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A well-balanced diet should provide all the vitamins a body needs, but some people
opt to take supplements. There are times, such as if you're pregnant or nursing, when
no matter how well you're eating, it may be beneficial to take vitamins. Habits like smoking,
doing drugs, and drinking alcohol or a lot of caffeinated beverages (coffee, tea, or colas)
deplete the body's store of certain vitamins.
The following
chart highlights the most important vitamins and minerals, explaining
why you need them and which foods contain them.
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| Prevents infection; helps eyes adjust to light and darkness; helps maintain skin and tissues such as those inside the mouth, lungs, bones, and teeth. |
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| Milk, egg yolks, cheese, liver, and dark green, leafy, yellow, or orange fruits and vegetables. |
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| B vitamins, including thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, choline |
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| Help metabolism, steady nerves, aid digestion, improve energy and alertness, boost immune system. |
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| Whole-grain breads and cereals, wheat germ, green vegetables, legumes (beans), nuts, seeds, chicken, lean pork, liver, eggs, potatoes, fish. |
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| Helps maintain healthy cells and bones, boosts immunity and healing, aids in iron absorption. |
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| Citrus fruits, bell peppers, berries, melons, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, green leafy vegetables. |
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| Helps calcium absorption, which is vital to strong bones and teeth. |
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| Sunlight, fortified milk, fish, egg yolks. |
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| Preserves other vitamins. Good for membranes. |
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| Vegetable oils, wheat germ, egg yolks, legumes, corn, almonds. |
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| Helps maintain blood's ability to carry oxygen from lungs to rest of body. A shortage of iron leads to anemia and weakness. |
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| Dried fruit, blackstrap molasses, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, liver, egg yolks, sardines, whole-grain bread. |
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| Builds strong bones and teeth, aids blood clotting. |
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| Dairy foods (milk), leafy greens, broccoli, molasses, artichokes, salmon, tofu (soybean curd), legumes (peas and beans), seeds, nuts, calcium-enriched grain products, lime-processed tortillas. |
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| Maintains helathy nerves and muscles (particularly important for people who exercise heavily). |
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| Bananas, potatoes, legumes (peas and beans), meat and poultry, milk. |
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| Helps regulate and maintain fluid content of the body (especially important for heavy exercisers who lose a lot of fluid through sweating). |
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| Seafood, nuts, whole grains, leafy greens. |
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