The ABCs of Vitamins
As a wellness practitioner and vegan mother with a growing 6 year old boy, I am constantly getting questions from clients and other mothers about what vitamins they should take, how many they should take, what’s the best label for prenatal vitamins and kids brands, etc. Supplements can be a helpful way to ensure you are getting certain vitamins and minerals on a regular basis, but it doesn’t mean that you are necessarily assimilating those nutrients. Mother nature has packaged plant foods in such a way that they contain everything we need in one package; fiber, phytonutrients, micro sugars, minerals… what more can you ask for.
There is a difference from taking an orange flavored Vitamin C tablet and eating an orange ripe with sweetness, its pith, fiber, and juices. Get your vitamins the old fashioned way with delicious fruits and vegetables. Learn which foods provide the most nutrients and put them to use in your kitchen and with the kids. Taking supplements is one thing and definitely has its place, but at this time of year during the fall bounty, when farms are ample with a variety of colorful produce of every size shape and color – why not cut right to the source?
Fruits and vegetables picked at peak ripeness deliver the most flavor and texture. When used along side healthy foods like whole grains, legumes/beans, nuts, seeds, you’ll be sure to get all the nutrients you need to prepare your body for the season to come.
Plus, eating foods that are better for your body also tends to be better for the planet. Choosing nutrient-rich, unprocessed foods (preferably seasonal, locally grown ones) helps curb the estimated 24 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions produced the food industry, a large portion of which comes from processing and packaging. Unprocessed and unrefined, natural, and organic whole fruits and vegetables offer the body vitamins, phytochemicals, in an easily assimilated form. No supplement manufacturer has been successful in replicating the way nature preserves and delivers these important nutrients.
Plant cells have a perfect protective environment for vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals keeping them potent and effective so that you get the full spectrum of health benefits when you eat them. Unlike with supplements, you never have to worry that you are getting too much of a certain vitamin or wonder if one nutrient will cancel out another. Choose a variety of colorful foods to eat and let nature do the balancing for you.
Now let’s look at our ABC’s of Vitamins:
A- Vitamin A plays an important role in our ability to arm ourselves against colds and flus and may help prevent cancers. A maintains the respiratory, intestinal, and urinary tracts, and helps the skin protect against viruses entering into the body and it promotes healthy eyesight.
Where to find it- Apricots, cantaloupe, carrots, collard greens, kale, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, Swiss chard
B- Vitamin B, a family of team working nutrients including: thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, B6, biotin, folate, B12. Each helps the body transform food into energy. Some replace old cells with new ones while others help keep nerve and brain cells in working order. Folate is especially important for pregnant women in protecting the baby against certain known birth defects. Vitamin B6 and B12 may guard against heart disease.
Where to find it- Asparagus, avocados, beans, corn, green beans, leafy greens( dandelion and collards), onions,peas, whole wheat, yogurt
C- Vitamin C is the multitasking vitamin, preventing colds, a powerful antioxidant- countering the effects of free radicals that could lead to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and neurological problems.
Where to find it- Bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cherries, cranberries, kiwi, mangoes, onions, oranges
D- Vitamin D is getting attention increasingly because it helps the body absorb calcium- helping prevent osteoporosis. In addition to keeping bones and teeth strong Vitamin D regulates cell growth. Not very many foods are naturally rich in Vitamin D, our bodies main source of it is through sunlight.
Where to find it- Sunlight- get outside between the hours of 7-9:30am to soak up some Vitamin D
E- Vitamin E can help limit the production of harmful free radicals and defends against heart attack and stroke. E plays an active role in activating vitamin K.
Where to find it- Almonds, avocados, dandelion greens, sunflower seeds, kiwi, leafy greens, mangoes, tomato puree
K- Vitamin K helps stop bleeding, enabling blood to clot. K helps strengthen bones and increases bone density. Even though your body can manufacture this vitamin on its own from gut bacteria, its still important to get it from food sources.
Where to find it- Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, watercress
Mix and match your ABC’s in your meals using the tips below:
Use the Color Principal- when selecting produce just remember, the more colors, the more balanced your meals will be, ensuring that you and your little ones are eating your alphabet.
Keep it Fresh- To really get the full on nutritional benefits of these ABC packed foods, make sure to source them fresh and in the season, canned and frozen are less than excellent choices.
Pack it in Each Meal- Make sure that each breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack is an opportunity to eat whole foods. Consumption of convenience foods makes our bodies crave the vitamins and minerals that we are lacking and often make us hungrier. If you do have a snack like pretzels for instance, make sure to pair it with something like apple slices and almond butter.
Make it Tasty- Using a variety of interesting marinades, nut butters, sauces, spice mixtures to enhance flavor of vegetables and fruits and create yummy side dishes, main courses and snacks.
Make it Fun- If you go grocery shopping with young children, allow them to be a part of the experience. Have them choose a food for every color in he rainbow- for instance, “today I would like you to pick two purple fruits or veggies, and 3 green vegetables or fruits” it engages young kids and weaves in learning at the same time.
- Posted by Latham on December 1, 2009 at 5:00 am
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Tagged as: children, family, nutrition, parenting, vitamins
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Wow! GREAT piece. It’s funny how people ‘think’ that simply taking vitamins and supplements along with their standard american diets constitutes health…um, no! Why not EAT an orange for the vitamin C? If they single that vitamin out of the orange, and then pill-form it, well, how do they know HOW that single vitamin within the orange works with the OTHER parts of the orange- how do they know that THAT’S not the magic, and not just the vitamin itself? I wish more people understood the value of eating ‘real’ foods rather than popping supplements, really. You got my brain going this morning! Thank you!
~Kat
Great information, thanks. I think it may be worth while to spend time talking about the B vitamins in more depth, in particular B12. Especially to a forum like this that caters to vegans, no plant foods can be relied upon as a significant source of B12. Animal foods are the where we will find B12, meat, dairy and eggs.
In general, I strongly agree with your recommendations to eat whole, healthful foods rather than rely on supplements to supply one’s vitamins, and I especially agree with doing this rather than continuing to eat the “typical” American diet and believing all will be well if you simply take a few vitamin pills every day. However, I’m not sure that you’re telling the whole story: Supplements can be essential to maintaining good health, particularly if you’ve tested as deficient in particular vitamins. For example, getting outside in the sun to get your vitamin D is great – except that in latitudes north of New York City, in the U.S., sunlight alone is not adequate from October until May to provide enough Vitamin D. Also, if one doesn’t have the means to buy organically or locally grown foods, simply eating whole foods may not suffice – over the past several decades, the way most of America farms has depleted the nutrients in the soil that lead to nutrient and vitamin rich foods, and thus, the produce that most of America eats is likely sorely lacking in necessary vitamins and nutrients. Sad, but apparently true.
The thing about the B12. Yes, animal sources is where you can get B12; however, that is not the only way. There are many vegan foods that are fortified with B12 like fortified soy milk and cereals. There are also B12 patches, B12 pills. B12 can be on plants but the problem is because we wash our foods from bacteria and some of that bacteria is B12. So if you’re vegan and wondering where to get your B12 sources, just eat foods that are fortified with it, sprinkle nutritional yeast, wear the B12 patches or just take a B12 vitamin pill. You’ll be living at large and being a healthy, green, sexy, goddess or god!
Latham,
Thanks for a great article. I’m sharing this one on FB and twitter. Most of all with a good friend whose kids get a hard time at school from the teachers and cafeteria people.
Anyone interestd should read Dr. Campbell’s, The China Study. He does an excellent on explaining why “reduction” of vitamins/minerals is not sufficient and why eating the whole plant based food is more beneficial. There is a huge kick now on acai berry and there are now a ton of supplements out there, what ever happened to just eating the fruit? The China Study is an awesome, eye opening book that should be mandatory reading for all kids in school.
What we feed our bodies feeds our eyes. Many of the vitamins and minerals in our bodies are found in much higher concentrations in our eyes, so a diet lacking in these vitamins and minerals can lead to vision problems as we grow older.