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Can food give us all the nutrients we need?

This is part question and part sharing of a great webpage.

I have been researching the vitamin and mineral content of food. I came across this website:

http://nourishedkitchen.com/best-sources-vitamins-minerals/

It gives some great info on the best sources of vitamins and minerals in both animal and plant foods.

I am not inherently against supplementation but Id rather get all of my nutritional needs from my food and not have to worry about it. In addition, as with anything man-made, I don't believe we know the full effects of supplementing or how effective it is.

So, can you get all your nutritional needs just from food? I am happy to eat offal, shellfish, or anything "out there". Can it be done?

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 The better question is that does the RDA give you your optimum health? It supposed to keep you from dying or being severely ill - and I want better than that! For my family and I, I can say the RDA is far below optimum on most vitamins/minerals. – Lady_Arwen Apr 2 2012 at 20:57

closed as exact duplicate by jesuisjuba - paleorepublic.com, Shari Bambino, Wcc Kamal Stabby fan, Thumper, Jules K Apr 3 2012 at 13:46

6 Answers

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http://paleohacks.com/questions/76202/can-food-give-us-all-the-nutrients-we-need

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i'd think so. or we'd die. no, kidding aside -- the RDAs issues by the government are based on science that we know to be flawed for a number of reasons, as well as on political issues. i think it's highly unlikey that the requirements, as they currently stand, are the end-all-be-all.

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True enough. Let's take the PHD recommendations: perfecthealthdiet.com/?page_id=1066. I am not worried about dying :). I, like many other paleo enthusiasts I'd wager, want to be "optimal" with my health. While I'm certain I can live without getting the most out of each vitamin and mineral, I want to try in order to have the best life possible. – Denis Apr 2 2012 at 15:51
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Health is not found in a pill

And it can upset the synergy of your natural food intake- "Eat real food and prosper"

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 I'm moving more and more toward this viewpoint. Supplements generally cause more harm than good in my experience over the last few years. – Travis Culp♦ Apr 2 2012 at 20:50
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 Travis - what supplements in particular gave you problems? – rodger Apr 3 2012 at 2:22
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Can you meet all the needs as defined by the government/some study? Maybe, maybe not. But I find it hard to believe that a basically healthy human being can't maintain sufficient levels of nutrients from just food, if you define "sufficient levels" as "enough to maintain healthy mental and physical function." We definitely survived and thrived for ages before anyone invented supplements.

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That might be true, but there is a difference in food then and food now. It's highly likely that you got more nutrition from food then because of the agressive way we are using the earth nowadays, and are depleting it from minerals and vitamins. So you might get less nutrition from it then say 50 or 100 years ago. Preparing it right can save a lot of nutrition, and eating a lot of vegetables will also help. – TerraGuy Apr 2 2012 at 16:46
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I did cronometer for a week just to check. . . on 2000 cal/day fairly compliant paleo diet, I kick the RDA's rear in all the B vits (except for B1). I'm a hair low on calcium (90%, I do consume minimal dairy, and I'm not concerned about calcium intake), low on iron (75%, but I have high iron absorption and don't care about this), low on magnesium (75%, I supplement to bring it up), and low on potassium (which may or may not matter as I don't have a lot of sodium and the ratio may be more important). Oh and I think I always come up low on D3 too, but that's a supplementer.

So yes, I think you can get all your vits from food, if you buy the RDA (which has some problems).

Cronometer will let you reset the target values from the default RDA, which is lovely, however, I'm not really sure what I should be going for anyways, so if you have an idea, let me know.

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I use PHD at perfecthealthdiet.com/?page_id=1066 for my guideline. What does your normal diet consist of? How do you get the RDAs? Offal, Seafood, Shellfish, Eggs, Caviar, Fruit, etc? – Denis Apr 2 2012 at 18:26
I easily get my RDAs when I get up to 2000kcal or 2100kcal, but I prefer to be closer to 1700kcal or so, and then I'm "deficient". I find it strange that my ability to reach the RDAs is so highly correlated with how much food I eat, and so uncorrelated with how healthy or nutritious I expect a food to be. It makes me really not trust the database values, especially for higher quality food, like grassfed beef, organic, local, in-season produce, etc. – Sara S. Apr 2 2012 at 22:35
@Denis. . . you just try to make sure you get what he suggests supplementing through your diet? Just a little unclear because the link took me to a list of suppelements. The big thing that brings me into range most days is a serving of "cheese dip" soup. . . coconut milk, and 3lbs of broccoli/spinach with salt and maybe some parmesan cheese dusted over, cooked in a pressure cooker and blended together. I strive for a cup/day. (If I have some bone broth, I toss that in too. If you're sourcing your products well, you're probably getting a lot more nutrients than you realize. . . for example – PaleoGal Apr 3 2012 at 12:42
the eggs I eat come from a "beyond organic" farm where previous eggs have tested at over 30 times the rda of folate (the chicken eat a lot of bugs/larvae- like they'd normally want to- a sharp contrast to "vegetarian"-fed chickens). . . and i imagine these foods are richly packed with other untested vitamins. I imagine your backyard spinach has got a lot more K,C going on than your grocery store (even organic) spinach – PaleoGal Apr 3 2012 at 12:45
I don't do offal, but I try to eat fish at least 1 time/week. Beef is a fairly common dinner meat for me. Kimchi is good. I don't really have any profoundly useful secrets except for the broccoli soup, and the well-sourced eggs, perhaps some steamed sweet potatoes. . . so I think it's doable, but yes, would certainly be tough at lower calorie ranges, so I feel your frustration Sara. – PaleoGal Apr 3 2012 at 12:49
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My hope is that your question is somewhat irrelevant since the FDA has everything so backwards. I strive for natural whole foods and variety including food type and color.

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I do the same. I am honestly less concerned with the FDA and more so with increased supplementation with a lot of knowledgeable Paleo bloggers. I am looking over their recommendations and looking for ways to get them through food. – Denis Apr 2 2012 at 18:12

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