6 Vitamins You Must Have in Your Diet
Certain vitamins should be top priority if you want your body to stay healthy and strong. Deficiencies in these particular nutrients can cause serious health problems.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is essential for a healthy body. Among the nutrients that we must consume frequently are vitamins, absolutely essential to many different chemical processes in the body. T oday we would like to tell you about 6 must-have vitamins so you can make sure to get enough.
Vitamin C
Getting enough vitamin C is very important, especially in winter when the cold weather lowers your defenses. Vitamin C helps prevent colds and the flu because it acts as an antioxidant.
A vitamin C deficiency will prevent your body from preparing healthy cells to defend themselves from viruses and bacteria. Of course, consuming vitamin C won’t guarantee you won’t get sick, but it will help reduce your risk.
- Some of foods with higher amounts of vitamin C are citrus fruits, like oranges, and kiwis.
Vitamin A
If you don’t have enough vitamin A in your body, you’ll have vision problems. That’s why vitamin A is famous for being “good for your eyes”. In addition, this substance is an antioxidant with the power to keep your immune system in good condition. You can find it in:
- Animal fats
- Carrots
- Tomatoes
- Peaches
- Peppers
Folic acid
One thing that folic acid (vitamin B9) does for your body is prevent anemia. This illness involves prolonged fatigue but is preventable. To ensure you get enough folic acid, you should include plenty of vegetables and fruits in your diet. We recommend strawberries and mangoes.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is necessary for healthy nerve and blood cells. It helps your body properly produce energy and create DNA.
As you age, your stomach doesn’t break down proteins as efficiently, and so your body doesn’t absorb the vitamin as well. Thus, it is advisable to monitor your vitamin B12 levels as you get older. Specifically, your risk of a vitamin B12 deficiency begins to grow at 50.
- Some of the foods that provide good amounts of vitamin B12 are fish, meat, eggs and dairy.
- If you eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, you’re at higher risk of a vitamin B12 deficiency, but it can also be found in grains.
Vitamin D
Another must-have in your diet is the famous vitamin D. It is a requirement for good bone health and proper calcium absorption. In addition, a low level of vitamin D has often been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. This substance is unique in that you can get it from being in the sun. In fact, the sun is our main source of vitamin D.
People who are most vulnerable to a vitamin D deficiency are those who:
- live in cities with high levels of pollution.
- usually wear clothes with more coverage.
- have more pigmentation in their skin.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 plays a role in around 200 biochemical reactions in your body. You can see, then, why it is so vital to get enough of it in your diet. Areas that will be affected if you don’t:
- Sleep
- Appetite
- Mood
- Cognitive abilities
- Immune system
- Production of red blood cells
Having low vitamin B6 levels is not common. Even so, it’s a good idea to make sure you consume enough by eating meat, whole grains and nuts.
Now you know: these are some of the vitamins that you really don’t want lacking in your diet, nutrients that will seriously affect vital processes in your body if you don’t get enough. In everything from colds to heart disease, vitamins help protect your body and perform hundreds of necessary chemical reactions.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Bucher A., White N., Vitamin C in the prevention and treatment of the common cold. Am J Lifestyle Med, 2016. 10 (3): 181-183.
- Van Gool JD., Hirche H., Lax H., Schaepdrijver L., Folic acid and primary prevention of neural tube defects: a review. Reprod Toxicol, 2018. 80: 73-84.
- Greenberg JA., Bell SJ., Yan Hong Y., Folic acid supplementation and pregnancy: more than just neural tube defect prevention. Rev Obstet Gynecol, 2011.
