7 Essential Vitamins and Minerals You Need Daily

Good nutrition is essential for a healthy body and mind. According to nutritionists, there are 7 essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs daily. Vitamin D helps our bodies absorb calcium, which is important for bone health. Magnesium is an essential nutrient, which means we need to get it from food or supplements.

Vitamins help your body grow and function as it should. There are 13 essential vitamins, including vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, B6, B12 and folate). Calcium is needed to build strong bones and teeth in childhood and adolescence. In adulthood, you need calcium to maintain bone mass.

Potassium helps the body maintain healthy blood pressure. Vitamin A is associated with vision development and cell growth and maintenance. Vitamin C helps the body form collagen in blood vessels, bones, cartilage, and muscles. Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium, to promote bone growth and keep bones and teeth strong.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps fight damage to body cells. Having too many vitamins in your body can also be dangerous. For this reason, it is very important that you talk to your doctor before you start taking any supplements. The Institute of Medicine has determined the upper limits for 24 nutrients for adults 19 years and older.

Vitamin A can be found in beef liver, salmon, broccoli, carrots, pumpkin, leafy greens, melon, apricots, mangoes, dairy products, and fortified cereals. Vitamin B can be found in meat, poultry, fish, offal, eggs, legumes, seeds, nuts, whole grains, and fortified cereals. Vitamin C can be found in fruits and citrus juices, kiwi, red and green peppers, strawberries, melon, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, tomato juice and roasted potatoes (cooking it this way with the skin on retains folate). Vitamin D can be found in salmon, tuna mackerel beef liver egg yolks mushrooms milks and cereals fortified with milk and nuts.

Vitamin E can be found in sunflower safflower and wheat germ oils sunflower seeds almonds peanuts spinach chard avocados and zucchini. Vitamin K can be found in spinach kale lettuce broccoli soy blueberries figs meat cheese eggs and vegetable oils. Calcium can be found in dairy products such as milk cheese yogurt fortified non-dairy milks such as almond soy and rice milks fortified orange juice sardines with bones tofu if prepared with calcium collard greens kale broccoli. Iron can be found in red meat poultry fish beans lentils dark green leafy vegetables nuts dried fruit iron-fortified cereals breads pasta.

Ben Liebhardt
Ben Liebhardt

Amateur travel fanatic. General web buff. Certified travel junkie. Twitter nerd. Infuriatingly humble web practitioner. Certified beer nerd.

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