1. Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps our bodies absorb calcium, which is important for bone health. Pro-tip: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends that children 1-13 years of age and adults 19-70, including pregnant and breastfeeding women, get 600 IU of vitamin D per day.
What Vitamins Should You Take Daily?
It is estimated that about half of American adults take some type of vitamin or mineral supplement.
“People might take supplements if they know they’re missing a certain food group,” says Patton. Some people may have a true deficiency.”
Everyone’s vitamin needs are different, so it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor or registered dietitian before starting to take supplements. Your doctor and pharmacist can also tell you if a supplement would interact badly with any medications you are taking, which may cause health problems.
What Does Recommended Daily Allowance Mean?
Men and women often have different vitamin and mineral recommendations. There are different ways to measure the RDA. There are 1,000 micrograms in 1 milligram.
Each vitamin and mineral has a specific RDA.
Do You Need A Supplement?
Most healthy people don’t need one. But some folks may need extra help, says Jerlyn Jones, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Reasons include if you’re elderly, take certain medicines, or don’t have easy access to healthy food because of income or where you live. Care for a young child. Infants and children may need help getting vitamin D and iron.
Eat a restricted or limited diet. It’s harder to get some nutrients, like vitamin B12 or calcium, if you leave out certain food groups. Your body starts to absorb less of vitamins D and B12 as you get older.
Your gut may not absorb nutrients as well.
What The Numbers Mean
Many of the terms you see on labels or supplement web sites can help you understand how much of the vitamin or mineral you should take. They’re tailored to women, men, and specific age groups.
For certain nutrients, the higher you go above the UL, the greater the chance you’ll have problems. That’s because space is limited, and there’s a need for one single reference number. That number is the amount of a vitamin or nutrient that you should get for top health from a diet of 2,000 calories a day.