Is consuming over the RDA of vitamins bad in the long term?

I consider myself a pescetarian. I eat large amounts of pulses, fish, fruit and vegetables mainly. Along with always getting at least 30g of protein a day, I've noticed that I always reach, or more than often exceed, the RDA of vitamin A & C - it usually shows 200% or more ( I've had up to 500% before) in my food log. 

Does anyone know if this is bad for me in the long run? I don't actually know how to bring the numbers down at all either, apart from eating less of the foods I love.

If you're deriving your vitamins from natural foods rather than supplements it's very difficult to overdo it. Vitamin C is water soluble and simply exits in your pee - so it needs to be topped up daily, hence why we need to get 5-a-day.  Vitamin A can accumulate in large doses but you need more than 1.5mg a day average before it is considered a problem.  

This site has some excellent information on nutrition, vitamins, minerals etc.... http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/nutriti onessentials/vitaminsandminerals/  It could help you understand what happens if you don't get enough and how much is too much.

I think the issue comes when people take supplements to the extreme. I take some for a condition I have but it is monitored by my doctors in combo with my meds. The only thing I have heard from people with it from food is there skin turns yellow from too much carrots and vitamin a or if it pushes out other vitamins. So just make sure you have adequate other nutrients

I don't think you need to worry about overdosing on Vitamin C. As GI-Jane said, your body flushes out the excess, although I do remember reading somewhere that too much can cause diarrhea. When I start getting sick I supplement my already C rich diet with up to 2000mg vit C a day and I haven't experienced negative side effects. In fact, I believe it helps me recover from flu-sypmtoms faster, but that could be the placebo effect.

You cannot overdose on vitamin A derived from fruit and vegetable sources, because the body converts only what vitamin A it needs from the carotenoids in these foods.

Thanks for the replies!

I don't take any supplements so it sounds like I should be okay. I've just started becoming more interested in the break down of vitamins and minerals in my diet so I thought I'd make sure I wasn't overdosing myself in anything :)

Your food log is not 100% accurate so I wouldn't worry so much about you "overloading" on any such vitamins.... plus vitamin c... when you have too much of it, you just sort of pee it out! If anything you should be proud of yourself that you're getting allot of the RDA recommendations but if you are scared you're hurting yourself, get yourself a blood test to determine what you might be ODing on... but honestly, I don't think you are at all!

**If anyone is, it's me!! ha ha, I take more than 50 vitamins/minerals a day as well as eat 9 + servings of veggies a day along with fish and other proteins! (PS: I have been blood tested and am completely normal... except for high vitamin D levels, which is a GREAT thing! )