Longevity Minded - The Ultimate User's Guide to Vitamins
This week’s newsletter is, as always, covering an important topic in the world of longevity but taking on a little bit of a different form. Please let me know your thoughts and if this was valuable to you by hitting reply to this email or leaving a comment down below. The Purpose of This GuideThere’s a lot of talk about the importance of “hitting your daily micronutrients'', but I’ve actually never heard someone talking about the importance of micronutrients follow up by explaining what that really means. Which nutrients? What’s the optimal intake of them? What foods can I get them through? I was tired of eating what I thought was a healthy well-rounded diet without actually knowing. Hence the creation of this one-stop-shop guide for all things vitamins. Vitamins aren't the only thing we have to consider while striving for a complete micronutrient profile, but they’re a large piece of the puzzle. This guide will break down the 13 essential vitamins, explain how to optimize our absorption of them, outline how much of them we need, and highlight some of the richest whole food sources of each. Before the in-depth breakdown of each vitamin, I’ve included a simplified summary, or a “one-pager”, that may be of more use on a daily basis if you’re aiming to consume a complete vitamin complex on a daily basis without meticulously tracking everything you eat. I hope you find this guide as useful and deployable as I have. What are Vitamins?Vitamins are organic compounds, which is a fancy way of saying they contain carbon, that are essential nutrients to the human body. Being deficient in any one of the 13 vitamins can increase our risk of certain health issues. Ideally, we obtain these nutrients through whole foods, however, they are also available through supplementation. There are two broad categories of vitamins that help us determine how they interact with our bodies and the most optimal way to consume them.
Whole Foods vs. SupplementsAlthough vitamins can be purchased in supplemental form, it’s probably better to meet your micronutrient requirements through whole foods. Whole foods are complex, meaning they contain a variety of micronutrients that your body requires. They can contain health promoting chemicals, such as antioxidants, of which the benefits would not be derived if consumed via a supplemental form. Many of them, such as whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, also contain dietary fibre which is crucial to a healthy diet and has shown to help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Supplements can play a role if you’re deficient in something specific or have a certain condition, but make it your aim to get everything you need through a balanced diet. It’s worth noting that some supplements use a synthetic form of the vitamin which generally tends to have a much lower absorption rate compared to the natural form that can be obtained through whole foods. I’m purposely not touching on multivitamins in this guide for two reasons. It’s possible to consume a sufficient vitamin profile through whole foods and spending some time in the sun. If one does need to supplement vitamins for some reason, it’s highly unlikely they need a complete multivitamin complex, but rather a specific vitamin. MeasurementsVitamin quantities are generally listed in one of the following units. It pays to be familiar with these so you can better understand nutrition and supplement labels.
Optimal vs. RecommendedThe last important caveat I encourage you to think about before we dive in is the distinction between optimal and recommended intake. There is almost always a difference. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) is the average daily intake of a nutrient that is sufficient for nearly all healthy individuals of a particular gender and age. Often, nutrients will also have tolerable upper intake levels (UL) which is the maximum amount you can take before exposing yourself to potential adverse health effects. Although the RDA level is generally a good enough estimate, it’s not necessarily the optimal intake for an individual. To determine the optimal level of a nutrient, one would have to undergo blood tests to determine how their body responds to certain nutrients while considering impacts from their environmental exposure to figure out what their most optimal intake of a particular nutrient would be. This is probably not necessary, especially if you’re in good health. For simplicity and to make this guide applicable to the broadest number of people, the intakes provided here will be the recommended daily intakes. You can download a PDF version of the guide using the link below or revisit the guide on www.longevityminded.ca at any time.
And, as always, please give me feedback on Instagram or by hitting reply to this email. Much love, Jack Welcome to the rest of the guide… One PagerVitamin AClassification: Fat-soluble. Other names: Retinol (preformed vitamin A), provitamin A carotenoids (most importantly beta-carotene). Purpose
Vitamin DClassification: Fat-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin EClassification: Fat-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin KClassification: Fat-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin CClassification: Water-soluble. Other names: Ascorbic acid, ascorbate. Purpose
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)Classification: Water-soluble. Other names: Nicotinic acid (pyridine-3-carboxylic acid), nicotinamide (niacinamide or pyridine-3-carboxamide), and other derivatives (i.e., nicotinamide riboside). Purpose
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin B7 (Biotin)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin B9 (Folate)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin)Classification: Water-soluble. Purpose
If you liked this post from Longevity Minded, why not share it? DISCLAIMER: I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on the Internet. Speak with a medical professional before doing anything medical-related. |
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