There's no standard ranking order of essential vitamins. All vitamins are essential for good health. A vitamin's level of importance depends largely on individual factors like diet, physical stage of development, gender, etc. Each of us has our own personal vitamin-rating profile that changes over time as the conditions that define our profiles change. To access your vitamin needs, you must evaluate each vitamin in the context of common vitamin needs as it pertains to you personally. The following steps use an arbitrary number system to help you weigh your vitamins needs according to common factors of consideration.
Instructions
Asses Your Vitamin Needs
1. Create a table consisting of 13 rows and 7 columns. Label the rows as follows: A, C, D, E, K, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6, B7 (biotin), B9 (folic acid) and B12. Label the columns as follows: Diet Intake, Solubility, Deficiency, Overdose, Developmental Need, Treatment Aid and Total.
2. Perform an analysis of your general diet by maintaining a food journal for one month. Keep a running log of everything you eat over this time. Use the nutritional label on the food packaging to assess the amount of vitamins you are getting from each food you eat and record this information as well. At the end of the month, review your journal to determine how well the foods in your diet are providing you with the recommended daily amounts of vitamin intakes. For each day, find the total amount of your intake for each vitamin and compare this with recommended standards (use the Vitamin Recommendations resource below). If you find that you're consistently not meeting a daily requirement for a vitamin with your diet, put a "1" in the corresponding column for Diet Intake.
3. Put a "1" in the corresponding Solubility column for vitamins A, D and K (fat-soluble vitamins that the body can accumulate). Put a "2" in the corresponding Solubility column for vitamins C and all the B-complex vitamins (water-soluble vitamins that cannot be stored and must be replenished daily).
4. Put a "1" in the corresponding Deficiency column for all vitamins you have a known chronic deficiency in (based on a doctor's confirmation). Put a minus-2 in the corresponding Overdose for any vitamin you've received diagnosis of hypervitaminoses for. Use the Symptom Chart resource below to look up vitamin deficiency and overdose symptoms. Consult with your doctor if you have concerns about a possible vitamin deficiency or overdose.
5. Put a "1" in the corresponding Developmental Need column for every vitamin you have a heightened need for due to your age, pregnancy, etc. Example: a woman need for vitamin C to aide with iron absorption may increase with age. This is information your doctor will generally advise you of.
6. Put a "2" in the corresponding Treatment Aid column for all vitamins your doctor has advised you that you have a heightened need for in order to protect against an illness you're susceptible to, or to ease the symptoms of a disease you already have.
7. Find the sum of each row and record the result in the Total column. Rank your vitamins according to their totals from highest to lowest. This list reflects the vitamins most important to your current needs, from greatest to least.
Tags: column vitamins, your doctor, , corresponding Solubility column, Developmental Need, Diet Intake, each vitamin