Has anyone looked up all the vitamins and minerals we need from food and...

[samy23]

Has anyone looked up all the vitamins and minerals we need from food, and then made a list of the best food sources to get those vitamins and minerals from?

I'm thinking of doing this, then chosing the food sources which everyone in my family likes, and include them into either breakfast, lunch, dinners or snacks on a daily basis to make sure we are getting all the vitamins and minerals we should be.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone already done it? -I'm hoping the list of foods I end up with isn't too big, maybe maximum 10, and hopefully foods that are easy to include with all kinds of different meals/snacks.

It just seems like a good idea to me, because then I won't have to worry about whether we are getting good sources of vitamins/minerals, I'll know we are, andon a daily basis too. Thinking "eat a balanced diet and you should get everything you need" or something similar...just isn't good enough imo.

[deditus]

The World's Healthiest Foods website has lots of info on the most nutrient dense foods that may help you.

http://www.whfoods.com/

[sbgrace]

The above is a really good site.
This is another and the one I use most frequently for this sort of thing. You click on the vitamin/mineral/nutrient and in the information (lots of great information) they will tell you the amounts in the richest food sources as well as amounts needed (beyond RDA if research supports that) and nutrient interactions, any safety issues, etc. This is the vitamin section. http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins.html On the left you click the vitamin you want. Or click minerals and then get the minerals list or other nutrients for those nutrients/substances also in food that our bodies need that aren't vitamins/minerals.

[springmum]

I like this site for that kind of stuff


Oops - I see I was too slow to hit the reply button...sorry for the repeat!

[lil_miss_understood]

I like both sites already mentioned. I also like that the whfoods site also has a diet analysis thing. I found it useful.

[tanyalynn]

I prefer nutritiondata.com, although you can't look up by nutrient, you can get a lot of info on particular foods. I was trying to figure out foods that have a high amount of many nutrients per calorie, basically nutrient-dense foods. Sardines and chicken liver came out high by the end.

[Tumble Bumbles]

I like the idea of this. For me, it is because I am a 'whole foods' gal, and I don't want to be tied to a bunch of supplements for my wellbeing, know what I mean? I would rather get them from foods.

[mbravebird]

Here's another good site, with the function of each vitamin and the nutrients it works in concert with, as well as food sources:

http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/foodsourforv.html