Vitamins That Assist Mineral Uptake

For health and normal growth, your body needs both vitamins--organic substances made by plants or animals, and minerals--inorganic elements that come from the Earth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, certain vitamins and minerals interact and some vitamins work to help your body absorb some of the minerals it needs. To ensure you're getting enough vitamins and minerals, eat a balanced diet with a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy and protein foods such as legumes, nuts, seeds and meat or soy.

Vitamin C and Iron

Vitamin C assists in the uptake of iron. Vitamin C consumed in a meal enhances absorption of nonheme iron, the iron not bound by hemoglobin protein, from foods consumed at the same meal. Vitamin C captures the iron and keeps it ready for absorption by holding it in the reduced ferrous form.

According to the National Institutes of Health, adults absorb 10 percent to 15 percent of dietary iron. Absorption of iron by individuals varies and depends on storage levels of iron, diet and the presence of certain substances that either enhance or inhibit the absorption of iron from the diet.

Dietary iron occurs in two forms: heme and nonheme. Absorption of heme iron found in meat proteins ranges from 15 percent to 35 percent of the iron consumed and does not require the presence of vitamin C for assistance. In contrast, nonheme iron found in plant foods including wheat, rice, black beans and soybeans is less efficiently absorbed. The body absorbs only 2 percent to 20 percent of nonheme iron. Meat proteins and vitamin C increase the absorption rate of nonheme iron. Certain other substances decrease absorption of nonheme iron. Among them are the tannins found in tea, phytates found in whole grains and legumes, some proteins found in soybeans, polyphenols and calcium.

Consuming food containing vitamin C at the same meal with food containing nonheme iron is especially important when iron intake is low, when iron losses are high due to bleeding, when a vegetarian diet prohibits the consumption of foods naturally high in heme iron, or at times when iron requirements are higher, such as during pregnancy.

Vitamin D and Calcium

Vitamin D in its active form stimulates absorption of calcium in your intestine. According to Kathleen Mahan and Sylvia Escott-Stump in the text "Krause's Food, Nutrition, & Diet Therapy," vitamin D takes part in a complex series of chemical reactions that result in transferring calcium across the mucosal brush border of your intestine and into your bloodstream. In this way vitamin D helps your body absorb the appropriate amount of the mineral calcium needed to build and maintain strong bones.

Low vitamin D intake or inadequate exposure to sunlight, which inhibits the production of vitamin D from cholesterol in your skin, results in less available vitamin D, and thus reduces calcium absorption. Less calcium absorbed due to a deficiency of vitamin D can result in a disease called rickets that causes softening of the bones.

Vitamin D and Phosphorus

Although vitamin D's most pronounced effect is to enhance absorption of calcium, it also stimulates absorption of phosphate and magnesium ions. In this way vitamin D plays an essential role in maintaining phosphorus homeostasis. Vitamin D functions together with estrogen and parathyroid hormone to mobilize and deposit phosphorus in bone.