Get vitamins and minerals from food rather than a pill bottle
The supplement industry is worth billions of dollars. It is built largely on the idea that modern diets are nutritionally incomplete. In reality, the average Canadian can get most vitamins and minerals from inexpensive whole foods.
Key points
- Whole foods provide vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, and most B vitamins.
- Vitamin D is the exception because of Canada's northern latitude
- Consult a medical professional for advice
In the supplement aisle of grocery stores hundreds of products claim to fill nutritional gaps. Persuasive marketing promises to boost energy, support immunity, and improve everything from hair to sleep, but comes with a hefty price tag. It's no wonder that anybody on a tight food budget might worry about those 'gaps'.
The good news is that especially the low-cost staples deliver the whole spectrum of vitamins and minerals, plus fibre and other compounds that interact with each other in ways a pill cannot replicate. For Canadians eating on a budget, the money spent on supplements is almost always better spent on food itself.
Vitamin D is an exception, because the human body produces it directly when skin is exposed to sunlight. In Canada, the sun sits too low in the sky for much of the year for UVB rays to reach the earth's surface at sufficient intensity. In addition, very few foods contain significant amounts of vitamin D naturally: fatty fish, egg yolks, and liver are the main sources, and even these provide modest amounts relative to what the body needs.
Here is a list of the most common vitamins and minerals and the foods that contain them.
- Vitamin D: Fatty fish, egg yolks, and liver, but even these provide modest amounts relative to what the body needs. Hence the need for an inexpensive supplement for most adults. Since Vitamin D is added to milk, children tend to get enough without a supplement.
- Vitamin C: Bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, tomatoes, and citrus fruit. Any one of these in a single daily serving exceeds the recommended intake — no supplement needed
- Calcium: Milk, yogurt, and cheese for dairy eaters; canned sardines and salmon eaten with their soft bones; tofu made with calcium sulphate; white beans; kale; and broccoli
- Iron: Lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, tofu, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, fortified breakfast cereals, and dark leafy greens such as spinach. Always pair with a vitamin C source to improve absorption
- Magnesium: Black beans, edamame, lentils, pumpkin seeds, almonds, whole wheat bread, brown rice, and spinach. Most Canadians eating legumes and whole grains regularly meet their magnesium needs from food alone
- Potassium: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, white beans, lentils, bananas, tomatoes, and most vegetables. A baked potato with the skin on contains more potassium than a banana
- Folate (B9): Lentils, chickpeas, black beans, edamame, spinach, asparagus, and fortified cereals. Folate is critical during pregnancy, when a supplement is genuinely recommended regardless of diet quality
- Zinc: Legumes, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, cashews, oats, and whole grains. Soaking or sprouting legumes before cooking improves zinc absorption by reducing phytic acid