Are You Getting Enough?

Many ‘experts’ recommend not taking vitamins if you eat a balanced diet. Unfortunately, this alone can’t provide enough essential vitamins and minerals to encourage the best possible health. For Instance, you would need to consume 5,000 calories per day (mostly fat) in order to get the recommended minimum (400IU) of vitamin E, and 12,000 calories per day to get the minimum amount of chromium*. Most of our foods are processed and ‘unnaturally’, the nutrients have been processed out of them.

Most people recognise the benefits of taking a multivitamin/mineral formula on a daily basis, but how many people actually take them and more importantly those that do, how many actually look at what they are taking? Almost as undesirable as not recommending vitamin and mineral supplements is the recommendation of them based on the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA).

When you look at the packaging for vitamin and mineral supplements, you will find the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). This is a guideline that tells you the amount of each vitamin and mineral that your body should obtain on a daily basis. But what you may not know is that the RDA is the bare minimum. The RDA takes into consideration the amount of vitamins and minerals that are needed on a daily basis in order to prevent diseases such as rickets or scurvy. These levels are based on the “average person” which assumes that you are an adult under 60 years old who is in good health, has normal digestion, isn’t overweight, leads a relatively stress-free life, has no medical problems, doesn’t take any medication, eats a balanced diet, and consumes 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day *. Perhaps, it’s stating the obvious but the majority of the population really doesn’t fit into this definition of the average person.

RDA is generally based upon Reference Nutrient Intakes (RNI). RNI refers to the minimum amount of a nutrient that is required to prevent deficiency of that particular disease.

The RDA will help prevent disease, but the Optimum Daily Allowance (ODA) is for people who are looking for prevention from disease and improved health. The ODA levels have been defined by nutritional experts and refer to the amounts of each vitamin and mineral that it is needed to consume for optimal health benefits. You won’t find ODA on any products out there as it is basically unofficial as it’s not been sanctioned by any Governmental agencies.

You can see by the figures below the difference between recommended and optimal.

Vitamin C: RDA is 85 mg, ODA is 250 - 3,000 mg

Vitamin E: RDA is 15 IU, ODA is 50 - 800 IU

Magnesium: RDA is 350 mg, ODA is 400 - 600 mg

Vitamin B12: RDA is 3 mcg, ODA is 10 - 100 mcg

Taking the declared minimum amount of a nutrient to prevent deficiency diseases doesn’t help those people who want to be truly healthy and not just be free of symptoms.

There are any number of diseases and ailments that are amplified by vitamin deficiency and malnutrition. 80% of adults are deficient in at least one essential vitamin or mineral in their daily intake.

While I encourage everyone to be taking at least some supplementation (hopefully it’s a good natural ingredient filled tablet and not a pharmaceutical one), you might want to take another look at how much of those vitamins and minerals you are actually getting.

* source – How to Stay Young and Live Longer – Dr Michael Lam