Water-soluble vitamins are packed into the watery portions of the foods you eat. They are absorbed directly into the bloodstream as food is broken down during digestion or as a supplement dissolves.

Because much of your body consists of water, many of the water-soluble vitamins circulate easily in your body. Your kidneys continuously regulate levels of water-soluble vitamins, shunting excesses out of the body in your urine.

Although water-soluble vitamins have many tasks in the body, one of the most important is helping to free the energy found in the food you eat. Others help keep tissues healthy. Here are some examples of how different vitamins help you maintain health:. Contrary to popular belief, some water-soluble vitamins can stay in the body for long periods of time.

And even folic acid and vitamin C stores can last more than a couple of days. Just be aware that there is a small risk that consuming large amounts of some of these micronutrients through supplements may be quite harmful.

For example, very high doses of B6—many times the recommended amount of 1. Rather than slipping easily into the bloodstream like most water-soluble vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins gain entry to the blood via lymph channels in the intestinal wall see illustration. Many fat-soluble vitamins travel through the body only under escort by proteins that act as carriers.

Fatty foods and oils are reservoirs for the four fat-soluble vitamins. Within your body, fat tissues and the liver act as the main holding pens for these vitamins and release them as needed. To some extent, you can think of these vitamins as time-release micronutrients.

Your body squirrels away the excess and doles it out gradually to meet your needs. Together this vitamin quartet helps keep your eyes, skin, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and nervous system in good repair. Here are some of the other essential roles these vitamins play:.

Because fat-soluble vitamins are stored in your body for long periods, toxic levels can build up. This is most likely to happen if you take supplements. The body needs, and stores, fairly large amounts of the major minerals. Major minerals travel through the body in various ways. Potassium, for example, is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, where it circulates freely and is excreted by the kidneys, much like a water-soluble vitamin.

Calcium is more like a fat-soluble vitamin because it requires a carrier for absorption and transport. One of the key tasks of major minerals is to maintain the proper balance of water in the body. Sodium, chloride, and potassium take the lead in doing this.

Three other major minerals—calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium—are important for healthy bones. Sulfur helps stabilize protein structures, including some of those that make up hair, skin, and nails.

Having too much of one major mineral can result in a deficiency of another. These sorts of imbalances are usually caused by overloads from supplements, not food sources.

Here are two examples:. A thimble could easily contain the distillation of all the trace minerals normally found in your body. Yet their contributions are just as essential as those of major minerals such as calcium and phosphorus, which each account for more than a pound of your body weight.

The other trace minerals perform equally vital jobs, such as helping to block damage to body cells and forming parts of key enzymes or enhancing their activity. Trace minerals interact with one another, sometimes in ways that can trigger imbalances. Too much of one can cause or contribute to a deficiency of another.

Here are some examples:. Antioxidant is a catchall term for any compound that can counteract unstable molecules such as free radicals that damage DNA, cell membranes, and other parts of cells. Your body cells naturally produce plenty of antioxidants to put on patrol.

The foods you eat—and, perhaps, some of the supplements you take—are another source of antioxidant compounds. Carotenoids such as lycopene in tomatoes and lutein in kale and flavonoids such as anthocyanins in blueberries, quercetin in apples and onions, and catechins in green tea are antioxidants.

The vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium also have antioxidant properties. Free radicals are a natural byproduct of energy metabolism and are also generated by ultraviolet rays, tobacco smoke, and air pollution.

They lack a full complement of electrons, which makes them unstable, so they steal electrons from other molecules, damaging those molecules in the process. Free radicals have a well-deserved reputation for causing cellular damage.

But they can be helpful, too. When immune system cells muster to fight intruders, the oxygen they use spins off an army of free radicals that destroys viruses, bacteria, and damaged body cells in an oxidative burst.

Vitamin C can then disarm the free radicals. Antioxidants are able to neutralize marauders such as free radicals by giving up some of their own electrons. When a vitamin C or E molecule makes this sacrifice, it may allow a crucial protein, gene, or cell membrane to escape damage.

This helps break a chain reaction that can affect many other cells. Each of the nutrients that has antioxidant properties also has numerous other aspects and should be considered individually. The context is also important—in some settings, for example, vitamin C is an antioxidant, and in others it can be a pro-oxidant.

Articles and advertisements have touted antioxidants as a way to help slow aging, fend off heart disease, improve flagging vision, and curb cancer. And laboratory studies and many large-scale observational trials the type that query people about their eating habits and supplement use and then track their disease patterns have noted benefits from diets rich in certain antioxidants and, in some cases, from antioxidant supplements.

But results from randomized controlled trials in which people are assigned to take specific nutrients or a placebo have failed to back up many of these claims. One study that pooled results from 68 randomized trials with over , participants found that people who were given vitamin E, beta carotene, and vitamin A had a higher risk of death than those who took a placebo.

There appeared to be no effect from vitamin C pills and a small reduction in mortality from selenium, but further research on these nutrients is needed. These findings suggest little overall benefit of the antioxidants in pill form. On the other hand, many studies show that people who consume higher levels of these antioxidants in food have a lower risk of many diseases.

The bottom line? Eating a healthy diet is the best way to get your antioxidants. Eating right to look and feel your best at every stage of your life. Tips to help you and your family eat delicious, healthy food on a tight budget.

How focusing on the experience of eating can improve your diet. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easy. Take the assessment and get matched with a professional, licensed therapist. Millions of readers rely on HelpGuide. org for free, evidence-based resources to understand and navigate mental health challenges.

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Heme iron is more readily available for absorption than non-heme iron. Heme iron is found in foods like meat, fish or poultry and non-heme iron is found in plants. Recommendations for iron intake for vegetarians are higher than for those who eat meat because the non-heme iron in plants is less bioavailable.

Antioxidants like phytates or polyphenols can bind with certain micronutrients in the gastrointestinal tract and prevent absorption into the body. Phytates are found in the outer layer of plants and can bind with minerals like zinc, calcium or iron, which prevents their absorption in the intestines.

Polyphenols are a compound found in plants that can also interfere with mineral absorption in the intestines. The field of nutrition and related topics can seem complex so Michigan State University Extension has a number of resources for further reading.

Contact your local MSU Extension county office for information about programs near you. For individual concerns related to nutrient absorption, see your primary care provider and a registered dietitian.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. Are you absorbing the nutrients you eat? What does this mean? How does this affect nutrient absorption? Structure of food Nutrients from plant foods or other foods that take longer to digest such as corn or meat are less bioavailable than nutrients in foods with less complex tissue structures.

Health or life-stage There is a normal decline in gastric acid as we age, so younger individuals can have a higher bioavailability of micronutrients than older individuals.

Chemical form Heme iron is more readily available for absorption than non-heme iron. Interactions with compounds in foods Antioxidants like phytates or polyphenols can bind with certain micronutrients in the gastrointestinal tract and prevent absorption into the body.

What can we do? To increase the bioavailability of nutrients in foods with rigid tissue structures, chop or mince the food before consumption.

For example, in order to get the most folate a water-soluble B vitamin from spinach, mince or chop the leaves. If you are a vegan or vegetarian and not consuming foods with heme iron fish, meat, poultry , increase your consumption of foods that are good sources of non-heme iron like nuts, beans, vegetables, and fortified grain products.

Antioxidants like phytates and polyphenols are reduced in the processing or treatment of foods. Examples include pounding grains to remove the bran, soaking grains in water and discarding the water phytate is water-soluble , or cooking foods like beans to reduce polyphenols.

While antioxidants are important dietary components, consider balancing consumption of both raw and cooked foods to ensure maximum micronutrient absorption. Consume foods that work together to increase absorption of certain micronutrients.

Eating citrus foods or foods high in vitamin C with foods high in iron increases the absorption of both heme and non-heme iron. This also prevents minerals from binding with phytate or polyphenols in the gastrointestinal tract. Did you find this article useful?

particularly vitamins B and C, which are the most sensitive to high heat and long cooking times. Boiling, on the other hand, tends to be the worst, as it also results in the highest loss of minerals due to their leeching into the surrounding water, in addition to the reduction in vitamins B and C.

to make sure that you can still benefit from the minerals that ended up in the water during cooking. To reduce the loss of nutrients it is also recommended to wait until the water is boiling hot before adding in the veggies, cooking vegetables and fruit in large chunks rather than finely cut pieces and always covering the pot to reduce cooking times.

Grains, beans, nuts and seeds are all packed with minerals that are essential for our health, including magnesium, zinc, iron and selenium. However, these foods also contain a substance called phytic acid, which is an anti-nutrient that binds to these minerals and prevents our body from effectively absorbing them.

Many vegetables and fruits do not require peeling and aside from saving the time with removing their skin,. This includes foods like potato, apple, pears, carrots, cucumbers, courgettes and aubergines , whose skin contains a significant share of their nutrients.

So rather than peeling these fruits and vegetables, give them a good wash and cook or serve them with the skin to make sure that your body benefits from all of the nutrients that they provide.

Since many vegetables, such as dark greens and those of red, yellow and orange colour contain good amounts of one or more of these vitamins, it is always a good idea to serve them with a bit of healthy fat to maximise vitamin absorption. You can do this by adding a spoon of cold pressed virgin olive oil to the veggies before you serve them, or eat them together with foods like avocados, nuts, eggs or fish that are all a good source of healthy fat.

Similarly, if you are taking a supplement that contains any these four vitamins, take them together with some healthy fat too, as this will have the same benefit for your body.

While we have all probably been told countless of times to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to stay healthy, we might be less familiar with the fact that.

The reason for this is that fresh produce is often picked before its peak ripeness, to ensure that it survives the transport and storage before being presented to consumers on the shelves of our favourite supermarket. However, this also gives them less time to develop a full spectrum of nutrients, such as antioxidants and vitamins, and minerals.

During transport and storage, fresh fruits and veggies are also often exposed to lots of heat and light, which degrades some nutrients, particularly delicate vitamins B and C. Some heme may be transported intact into the circulation. There appear to be two processes responsible for copper absorption - a rapid, low capacity system and a slower, high capacity system, which may be similar to the two processes seen with calcium absorption.

Many of the molecular details of copper absorption remain to be elucidated. Inactivating mutations in the gene encoding an intracellular copper ATPase have been shown responsible for the failure of intestinal copper absorption in Menkes disease.

A number of dietary factors have been shown to influence copper absorption. For example, excessive dietary intake of either zinc or molybdenum can induce secondary copper deficiency states.

Zinc homeostasis is largely regulated by its uptake and loss through the small intestine. Although a number of zinc transporters and binding proteins have been identified in villus epithelial cells, a detailed picture of the molecules involved in zinc absorption is not yet in hand.

Intestinal excretion of zinc occurs via shedding of epithelial cells and in pancreatic and biliary secretions. A number of nutritional factors have been identified that modulate zinc absorption. Certain animal proteins in the diet enhance zinc absorption. Phytates from dietary plant material including cereal grains, corn, rice chelate zinc and inhibit its absorption.

Subsistance on phytate-rich diets is thought responsible for a considerable fraction of human zinc deficiencies. Protein plays a role in the transportation of minerals throughout the body. However, excessive protein intake, especially from animal sources, may lead to increased excretion of calcium.

Maintain a balanced approach to protein consumption, incorporating plant-based sources like legumes and tofu. Some foods contain antinutrients, compounds that can hinder mineral absorption.

Phytic acid, for example, found in grains and legumes, can bind to minerals and reduce their bioavailability. Soaking, sprouting, or fermenting these foods can help minimize the impact of antinutrients.

In the quest for optimal health, it's not just about what you eat but also about how your body absorbs and utilizes nutrients. By embracing a diverse and balanced diet, incorporating mindful cooking techniques, and paying attention to synergies between vitamins and minerals, you can empower your body to make the most of the essential minerals it needs.

Remember, small changes in your dietary habits can lead to significant improvements in mineral absorption and overall well-being. For high-quality multivitamin and mineral supplements, consider exploring Power Health multivitamins.

The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. Maximizing Mineral Absorption: A Guide to Nourishing Your Body. Home Blog Maximizing Mineral Absorption: A Guide to Nourishing Your Body.

Top tips for mineral absorption: 1. Diverse Diet for Comprehensive Mineral Intake The first step in aiding mineral absorption is to consume a diverse range of nutrient-rich foods. Mindful Cooking Techniques The way you prepare your food can significantly impact mineral availability.

Pairing Vitamins with Minerals Vitamins and minerals often work in tandem, with some vitamins enhancing the absorption of specific minerals.

Healthy Gut, Healthy Absorption Maintaining gut health is crucial for effective mineral absorption. Mindful Calcium Intake Calcium is vital for bone health, but its absorption can be influenced by other dietary factors.