I understand that the topic of this newsletter is to eat your vitamins which is great except in the instance of vitamin D. The best source is sunlight. It's very sad that people these days are not getting outside. It only takes about 20 minutes of sunshine a few times a week to synthesis the amount of vitamin D our bodies require. Additionally our bodies can store vitamin D for long periods of time.

This is an in depth review on the topic of vitamin D.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010nl/mar/vitd.htm

Well she does mention getting sun exposure too...I'm just glad that she didn't say drink milk to get vitamin D.  Nearly every other recommendation on what to eat to get D says this, which really gets to me because there is only significant amounts of vitamin D in milk because they ADD it!

In the northeast, it can be tough to get enough sun exposure in the winter.  We can have days or weeks of overcast, bitter cold, and most of our bodies are wrapped in layers of clothing.  We almost have to get vitamin D through supplements at that time.

Ok I look at this and pick the most efficient means here of getting the food my body needs. I generally don't eat meat though I do eat fish. Salmon fills two spots in the list. Vitamin E seems the most difficult to get in reasonable food intake. So if I eat 3 oz of salmon, 3 oz of almonds, 1/2 cup green bell pepper, 2 bananas, 1 baked potato and 1 raw carrot per day I will be getting my essential vitamins. Eating this totals 1083 calories. That leaves me a couple hundred left over for other foods. This 1083 calories provides 116 grams of carbs, 49 grams of protein, and 53 grams of fat.

I have been trying to get this information regarding essential nutrients. I do not like the idea of taking supplements. How did people stay healthy years ago? If we can not eat the foods we need to keep our bodies healthy there is something wrong. This diet seems quite heavy in fats. I imagine this is because many of these nutrients are fat soluble so the plants and animals store them in fat and that is how we get them. I don't know if I could handle eating such a limited selection of foods on a daily basis. There are some things I could switch up with in the list. 

This is definitely a most helpful and interesting article.

Sunlight can also be difficult for very fair skinned people like me. Exposure to direct sunlight actually makes me break out in hives, and even in indirect sunlight (like, in the car) I can be sunburned in less than 20 minutes. It's helpfull to know what other places I can get Vitamin D from.

I've also heard that sunlight is a great source of the necessary Vitamin D, but I would prefer not exposing myself to the sun, as I don't want to get dark skin. There are times when being outdoors unexposed is unavoidable and I end up getting a little darker, but I would certainly not expose myself to sun on purpose. Even 20 minutes a day of sun exposure adds up over time to give the undesired (by me anyway, I suppose other people try to tan on purpose) dark skin. Thus, knowing what foods to eat to get Vitamin D without being in sun is very helpful.

To answer Terry2fish's question, the way our ancestors did it has more than one answer:

A) They didn't. They had a lot of health problems.

B) Our ancestors needed well over 2500 kcals to keep them going every day because of how active they were. Some research suggests 5000-7000 kcals per day was needed. Others argue 3000-5000 because they were constantly bouncing between starvation and feasting so their metabolisms were more efficient.

C) The article doesn't tell the whole story. There are a lot of foods that have smaller amounts of these vitamins. Also Vitamins A, D and E can all be stored, so our bodies can consume them (or in the case of Vit D, make it) one month and use them another. Only the Bs & C need to be eaten weekly/monthly for health.

Original Post by: verogall

To answer Terry2fish's question, the way our ancestors did it has more than one answer:

A) They didn't. They had a lot of health problems.

B) Our ancestors needed well over 2500 kcals to keep them going every day because of how active they were. Some research suggests 5000-7000 kcals per day was needed. Others argue 3000-5000 because they were constantly bouncing between starvation and feasting so their metabolisms were more efficient.

C) The article doesn't tell the whole story. There are a lot of foods that have smaller amounts of these vitamins. Also Vitamins A, D and E can all be stored, so our bodies can consume them (or in the case of Vit D, make it) one month and use them another. Only the Bs & C need to be eaten weekly/monthly for health.

Thanks for this info.  I've wondered about this myself (specifically, whether vitamins can be stored for [much] later).

Original Post by: mazohyst_of_decadence

I've also heard that sunlight is a great source of the necessary Vitamin D, but I would prefer not exposing myself to the sun, as I don't want to get dark skin. There are times when being outdoors unexposed is unavoidable and I end up getting a little darker, but I would certainly not expose myself to sun on purpose. Even 20 minutes a day of sun exposure adds up over time to give the undesired (by me anyway, I suppose other people try to tan on purpose) dark skin. Thus, knowing what foods to eat to get Vitamin D without being in sun is very helpful.

I am fair skinned and I like it that way. I don't want to tan on purpose either, but what I am more worried about is melanoma or other skin cancers, so I slather myself with sunblock when I know I'll be in the sun for more then a few minutes. I agree that it's nice to know what foods you need to eat to get D. Especially because I'm lactose intolerant so I am not drinking the D fortified milk.

This article was super helpful!  The nutritional analysis tool has been very eye opening for me as far as letting me know where my deficiencies are, but I need articles like this to let me know how to correct them.

That information is great . But you can't expect a person to eat all of that and lose weight.

Original Post by: aewart

That information is great . But you can't expect a person to eat all of that and lose weight.

I really can't agree with you there.  All of these foods are healthy and given in moderate portions.  Of course for most people this is not all that would be eaten in a day, but if you ate everything in moderation, you would lose weight.

Thank you for the article

Sunlight for Vitamin D works only if it's sunny out, and it's summertime. In northern latitudes it is impossible for people to get enough vitamin D from sunshine alone during the winter, even if we could somehow spend 15 hours a day naked outdoors without freezing to death, the sunlight is at such a low angle that it's impossible to get adequate vitamin D. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to eat fish, drink fortified milk or take a supplement during the 8 - 10 months of the year when it isn't full-on summer.

Original Post by: rose1943

Original Post by: aewart

That information is great . But you can't expect a person to eat all of that and lose weight.

I really can't agree with you there.  All of these foods are healthy and given in moderate portions.  Of course for most people this is not all that would be eaten in a day, but if you ate everything in moderation, you would lose weight.

Not to mention the calories you'd burn exercising. You can eat all of that and lose weight, and you'd lose more weight if you exercised as well.

...but....but....pills don't require me to cook!

...I kid.  I couldn't take vitamins if I wanted to--the chewable ones are nasty and the pills are ALWAYS horse pills.  Why can't they make vitamins small enough that I don't feel like I'm going to yakk when I swallow them?

@yamisui

If you DO want a non-pill supplement there are powdered supplements that you can mix into w/e you want.  There are also liquid supplements.  If you want them...

Any super foods for getting daily potassium? It seems like most foods only offer at the most 20 to 25 percent of the daily requirement.

Original Post by: chibiusa4022

Any super foods for getting daily potassium? It seems like most foods only offer at the most 20 to 25 percent of the daily requirement.

Oddly enough, potatoes. I saw it through someone else post here, and then finally had a baked potato and I made my potassium requirement for the first time ever. I was stunned :)

As a newbie. Reading article this article is a great opportunity for me to learn. Thank you so much. I would definitely check this page more often to check the articles as well as the brilliant ideas that would be a great help for me as a "NEWBIE"

I take all the above in supplements because honestly, I don't eat those particular foods daily.  For instance, I hate spinach and eat a whole carrot or drink carrot juice at best 2 to 3 times a week.  Love cantaloupe but who eats it daily year round?  And I'm not sure that even if I did eat the right foods daily I could do so and stay under my desired calorie count - not without a lot more exercise to burn off the extra!

The US Dept of Ag has a vested financial interest in getting us to eat food which is fine but unless they can make more or it taste like chocolate, I would questions whether this is realistic.

The recommended daily intake for Vitamin D was recently raised, and you can get sunburned relying on that method to absorb enough.  I take 10,000 IU daily and still try to walk outside for 20-30 minutes a few days a week when it's not too cold (and I live on the central west coast but we get lots of fog - and that's in the summer.)

Hi ,

Is it like we should have all the type of vitamins in our daily diet for a healthy life.. or its ok to have different types of vitamins twice or thrice  a week??

The nutritional analyzer only records 2 of these 6 essential vitamins.  Are there plans to add the other 4 it would make life so much easier.  At the moment I have to have a separate spreadsheet to track these vital nutrients.