All You Need to Know About Vitamins and Minerals
- Sarah Walters
- Feb 12
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 20
You might be surprised by how many foods contain vitamins and minerals, and how many functions they have in the body.
Vitamins and minerals are important for hundreds of thousands of different processes in the body, including immune function, bone health, brain health, collagen synthesis and skin repair, insulin production and function, and cancer prevention.
Vitamins and minerals are found in many foods, not just vegetables and supplements. If you consume a variety of nutrient-dense foods, you can get the benefits of these nutrients without having to spend a ton of money on supplements.
There's a few simple steps that can help you get enough vitamins and minerals from food, which can help you optimize your health.
All you need is the right combination of the food groups that each provide a different set of nutrients.
Why Get Vitamins and Minerals from Food and Not from Supplements?
Whole foods are the best way to get the nutrition that you need, because they provide a lot of healthful compounds in addition to vitamins and minerals. These healthful compounds include fibre, protein, healthy fats, phytonutrients, and carbohydrates.
Fibre: Important for gut health, blood sugar control, and lowering cholesterol levels. It also helps with the feeling of fullness after eating.
Protein: Important for building and maintaining muscle, repairing cells and tissues, and keeping the immune system healthy.
Healthy fats: Important for heart health and plays a role in the structure of cell membranes. DHA, a type of omega 3 is high in retina and brain cells (1). Omega 3 is important for brain and eye development in infants and during pregnancy.
Phytonutrients (also known as phytochemicals): Are responsible for the taste, colour, and aroma of plants, and many have health benefits including anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties.
Carbohydrates: your brain's preferred energy source.
How to Get Enough Vitamins and Minerals from Food
First Step: Aim for a balance of the food groups
The different food groups provide different nutrients, which is why it is important to get multiple servings of each food group every day.
To get enough of the nutrients you need, it helps to follow the balanced plate model, which is to have half of your meal as vegetables and fruit, a quarter of your meal as grains (choosing whole grains most often), and the last quarter of your meal as high protein foods. These proportions are ideal because it gives us the right amount of nutrients from those different foods.
Half of Your Plate: Vegetables and Fruit
Vegetables are full of many nutrients. Different coloured fruits and vegetables give a different set of nutrients. It helps to get at least one orange and one green vegetable per day.
Orange vegetables such as carrots, winter squash, red or orange bell peppers, yams and sweet potatoes, are a source of the carotenoids (which are converted to vitamin A in the body). Vitamin A is important for vision, healthy skin, bones and teeth, immune system and mucous membranes (including gastrointestinal mucous membranes).
Dark green vegetables, such as broccoli, lettuce, spinach, are sources of many nutrients, including folic acid. Folic acid (folate) is important for making new DNA and new cells including red blood cells.
A Quarter of Your Plate: Whole Grains
Whole grains are an important source of iron and B vitamins. This can include brown or wild rice, whole wheat, oats, barley, corn, rye, and pseudocereals such as quinoa and buckwheat. Whole grains have a lot more fibre than their refined counterparts, such as white bread, white pasta, or white rice.
When grains are refined they are stripped of some important nutrients including iron and B vitamins, and also of a lot of their fibre. Fortunately, there is a mandatory fortification of white flour (wheat-based flour) in Canada, and nutrients including iron and B vitamins have to be added. Refined wheat flour can still provide important vitamins and mineral, but doesn't quite provide as much of the health benefits of whole wheat flour, since it is lower in fibre.
Gluten-free flours do not have this mandatory fortification, so many of these flours end up having lower amounts of vitamins and minerals.
A Quarter of Your Plate: High Protein foods
Whole food sources of protein include animal-based foods (meat, fish, dairy) and plant-based foods (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, and soy-based foods).
Meat and seafood is a source of phosphorus, selenium, zinc, and some B vitamins, including vitamin B12. In addition to these nutrients, fish also has high amounts of vitamin D and some are also a source of calcium too.
Whole plant-based proteins have many nutrients in them such as magnesium, iron, copper, B vitamins and folic acid. These plant-based foods are often also high in fibre, healthy fats, and phytonutrients.
Non-vegetarians can still reap the benefits from plant-based proteins. It is recommended for the general population, not just vegetarians, to have a serving of nuts and seeds and a serving of legumes each day. These plant-based proteins help you get important compounds including minerals, healthy fats, and fibre, and also has been found to lower risk of chronic disease.
Despite the fact that whole plant-based proteins are nutritious and have many associated health benefits, there are a few nutrients that are not absorbed as well by the body from plant- based foods (iron and zinc). In a vegan diet, other nutrients such as vitamin B12 and omega 3 are also harder to get enough of, unless consuming fortified foods and beverages. Therefore, vegetarian and vegans might need fortified foods or supplements to get those nutrients. To learn more about supplements, check out this blog post about supplements.
Second Step: Ensure You are Getting Food Sources of Calcium and Vitamin D.
High calcium and high vitamin D foods are now a part of the high protein food category of the Canada's Food Guide, rather than having their own category like they used to (known as "milk and milk alternatives"). Despite now being included in the high protein food category, calcium and vitamin D are important nutrients to get everyday to help keep your bones strong. Vitamin D also is important for immune health and for muscle and nerve function (2).
It is helpful to have several servings of high calcium and vitamin D foods and beverages daily. Supplements for vitamin D may be needed in addition to this (see below for more information).
Calcium:
Animal-based options for calcium include dairy (milk, yogurt, kefir, cheese) and some fish and shellfish (such as clams, shrimp, sardines, herring, salmon canned with bones, pollock and herring). A longer list can be found on the Osteoporosis Canada website and the Health Canada website).
Plant-based options:
Fortified plant-based milk.
Tofu that is prepared with calcium. Check the package to ensure that calcium sulphate is listed in the ingredients.
High calcium beans including navy and white beans. Chickpeas, pinto beans, edamame beans, and baked beans also contain calcium.
Almonds and sesame seeds (including tahini).
Certain fruits and vegetables have some calcium as well, including dark green vegetables (okra, bok choy, rapini, Chinese broccoli/ Gai lan, taro leaves, some seaweeds such as kelp, dulse, and wakame), and leafy greens (kale, arugula, watercress, turnip greens and mustard greens).
Millet is a high source of calcium as well.
Younger adults generally need around 1000 mg of calcium per day, whereas females over the age of 50, and men over the age of 70, need 1200 mg of calcium per day (3).
For those preferring to get their calcium from a mix of plant-based food sources that are lower in calcium, it could help to get familiar with the amount of calcium in the different foods, so that you can ensure that you are getting enough daily.
If you prefer to have dairy, fish, tofu made with calcium sulphate, or plant-based milks to get your calcium, then you can follow a general rule of thumb to have 2-3 servings of high calcium foods or fluids (each around 300 mg calcium per serving) to get enough calcium. 3 servings would generally be needed for women 51+ and men 71+, due to the higher calcium requirements.
These high calcium foods (300 mg per serving) include: 1 cup milk or fortified plant-based milk, 3/4 cup yogurt, 2 slices of cheese or a 3 cm cube of cheese, a 1/2 can of salmon with the bones, or a can of sardines with the bones (4).
Vitamin D:
Food sources of vitamin D include:
Milk (in Canada, milk must be fortified with vitamin D)
Fortified milk alternatives. Many brands of plant-based milks often add Vitamin D, but it is not mandatory to fortify, so it is important to check the label.
Fish (such as salmon, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines, halibut, and arctic char)
Small amounts are also in egg yolks.
For more information on the amount of vitamin D in these foods, check out the Osteoporosis Canada website or the HealthLink BC website.
It can be difficult to get enough vitamin D from food sources alone. It would take either several servings of milk or milk alternatives per day, or a serving of fatty fish plus multiple servings of milk or milk alternatives for adults to get enough vitamin D.
For those between the age of 19-50 who are not consuming enough vitamin D from the diet, it can be helpful to take a vitamin D supplement. Multivitamins often contain vitamin D and could also work as a way to get this extra vitamin D. For those over the age of 50, it is usually recommended to take a supplement that contains vitamin D, even if you are getting high vitamin D food sources.
In Summary,
By focusing on whole foods, the 3 main food groups at most meals and snacks, and including sources of calcium and vitamin D, you can get a variety of all the important vitamins and minerals.
By focusing on the main food groups, you don't need to worry about each nutrient separately.
For many people, following these strategies will help them get most (if not all) their vitamins and minerals from food, without the need for expensive supplements.
Some people, however, may need higher amounts of certain nutrients, and may need supplements in addition to the food sources. For example, some types of medications, medication conditions, and ages (those over the age of 50) can lead to decreased nutrient absorption. With decreased absorption, higher amounts of the nutrient are needed. Check out this blog post for more information about supplements.
If you are unsure if you are getting enough of the nutrients you need from food, a dietitian can assess your diet and give you practical tips on how to meet your daily nutrition requirements.
A dietitian can also help you with tailoring your diet to help you prevent or manage chronic conditions, including cancer prevention, metabolic health, and brain health.
Disclaimer:
The content on this site is not meant to replace direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
The information on this page reviews nutrition considerations for adults only, and is mostly geared towards the general healthy population. Infants and children have different nutrition requirements. People with medical conditions or altered blood levels of compounds may have different supplement requirements and contraindications, and should consult their doctor for their unique requirements.
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