The Essential Vitamins and Where to Find Them in Food

You probably already know that you need vitamins for your wellness to thrive. In a perfect world, everyone would get their vitamin needs sorted through their diet, bolstering their wellbeing with a mixture of healthy fruits, vegetables and low-fat meats. However, in the real world, you know that isn’t the case; most people don’t get the vitamins they need through their diet. We’ve compiled a list of the necessary nutrients and where to find them, although you may want to look at supplements to fill any nutritional gaps you might have. However, before you take on any of our suggestions, you should talk things through with your healthcare provider.

 

First we need to establish the difference between a water-soluble vitamin and a fat-soluble vitamin, although you can probably discern much from their apt names. With water-soluble vitamins – such as vitamin C and B vitamins – it’s easy for your body to eliminate whatever it doesn’t use, as this excess nutrition can be cleared out almost instantly through your bowel movements. Fat-soluble vitamins, on the other hand, are more difficult to get rid of. Fat-soluble vitamins – including vitamin A, D, E, and K – can build up in your lipids and, when built to excess, can cause many different illnesses. So, proceed with caution with fat-soluble vitamins. Now, where can you find all these necessary nutrients?

 

Vitamin B1: Starting with the water-soluble vitamins, thiamin helps your body convert blood sugar into energy, and is found in brown rice, asparagus, cauliflower, oranges, whole grain flour, potatoes, pork, eggs, yeast and fortified cereals.

 

Vitamin B2: Also known as riboflavin, this B vitamin works with others to convert sugar into energy. You can get your B2 from dairy products like milk and cheese, broccoli, spinach and asparagus.

 

Vitamin B3: Niacin – which is found in tuna, green beans, broccoli, mushrooms and fortified breakfast cereals – helps convert sugar into energy and keeps your skin healthy.

 

Vitamin B6: Found in watermelon, bananas, spinach, tomatoes and broccoli, vitamin B6 contributes to red blood cell formation and converts fat and protein into energy.

 

Vitamin B9: You probably are more aware of this vitamin by its other name; folic acid. As well as being an essential component of any pregnant woman’s diet, folic acid helps your body create new cells and ward of heart disease. Get your vitamin B9 from broccoli, green beans, tomatoes, beans, asparagus and fortified breakfast foods.

 

Vitamin B12: This vitamin – appearing in meat, fish, milk, cheese, eggs and poultry – helps your body to produce new cells.

 

Vitamin C: Though vitamin C is among the most well-known of vitamins, you often make the mistake of thinking orange is the best and only source. In fact, vitamin C – which protects your body’s cells from damage and may help with heart disease and preventing cancer – can be found in other citrus fruits such as limes and lemons, as well as strawberries, kiwi, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, peppers and spinach.

 

Vitamin A: Moving on to the fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin A is beneficial for your skin and eyesight, and you’ll find it in liver (from both beef and pork,) fish (such as salmon, mackerel, and tuna) milk, butter, eggs and carrots.

 

Vitamin D: Essential for maintaining healthy bones, you can get vitamin D from milk, egg yolks, liver, and butter, as well as through sunlight on your skin.

 

Vitamin E: This vitamin is found in sunflower seeds, spinach, various nuts, and peanut butter. It’s vital for heart health, preventing pollution damage in your lungs and may protect you against cancer.

 

Vitamin K: Found in eggs, various meats, spinach, lettuce, cabbage and milk, vitamin K helps your body’s blood clotting process.

Categories: convert sugar, Fat-soluble, folic acid, fortified breakfast, green beans, nbsp vitamin, soluble vitamin, soluble vitamins, vitamin b9, vitamins, water-soluble

Have You Been Taken in By the Five Supplement Myths?

While we’re big on vitamin and mineral supplements these days, we don’t actually know a hell of a lot about them. In fact, there are plenty of myths floating around out there about vitamins, and how they benefit your wellness, but you may be putting your wellbeing at risk by taking them in large quantities. Unless your doctor tells you otherwise, it’s best to get the vitamins you need from your diet, rather than pills, but still you find yourself swaying towards supplement aisle for a quick fix. Let’s take a look at the common misconceptions about vitamins:

 

1. Getting more than your recommended dietary intake means you’ll be doing even more good for your wellness.

Just because small amounts of vitamins are good for you, it doesn’t follow that large amounts are even better. Less is more when it comes to vitamins, especially fat-soluble ones like vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins can be stored in your body, which means taking high doses over a long period of time can lead to harmful levels. Even the water-soluble ones can be damaging in high doses, as large amounts of vitamin B6, for example, has been linked with nerve damage.

 

2. Taking supplements is essential to prevent deficiencies and illness.

Your body can store vitamins, even if they’re only water-soluble ones, albeit for a shorter period of time. It will take months before a vitamin deficiency will affect your wellbeing, so it doesn’t matter if your healthy, balanced diet takes a dive here and there. As long as you usually eat a wide variety of fresh foods, an occasional lapse in good eating will not harm you. For some people, supplements do have a role to place. You may need certain supplements if you’re pregnant, on a long-term restrictive weight loss diet, or someone who suffers from malabsorption problems such as diarrhoea, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis or pancreatitis. If this is you, consult your doctor for more information – you should never start supplementing without your doctor’s advice.

 

3. Vitamin C can help to prevent colds.

Though the research into this subject has been exhaustive, there is still no strong evidence to suggest that vitamin C helps prevent the common cold. While studies have shown that taking more than 1,000mg of the vitamin every day can ease some of the symptoms and duration of a cold (making it about half a day shorter), even this does not prevent you catching a cold and can cause more damage than it lessens. Large doses of vitamin C can cause nausea, abdominal cramps, headaches, fatigue, kidney stones and diarrhoea, as well as messing with medical tests and your body’s ability to process other nutrients. You only need 45mg of vitamin C per day.

 

4. Vitamin E will stave off heart disease.

As vitamin E is widely recognised as a beneficial antioxidant, may people believe that it can help to prevent heart disease. Not only is there no evidence to support this theory, but studies have categorically proven that vitamin E doesn’t protect your heart. Moreover, taking supplements of the vitamin may even increase your risk of death from all causes!

 

5. Supplements can protect you against cancer.

It would be nice if a few pills could prevent cancer, but unfortunately it’s not that easy. If you take large quantities of vitamin A, not only will it not cure cancer but it will also be toxic to your body. A small amount of evidence indicates that vitamin E can protect you against certain cancers, but there is an equal chance that this vitamin will cause other types of cancer – pick your poison!

Categories: colds, Deficiencies, heart disease, high doses, large amounts, large quantities, prevent, Supplements, vitamin, vitamin c, vitamins, water-soluble