What Are Two Ways To Get Vitamins?

Your body requires 13 known vitamins for essential human function, according to the book "Sport Nutrition." Vitamins help your body perform chemical reactions and regulate energy production. Failing to get enough of any one vitamin for a period of several weeks can result in vitamin deficiencies that can affect health. Knowing how to introduce vitamins into your body will help you understand the importance of proper nutrition and supplementation.

Eat Your Vitamins

In an ideal world, you would obtain all of your vitamins from the food that you eat. With a well-rounded, colorful diet of lean proteins, fish, green leafy vegetables, other colorful vegetables, berries, nuts and beans, you can eat yourself healthy. Foods like fish and eggs provide vitamins A, D, E, K, B complex, pantothenic acid and biotin. Leafy green veggies are chock full of vitamin C, folic acid and B complex. The more varied and colorful your diet, the more varied and colorful your intake of vitamins.
Your body takes and processes each of these nutrients in a different way and for different purposes, so the recommended intake for each is similarly varied. Looking on the food labels at your house will help you get an idea of how much of each vitamin you're consuming based on your personal diet.
All of the vitamins except A, D, E and K are water-soluble, meaning that the body doesn't store any excess, and you have to continuously include them in your diet. The fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K, are stored within your body. While unusual, over-consuming fat-soluble vitamins is possible, and can lead to health problems. Eating a varied diet helps to ensure proper consumption of all types of vitamins, while also preventing the over-consumption of any one vitamin.

Supplement Yourself

While in an ideal world, you would consume all your vitamins from your diet, your world probably isn't ideal. You probably have days in which you don't eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable. You probably have other days in which lunch consists of a diet soda and french fries. No one's perfect, and everyone has those times when a well-balanced, nutrient dense lifestyle doesn't seem possible. That's where supplementation comes in. But vitamin supplements are meant to be just that--a supplement, not a substitute. Work hard to consume your vitamins from food first, and use supplements as an insurance plan. The Mayo Clinic suggests checking labels of vitamin supplements and only choosing those that have been approved by the U.S. Pharmacopeia, or USP. The Mayo Clinic also suggests that you avoid supplements that provide more than 100 percent of the daily value for any one vitamin or mineral.

Sunny Vitamin D

Vitamin D has many important functions, including promoting calcium absorption and improving bone health. Unlike the other vitamins, sun exposure enables your skin to synthesize vitamin D. As little as 10 minutes of direct sun exposure on your face, arms or legs can prevent vitamin D deficiency, according to the Mayo Clinic.