What Vitamins and Minerals do Adults Need?

12 Oct, 2021

While you might be trying to consume all required nutrients from vegetables and fruits, you realize it is next to impossible to meet your body’s nutrition needs always and completely. Besides this, several other factors (pregnancy, menopause, or diseases) contribute to making supplements necessary and a great source of vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin deficiencies usually arise from chronic health conditions, and to fulfill the same, one can use prescribed supplements where multivitamins come in handy.

How do multivitamins help?

A daily multivitamin can help build a strong foundation for your overall health. Moreover, it can protect you in times of stress, amid sleepless nights, or when you are not exercising regularly.

However, with various combinations of vitamins and minerals available out there, how would you determine the best one for you? Fortunately, you need not be a nutritionist to find that out; read through this blog as it discusses some of the vital vitamins and minerals adults require.

Vitamins & Minerals that Adults Need

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient needed for several reasons, for instance, keeping teeth, bones, and muscles healthy. Besides helping to regulate calcium and phosphate amounts in your body, it can help protect you against a variety of health conditions and diseases like type 1 diabetes.

Your body produces vitamin D automatically when exposed to the sun, and it plays various roles assisting you in:

• Strengthening bones & teeth
  
• Regulating insulin levels
• Supporting immune and nervous system health
• Managing diabetes

The best method you can follow to produce enough vitamin D is by getting sufficient sunlight. However, some foods that are excellent sources of vitamin D are as follows.

•  Fortified milk
• Fortified cereals and juices
• Cheese
• Mushrooms
• Egg yolks
• Fatty fishes - salmon, tuna, and mackerel
• Beef liver

Calcium

During your childhood, you might have seen TV commercials promoting milk consumption (one of the key sources of calcium) for building strong bones. Well, as an adult, you might prefer taking a calcium supplement instead of drinking a few glasses of milk every day to keep your bones healthy.

While it totally depends upon you how you consume calcium, it is always better to intake sufficient amounts because it is essential to help prevent the development of osteoporosis - a condition indicating weak or fragile bones, making your bones prone to fractures.

Regardless of the source (food or pills), a high calcium intake might not reduce fracture risks. Therefore, it is recommended to keep your calcium intake moderate or as prescribed.

Women (including pregnant and breastfeeding women) aged between 19 and 50 are advised to intake 1000 mg per day. Women aged between 51 and 70 should consume 1300 mg per day. Men aged 17 to 70 are recommended to take 1000 mg per day, while men over 70 should take 1300 mg a day.

Good calcium sources include:

• Low-fat dairy items - milk and yogurt
  
• Leafy green vegetables - kale and spinach
• Garbanzo, white and pinto beans
• Oranges
• Dried figs
• Almonds
• Soybeans

Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral that helps you stay healthy. It is essential for various functions inside your body, from protein synthesis to energy metabolism and brain functioning to muscle and heart activity. However, many people run low on magnesium intake, and some conditions and diseases are associated with its deficiency, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and to name a few.

Three hundred biochemical reactions in your body involve magnesium, clearly indicating its requirement for maintaining sound health. Taking a magnesium supplement in moderate doses can help increase magnesium levels in people with a high risk of deficiency or who don’t include a sufficient amount of it in their diet.

Consuming enough magnesium has multiple benefits: improved blood glucose regulation, enhanced sleep, and relief from constipation. For adults, the RDA for magnesium is usually advised at 310-420 mg; however, the appropriate daily dosage for you will depend upon your gender, age, and health condition.

Therefore, it is recommended to consult an experienced general physician to begin with or before taking any supplement. Naturally, magnesium can be found in foods like:

• Nuts
• Leafy green vegetables
  
• Milk products

Zinc

Zinc is one of the essential trace elements of the human body as it necessitates small amounts of zinc for good health. However, because your body doesn’t possess excessive zinc, you must regularly include it in your diet. Moreover, zinc deficiency can lead to short stature, improper functioning of ovaries and testes, and difficulty sensing food taste.

Zinc is essential for your body’s appropriate growth, maintenance, and several body systems and biological reactions. For example, you need it for your immune system’s proper functioning, wound healing, thyroid functioning, and much more than you think.

It plays a crucial role in keeping your vision maintained; hence, its deficiency can alter eyesight, and severe deficiency can even result in changes in the retina. In addition, it might also be effective against viruses and may improve symptoms of the common cold and herpes virus.

Some of the common dietary sources of zinc are:

• Dairy products
• Nuts
• Legumes
• Whole grains
• Poultry
• Fish
• Seafood
• Red meat

Iron

Iron is a mineral that you can find in many foods and packaged food products. However, when it is difficult to consume it through diet, you may take it as a supplement on your doctor’s advice.

It is an integral component of hemoglobin (red blood cell) that transfers oxygen to tissues. Also, as a component of myoglobin, iron is good for maintaining muscle metabolism. Thus, it is vital for physical growth, cellular functioning, neurological development, and the synthesis of some hormones.

Sources of iron

• Red meat
  
• Beans - red kidney beans, chickpeas, etc.
• Nuts
• Dried fruit - dried apricots
• Fortified breakfast cereals
• Soybean flour

Folate

Folate, commonly known as vitamin B-9, is essential in forming red blood cells and their healthy growth and functioning. In the case of pregnancy, maintaining good folate levels reduces the risk of birth-related defects (majorly brain and spine) in infants.

A diet that lacks folate-rich foods may result in folate deficiency, which is also associated with conditions like a celiac disease that can cause the small intestine not to absorb nutrients from foods.

The daily amount of folate an adult should intake is recommended as 400 mcg. However, for women planning or expecting pregnancy, it is advised to consume 400 to 1000 mcg of folate.

Common sources of folate:

• Dark green leafy vegetables
  
• Beans, peas, and nuts
• Oranges
• Lemons
• Bananas
• Melons
• Strawberries

Cobalamin

Cobalamin, also known as vitamin B-12, is essential in cell metabolism, the formation of red blood cells, nerve functions, and DNA production. People who majorly depend upon vegan or vegetarian food might experience vitamin B-12 deficiency as plant-based foods do not contain vitamin B-12. Older adults and even people with digestive tract conditions are also prone to its deficiency.

Doctors might prescribe vitamin B-12 nasal spray, injections, or supplements in order to treat cobalamin deficiency. This is important because the deficiency, when left untreated, may cause anemia, muscle weakness, fatigue, nerve damage, intestinal problems, mood disturbance, etc.

The recommended daily dose amount of cobalamin for adults is 2.4 mcg.

Food sources of vitamin B-12:

• Poultry
  
• Meat
• Fish
• Dairy products

Conclusion

While it would be better to consume the required vitamins and minerals from food, some people (for several reasons) could not complete their daily dose requirements, leading to a deficiency of vitamins and minerals. If you are unsure about the levels of these essential nutrients in your body or experience deficiency symptoms, it is the right time to consult a reliable physician first.

At MedPro, we have qualified and experienced primary care physicians, who can provide you with complete guidance and treatment (if needed) for your vitamin and mineral deficiency. Get in touch with an experienced and reliable provider at MedPro. For any queries, call us at (877) 216-4215 or local: 559.450.6334 or visit our website –www.cvmedpro.com.

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