Think your diet is healthy? Guess again. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans says many adults lack some essential nutrients — from calcium to Vitamin D – and certain groups of people are missing even more. Filling in so many nutrient gaps seems insurmountable without supplements, but more often than not, food can solve the shortfalls.
Calcium: Essential Nutrient for Muscles, Bones, and More
You don’t outgrow your need for calcium just because you’re all grown up. While calcium is necessary to bolster developing bones, it’s also needed to keep your skeleton strong throughout life. And that’s not all. Besides participating in maintaining a normal heart rhythm, calcium plays a role in blood clotting and muscle function.
Studies have shown a link between adequate calcium intake and lower blood pressure, as well as weight control.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM), the group of experts that sets nutrient quotas, has determined that calcium needs increase with age. Here’s what you need every day:
19- to 50-year-olds: 1,000 milligrams
51 years and up: 1,200 milligrams
Three servings of dairy foods each day, as part of a balanced diet, provides most people with the calcium they need. Try to get calcium from foods, preferably dairy. Calcium is best absorbed in the presence of lactose, natural milk sugar.
Some examples of foods that provide around 300 milligrams of calcium per serving:
8 ounces of milk or yogurt
8 ounces calcium-added orange juice
1 1/2 ounces hard cheese
8 ounces fortified soy beverage
Bonus nutrients: Dairy foods and soy supply magnesium; orange juice packs potassium.
Vitamin E: An Essential Nutrient to Combat Free Radicals
A misplaced fear of fat may harm health by preventing you from getting the vitamin E you need.
Vitamin E, found primarily in fatty foods such as nuts, seeds, and oils, is a potent antioxidant. It combats free radicals, the unstable oxygen molecules that result from normal metabolism as well as from exposure to air pollution, cigarette smoke, and strong ultraviolet rays.
Vitamin E is a complex nutrient; food supplies eight different types of vitamin E. Experts have determined that alpha-tocopherol vitamin E (AT) is the most useful of the vitamin E forms. Men and women over age 19 need 15 milligrams of AT every day.
Here’s how to get more vitamin E from healthy fats:
Snack on sunflower seeds or almonds and add them to salads, steamed vegetables, and cooked whole grains
Enjoy a nut butter sandwich on whole-grain bread
Use sunflower and safflower oil instead of corn or vegetable oils
Combine low-fat milk, honey and 1 ounce toasted slivered almonds in a blender for a delicious and nutritious smoothie
Include vitamin E-fortified ready-to-eat whole-grain cereals
Bonus nutrients: Whole grains supply fiber; sunflower seeds offer magnesium and fiber; and milk contains calcium.
Vitamin C: Essential Nutrient for a Healthy Immune System
It’s touted for helping the body repel germs and cancer, but it’s not solely responsible for a healthy immune system.
Most research on diet and cancer prevention focuses on the benefits of consuming a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, not single nutrient supplements like vitamin C.
Vitamin C is also vital for the production of collagen, the connective tissue that keeps muscles, skin, and other tissues, including bone, healthy. And, like vitamin E, vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps ward off cellular damage.
Vitamin C: Essential Nutrient for a Healthy Immune System continued…
You need this much vitamin C daily:
Men, 19 and older: 90 milligrams
Women, 19 and older: 75 milligrams
Your body can’t store vitamin C or make it, so you need some every day. Include some of these vitamin C-rich foods in your choice of fruits and vegetables:
Raw sweet red pepper, 1/2 cup: 142 milligrams
Medium kiwi: 70 milligrams
Orange juice, 6 ounces: 61-93 milligrams
Strawberries, 1/2 cup raw: 49 milligrams
Cantaloupe, 1/4 medium: 47 milligrams
Broccoli, cooked, 1/2 cup: 51 milligrams
Bonus nutrients: Vitamin C-rich foods also provide potassium and fiber. Sweet red pepper and cantaloupe are rich in carotenoids. Consuming vitamin C at meals or snacks improves the absorption of iron from plant foods and iron-fortified grains.
Vitamin A and Carotenoids: Essential Nutrient for Eyes
An important player in good health, vitamin A is essential for normal vision, gene expression, tissue growth, and proper immune function, among many other duties.
Vitamin A comes in two forms: as retinol (preformed and ready for the body to use) and carotenoids, the raw materials the body converts to vitamin A. Americans have no trouble consuming adequate retinol, but they don’t get nearly enough carotenoids.
While there is no daily requirement for carotenoids, foods rich in carotenoids are rich in healthy nutrients.
Concentrating on including colorful produce will likely get you more carotenoids than you’re eating now. Top picks include:
Carrots
Sweet potato
Pumpkin
Spinach
Cantaloupe
Sweet red pepper
Broccoli
Bonus nutrients: Foods that contain carotenoids are rich in potassium and supply fiber; there’s vitamin E and magnesium in spinach, and vitamin C in broccoli.
Older Adults, People with Dark Skin, and Those Who Avoid the Sun
What do these groups have in common? They may lack vitamin D.
Vitamin D production is initiated in the skin in response to sunlight. People who avoid the sun may not make enough vitamin D. Ditto for people with darker complexions, who have a higher level of melanin, a natural sunscreen.
Age decreases the body’s ability to make vitamin D, so older people may easily become deficient, even when they get enough sun. To make matters worse, vitamin D needs double after age 51 to 400 international units (IU) a day (the equivalent of four glasses of milk), and increase to 600 IU daily after age 70.
In addition, most foods are poor natural sources of vitamin D. That’s why experts recommend consuming vitamin D from fortified foods, including milk and breakfast cereals, and from supplements. You may need a mixture of both to get the vitamin D your body requires.
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