What Vitamins Need to Be Supplemented?

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When people first become interested in health and fitness, many of them are under the impression that the more supplements you take, the better off you’ll be. While it would certainly be nice if all supplements had incredible health benefits, the truth is that many aren’t needed unless your diet is sub-par.

The same is the case for vitamins. As with other supplements, and perhaps even more so, people are convinced that the more vitamins you take, the better. However, most common vitamins are easily obtained from diet.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is perhaps the most commonly supplemented vitamin, yet supplementation is generally unnecessary if you’re getting a few servings of fruits and vegetables each day. That’s not to say vitamin C deficiency isn’t potentially a problem, and that people eating poor diets don’t need to supplement (although fixing their diet would be better) but for most health conscious people, getting enough vitamin C is not a problem.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an exception since the majority of vitamin D intake comes from the sun. Today, most people don’t get nearly enough sun, especially in winter months, and even a healthy diet full of vitamin D rich foods is unlikely to compensate. If you do choose to supplement vitamin D, make sure to get vitamin D3 rather than vitamin D2, since vitamin D2 is a synthetic form not usually used by humans. As highlighted in the article How Much Vitamin D Should I Take? taking 2000-4000 IU each day is ideal.

Vitamin K

As highlighted in the article What Does Vitamin K Do? vitamin K deficiency is very uncommon, as a reasonable intake of plant foods tends to provide enough. Supplementation is rarely necessary.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A deficiency is very dangerous and potential fatal, but typically only occurs in malnourished children and extremely malnourished adults. People eating very poor diets should consider supplementation.

Vitamin B12

B12 deficiency tends to be a problem in vegetarians and vegans, as vitamin B12 is only found in animal products. If you’re eating animal products regularly, deficiency is highly unlikely, but supplementation is essential for vegans and some vegetarians.

Vitamins are easiest to absorb from the diet

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post that does NOT necessarily represent the opinions of our editorial team.

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