Are you supposed to hit 100% of your Vitamin goals daily?

joowelz

Are we supposed to hit 100% of our vitamin A, C, potassium and iron goals every single day? If so, why?

livingleanlivingclean

RDA for vitamins and minerals are the amounts that would enable most of population to maintain good health (there are sometimes different recommendations based on age, sex etc).

Most people may be fine with less, a few would require more. Some recommendations are limits.

I wouldn't go by the calculated amounts on mfp though - most entries don't include micronutrient information

jgnatca

Fast answer, no.

I did some quick google research. It takes about four weeks for a complete vitamin C deficiency to show up. That means, four weeks with no vitamin C (fruit) at all.

It takes months for vitamin A deficiency to show up. If you are eating dairy, eggs, liver, leafy greens and other vegetables, you are getting vitamin A.

Potassium is not required on nutrition labels so you may be eating more than you think.

Iron similarly may not be listed for some foods. It takes many months for iron deficiency to show up, and it is very rare to be deficient in males. Unlike A and C which cannot be stored by the body, iron is stored in both the liver and bone marrow.

Annie_01

Potassium will eventually be required on food labels. It was supposed to start this year but has been delayed until about 2020.

I try to eat potassium rich foods but found it more difficult to reach the minimum. I was surprised. When I had surgery they did a potassium workup on me. They were stunned that I was well within the quidelines. I was told that most people are not.

From the research that I have done...certain levels of potassium will help lower blood pressure. That level of potassium will vary from person to person.

That's has been my experience with potassium.

On the database more than not the potassium has not been entered. I did my own foods so that I could track it more accurately.