4 Vitamins You Probably don't Get enough of!

Vitamins may be one of the most important things we don't take into account when creating our diet. And we should! But still, almost everyone has vitamin deficiencies. They are a common between us and some of them are not really harmful.

But there are some that can really cause severe side effects and you may not even know what is causing them. But don't worry, we are here to help you figure out which Vitamins you will need to get more of!

Vitamin A

Recommended Vitamin A Intake: The recommended daily intake of vitamin A is 900 mcg. But there is a problem when converting it in UI, the unit in which it is measured on packages. You can't just convert it as you need to know which type of vitamin A we are talking about. For exemple 900 mcg can range between 3000 -3600 UI.

Vitamin A is a pretty rare vitamin that is fat-soluble- that means it stays longer in your body. There are 2 types of vitamin A and they differ quite a lot.

Preformed Vitamin A -retinol and retinyl ester - is the vitamin A you find in animal livers and dairy and in pills made to combat vitamin A deficiencies(keep this in mind, it will be important later)

Provitamin A carotenoids - most important is beta-carotene, but there are also alpha-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin - is the vitamin A you get from carrots, spinach etc.

You can already see why I say vitamin A is rare. The foods that is found in are not that common, except dairy. This vitamin is critical when talking about vision as it is an important part of rhodopsin. It also helps with cell growth, cellular communication and immune functions.

The big problem with vitamin A supplements:

I mentioned earlier how vitamin A supplements contain preformed vitamin A and not carotenoids. Why is this a problem? Well, you body can absorb as much provitamin A as you can give it, it doesn't bring unwanted side effects. But......

there is a different story with preformed vitamin A. If taken by mouth in high doses, preformed vitamin A can bring side effect such as fatigue, irritability, mental changes, anorexia, stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, mild fever, excessive sweating,osteoporosis, hip fracture and the worst, death.

But don't already throw your supplements away! Death by overdose with vitamin A is incredibly unlikely. To make sure you are safe(and this goes for every fat-soluble vitamin(A, D, E & K)) just either ask your doctor or take the recommended intake written on the supplement.

Iron Deficiencies

Iron deficiencies is one of the most common deficiencies in people. They lead to a low number of red cells because of hemoglobin, a protein contained in the red cells that is created by iron.

Iron does a lot for the body. It transports oxygen though the blood into the lungs and other organs. So you can see how and why is it important.

Common symptoms of iron deficiencies are fatigue, dizziness, hair loss and can even lead to death, again this happens very rarely.

There are many ways you can increase your daily iron intake, but the one I would recommend is eating more animal livers and kidneys or, if you are a vegan, you can choose spinach or soybean.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is vital for bones strength and mineralization, a lack of which can lead to bone softening diseases and eventually to rickets and bone fractures.

Vitamin D deficiencies have one main cause: little exposure to sunlight. There are some other causes that can lead to not getting enough vitamin D like little consumption of vitamin D-rich foods.

Common symptoms are fatigue, depression, bone and hair loss and muscle pain.

The percentage of vitamin D deficiencies in people worldwide ranges based on the definition of deficiency between 6% to 69.5%.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C deficiencies are of the most common among all. Vitamin C plays a big role in amino acid, hormone and carnitine formation. It is actually a pretty common deficiency among people and is pretty hard to detect because it doesn't have powerful effects.

Vitamin C deficiencies commonly don't come by themselves. Most people who suffer from this deficiency suffer from iron deficiency as well.

If you find yourself not getting enough Vitamin C, there are many ways to get it. Fruits like oranges, kiwi or lemon work great or red pepper and parsley if you want non-starchy carbs.

Fun fact: Pirates used to consume oranges to get the needed intake of Vitamin C as a deficiency of this vitamin would mean scabies, which was a very big problem for them.\