Vitamins & iron

ahlxm9

if i have consumed more vitamin A or C than my daily goal isn't that a good thing ? am i supposed to not exceed the daily goal ?

janejellyroll

If your vitamin A is from plant sources, you have nothing to worry about. Your body will just eliminate what you don't need.

As for vitamin C, your body will eliminate what you don't need no matter where it is from.

It's not a good or bad thing. You don't have to worry about getting more than the recommended daily allowance.

kimny72

ahlxm9 wrote: »

if i have consumed more vitamin A or C than my daily goal isn't that a good thing ? am i supposed to not exceed the daily goal ?

Unfortunately, some numbers are goals, some are limits, and some are just the US RDA. None of it is really "good" or "bad", just general suggestions based on national guidelines.

I believe (and I'm just random MFP user #729) that vitamins and minerals are the US RDA (so minimums), saturated fat and sodium are suggested limits, and fiber and the macros are suggested goals. I think.

estherdragonbat

Depends what. Some vitamins can be dangerous if you get too much (excess of beta carotene—a type of Vitamin A—will turn your skin orange). Your body can't store others, like Vitamin C, so you'll just void the excess.

Technically, you can overdose on a lot of stuff, but in general, the time to panic is if you're taking it in pill form and exceed the dose. (I once called poison control because I took a multivitamin with iron and couldn't remember whether I'd already taken one a few minutes earlier. The rep I spoke with asked me my weight and the vitamin A and iron levels in the multivitamin. She might have asked my age and probably told me what symptoms should have me calling 911. TBH, I don't remember those now, I'm going back over 20 years here. Bottom line, those two are probably the ones you most need to be concerned about overdoing and generally only if you're supplementing what you're getting in food with what comes in pills.)

apullum

It's time for science! Yay!

When you take in vitamins, some of the vitamins dissolve in water ("water soluble"), and others dissolve in fat ("fat soluble"). The fat soluble vitamins get stored in your body until they are needed. The water soluble vitamins are not stored, and excess amounts of these vitamins get excreted with the liquid waste.

Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble. The B vitamins and vitamin C are water soluble.

This is why you need to get enough B vitamins and vitamin C each day: the body does not store these vitamins. It's difficult to overdose on these vitamins for the same reason: the body just flushes out the excess. And this is why it's not helpful to take big supplements of vitamin C...you're just going to pee it out. It is neither a good thing nor a bad thing that you're going over your daily vitamin C goal.

Vitamin A works differently because your body stores it, but it's also hard to overdose on it unless you fit a very specific set of conditions.

If you're getting your vitamin A from your diet rather than a supplement, you're unlikely to be eating enough of it to cause problems, unless you are eating something like really large amounts of liver. (Liver, specifically, because vitamin A is stored in the liver, making it a very concentrated source of the vitamin.)

As Jane mentioned, if you get vitamin A from plant sources, then what you are actually getting are substances called carotenoids that your body then converts into vitamin A. Beta carotene is the carotenoid that people are most often familiar with. There's no toxic effect from eating too many carotenoids, although at Esther noted, they might turn your skin a yellowish color if you really eat a massive amount of them. (This is called "carotenemia" and if it happens, just eat fewer plants with beta-carotene.)

If you're going over your vitamin A goal, then you are most likely fine, but it's not going to give you any extra benefit.

HOWEVER, if you're taking a vitamin A supplement, then you definitely can overdose on it. Doses found in a standard multivitamin are fine, but don't take high doses of vitamin A (or anything else, really) unless a doctor tells you to.

tl;dr, don't eat too much liver.

ahlxm9

Thank you everyone you were really helpful..
Apullum thank you i was clueless about all of this information im not even using any supplements and i only went over my daily goal for vitamin C but i thought they were the same so i included A in my question 😂🤦‍♀️

apullum

ahlxm9 wrote: »

Thank you everyone you were really helpful..
Apullum thank you i was clueless about all of this information im not even using any supplements and i only went over my daily goal for vitamin C but i thought they were the same so i included A in my question 😂🤦‍♀️

You're welcome! I gotta use my biology degree somehow

Vitamins A and C are pretty different things, but either way you are most likely fine. Honestly, it's hard to overdose on vitamins unless you're taking supplements.

kpsyche

@apullum Great post. Just one thing, though. Even though Vitamin B12 is water soluble doesn't mean it's not stored in the body; the liver stores quite a lot of it actually (enough for many years).

https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/disorders-of-nutrition/vitamins/vitamin-b-12

apullum

kpsyche wrote: »

@apullum Great post. Just one thing, though. Even though Vitamin B12 is water soluble doesn't mean it's not stored in the body; the liver stores quite a lot of it actually (enough for many years).

https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/disorders-of-nutrition/vitamins/vitamin-b-12

Nice addition! B12 is a big one for vegans and vegetarians, like me, since there are very few sources of it other than animal products. Vegans typically supplement it, and vegetarians might need a supplement if they're not getting it from sources like dairy. Even though the body can store it, if we're not replenishing it in our diets, then we still need to make sure we're taking in enough.

Of course, for people who eat meat, this is probably not something you need to worry about

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