Ratio Of Minerals & Vitamins

Your body needs a broad array of minerals and vitamins in the correct ratios to maintain your metabolism. Depending on your eating habits, it may be difficult to achieve your recommended daily totals of each of these nutrients within reasonable calorie limits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, relates that eating nutrient-dense foods most often will help you do so. Foods such as unsweetened and unsalted fruits and vegetables represent nutrient-dense foods with larger ratios of beneficial minerals and vitamins than detrimental fat and calories.

Adequate Dietary Ratios

The essential dietary nutrients include calcium, potassium and magnesium, vitamins A, C, D and E and the eight B vitamins, which facilitate body processes from muscle contraction to eyesight. To get the right mineral and vitamin ratios, control your weight and meet additional protein, carbohydrate and fat requirements, make nutrient-dense selections among each type of food. The USDA suggests lean fish, meats, eggs, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables prepared with little salt, sugar or fat.

Minerals and Vitamins in Foods

The prevalent nutrients in the protein food group include potassium and vitamins A, B and D in liver, meats, poultry and ocean fish. All dairy foods offer calcium, potassium and B vitamins, with fortified content of vitamins A and D in milk. Grain foods such as brown rice and oatmeal are rich in iron, magnesium and B vitamins, and enriched products have larger ratios of these nutrients. Most fruits contain potassium and vitamin C, and various vegetables provide different combinations of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and the essential vitamins except B-12. The addition of salt in food processing or cooking degrades the nutrient density of foods by raising the ratios of sodium.

Dietary Deficiencies

The Institute of Medicine suggests recommended daily intakes of each vitamin and mineral that best sustains metabolism. If you get too little of these nutrients, you can develop vision problems or diseases such as anemia or osteoporosis. A balanced, varied diet with meals that represent every food group can supply the proper ratio of minerals and vitamins.

Dietary Imbalances

Eating too many processed foods contributes to dietary imbalances such as excess sodium and inadequate potassium. When the ratio of fat, sugar and sodium exceeds that of other minerals and vitamins, you may be subject to health problems such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. Eating a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, for instance, reduces this risk, according to the USDA.