How to get all of the vitamins and minerals you need

Vitamins and minerals are essential to your health and continued existence. You get most of the nutrients you need from what you eat, which is why it’s essential to eat a balanced and healthy diet. However, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, 85% of adult Americans fail to get the required amount of many vitamins and minerals from their diets.

Making sure you get tested for vitamin deficiencies is essential because you can then change your diet based on this information. A vitamin deficiency of any kind, which can be detected with a simple vitamin test, can have very negative implications for your health. A vitamin test is an easy way to help you find out if your diet needs changing. Here is some handy information on how to get the most needed vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is important in maintaining healthy eyes and vision, as well as promoting healthy skin, lungs, liver and digestive organs. Vitamin A comes from both animal and plant sources, but it is important to get it from both sources because the type of vitamin A that comes from plants isn’t always broken down fully and utilized to its full potential.

You can get vitamin A from carrots, sweet potatoes, berries, eggs, butter and liver. Liver is a great source of vitamin A, but it is possible to get too much vitamin A in extreme scenarios. In the early 20^th century, members of an Australasian exploration team died after developing hypervitaminosis A from eating their huskies’ livers because they had such high concentrations of vitamin A.

Vitamin C

This vitamin helps your body form collagen, which is the primary protein used by the body to make connective tissue in the body. Without vitamin C, you can develop diseases like scurvy – this condition causes bleeding gums and previously healed wounds to open up again, and it affected sailors who went on long voyages without any access to fruit.

Sources of vitamin C include several kinds of fruit and vegetables, including guava, oranges, kiwi, pineapple, mango, strawberries, red and green peppers, broccoli, sweet potatoes and cauliflower, among others.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D promotes healthy bone and tooth growth by allowing your body to absorb calcium. It also contributes to your overall mood. You can get some vitamin D through sunlight, but not everyone spends all day outside. Vitamin D is quite difficult to get enough of unless you make a conscious effort because it isn’t found in that many foods.

You can get vitamin D from fatty fish such as salmon, swordfish and tuna. Fortified milk, fortified orange juice, fortified cereal and fortified yogurt as well as cheese are other sources of vitamin D.

Vitamin E

This vitamin is a fat-soluble nutrient that acts as an antioxidant, helping to protect your cells from free radical damage. Vitamin E is found in nuts and seeds such as sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts and pine nuts. You can also find it spinach, tomatoes, avocado and peanut butter.

Calcium

As well as building bones and teeth and keeping them healthy, calcium also enables our blood to clot, our muscles to work and our heart to beat. Our bodies do not produce calcium by themselves, so getting it through diet is essential. You get lots of calcium from dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt. You can also get it from broccoli, cabbage and okra as well as soya beans and tofu.

Magnesium

Magnesium is involved in over 600 cellular reactions in the body, including making DNA and assisting in muscle contractions. It also plays a large role in your nervous system, acting as the gatekeeper for the N-Methyl-D-aspartic receptors, which help make sure that signals are sent and received properly. You can get magnesium from whole wheat bread and flour, spinach, quinoa, almonds, cashews, black beans, tofu, peanuts and sesame seeds.

Potassium

This mineral helps your body regulate its fluid balance and plays an essential part in your nervous system – nerve impulses are generated by sodium ions moving into cells and potassium ions moving out of them. Potassium also may have an impact on reducing blood pressure, which one in three Americans suffers from.

Conclusion

Your diet is one of the most important factors affecting your health. It is essential that you make sure your diet is healthy and balanced to ensure that you are getting the vitamins and minerals your body requires to function. A few additions to your daily diet can have a dramatic effect on your wellbeing.