been diagnosed with certain deficiencies or illnesses.
 
What can you do today?
If you aren’t already consuming the daily recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, beginning to do so would be a great place to start. You can start slow and look for opportunities to increase intake wherever you can. Next time you go grocery shopping, familiarize yourself with food labels. Try to shop the perimeters of the stores where the less processed foods are usually found. Eventually the idea is to fill yourself up with nutritious foods first so there’s less room leftover for the “empty calorie” foods. Crowd out the unhealthy with the healthy.
 
The most important takeaway that I hope you get from this post is to not get overwhelmed with all the information out there. Keep things simple. Our caveman ancestors had their struggles but they didn’t track their vitamin or mineral intake. Wild animals don’t monitor either. They don’t get blood work done. They may die from starvation but that’s mostly in times of food scarcity. When there’s an abundance of food available to us, it becomes a matter of choosing whole foods over junk foods and then supplementing wisely. In modern times, getting adequate nutrients really doesn’t have to be so complicated!
 
Are there any supplements that you think I’m leaving out? What, with your research, have you personally found to be vital for optimal health? We’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment below and share!