Prenatal Vitamin Experts -- how do vitamins work?

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I have been wondering how vitamin absorption works. I know there are the fat soluble and the water soluble vitamins and I kind of get how that works (though wouldn't mind further explanation). I was really wondering how vitamin "daily allowance" really works. My gut tells me that it isn't strictly a daily thing -- that it's probably more like a weekly or monthly thing.

For instance, my prenatal has 800 (mcg, maybe) of folate. I know that that's 2x that of other prenatal. Say I was just taking the prenatal for the folate, could I just take them every other day?

These are the general questions I have about vitamins. How well do some carry over into the next day/week? Do some get used up or peed out quickly (I'm guessing, yes?). Which ones are you good on for a while if you load up on nutrient rich foods or vitamins?

Do we have any vitamin experts out there??

[IdentityCrisisMama]

BTW, I also wanted to ask how some vitamins turn pee bright yellow but others with the same "daily allowance" don't. I know some people feel that the pee color is no big deal but it always seemed "wasteful" to me...like why is all that in there if I'm just going to pee it out?

[WifeofAnt]

I'm not 100% but most prenatals (all the ones i've seen) have 800 (mcg?) of folate/folic acid. 400 is recommended pre-pregnancy but 800 is what is recommended during pregnancy.

The water soluble ones (I know vitamin c and a few others) you'll end up peeing out the extra. If you need to take larger doses of these vitamins its better to take small amounts several times a day than one large dose. The fat soluble ones should have any 'extra' put into your fat cells to use later.

[Arianwen]

Just to chime in, I checked my prenatal that I got from Safeway, it has 1mg of Folic!

[IdentityCrisisMama]

That could be...let's say it was another vitamin. Like, say, vitamin E and I was taking "extra" one day. Could you then skip a day the next?

My main thing is that I don't really believe nature intended us to have the exact amount of each nutrients each day, ky? Obviously there is come carry over.

Plus, if we're taking vitamins with nearly all 100% daily allowances - we're presumably still eating food with some nutrients in it.

My first pregnancy I just ate really well and didn't get into the whole vitamin thing so this is really the first time I'm really thinking about this.

Does anyone out there just supplement on days when they didn't eat well?