Sure, if you know what foods are vitamin-rich, all you need to do is keep a sufficient amount of them in your diet to maintain a diet that’s naturally sufficient in vitamins, right? It seems easy enough! But sadly, it’s not always that simple.
The reality of vitamins is that they have complex organic structures. Despite what the food packaging label might have you believe; you can’t simply measure the amount of vitamin C in a banana or sweet potato like you could the amount of sugar or salt. Vitamins are fragile, and their potency for your body can (and will) vary depending on dozens of factors, such as how the food is processed, the environment it’s stored in, how it’s cooked, and even the nutrients of the soil that it’s been grown in. Even if you were measuring each banana one at a time for their vitamin levels, it would still be hard to know exactly how much you’re getting in your body.
Minerals, on the other hand, are inorganic compounds, so they are easier to measure. You can be fairly sure that if the yogurt you’re eating has 500mg of calcium, that’s how much is in there. But that doesn’t mean every source of minerals is created equal!
As minerals are not made of organic material, they cannot usually be absorbed by your body via combustion in the stomach in the way that the organic matter you consume, such as fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins, can. So, your body must find other ways to absorb the necessary minerals to keep it working, and for that, it needs your help! Various organic nutrients, such as vitamins, will help your body absorb minerals when it processes them together. But it’s complicated, and finding the correct “food pairing” is always a bit of a balancing act.
Some are well-known. For example, vitamin C helps your body absorb iron, and vitamin D helps absorb calcium. Though, it’s always a tricky line to walk since the levels of the vitamins and minerals you’re ingesting need to be consistent with the ideal food pairing to get the optimal result.
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