Do you believe there is a need to boost any type of vitamin in the body even if I eat a varied and healthy diet? Our biomedical expert Erik answers one of the many questions we have received through our Q&A on social media:
- For some people, there can absolutely be a direct need for vitamin supplements despite eating a varied and healthy diet. That said, it is far from impossible to obtain all 13 vitamins in adequate amounts through your diet. However, many people will have different ideas and firm opinions about what constitutes a “varied and healthy diet” (as is so often discussed), which is why I think it is important to look at it a little more deeply than that.
There are many factors that come into play here, both from an availability and a needs perspective. For example, quality, volume and variety have a direct impact on availability, meaning the amounts we consume and, in some cases, absorb. Meanwhile, factors including age, level of physical activity and pregnancy affect our needs. Older people, for example, will have more difficulty absorbing vitamins found in proteins.
Intense exercise increases the turnover of nutrients, and pregnant and breastfeeding women are recommended to have a higher intake of the majority of vitamins. In addition, any illnesses and medications can have a significant impact that may affect both absorption and requirements. Then there are also potential allergies, which again can affect availability if they mean that certain important food groups have to be excluded entirely. In the same way, certain types of special diets may involve deliberately excluding certain food groups – in that situation, the diet can hardly be considered equally varied anymore. This is also why it is particularly common for certain vitamins to be recommended as dietary supplements when following specific diets such as a vegan diet, ketogenic diet, paleo, etc.
Finally, it should be added that deficiency diseases are very uncommon in our part of the world today. However, minor deficiencies in a couple of vitamins, and minerals for that matter, are well documented and more common than many people may think. Many people see value here not only in avoiding an actual deficiency, but also in trying to maintain somewhat higher levels than that, levels that they consider optimal.
