There is an opinion that beriberi is more common in winter, as there are fewer fruits and vegetables. Therefore, in the summer, attention to nutrition is reduced. But this approach is wrong because not all vitamins can be obtained from fruits. Do not forget about the compatibility of some of them.
To begin with, it is worth mentioning that vitamins are a group of organic compounds with a diverse structure and composition that a person needs for the proper development and functioning of the body.
The main amount of vitamins enter the body from food, but in summer portions or meals are reduced. Accordingly, some vitamins are supplied in insufficient quantities. Therefore, in a hot period, hypovitaminosis can be observed – a lack of one or a whole group of vitamins in the body.
What vitamin deficiency occurs more often in the summer?
If your diet is not balanced enough, for example, it is not possible to eat enough greens and fresh fruits, then you need to take vitamins australia in the summer.
In summer, we are most often not deficient in vitamin C, which is found in citrus and red fruits, folic acid, found in leafy green vegetables, bananas, melons, and vitamin D, the production of which is stimulated by exposure to sunlight. However, vitamins A, E and vitamins of group B in the summer come in insufficient quantities. This is due to the fact that the heat helps to reduce appetite: the desire to consume meat and fatty foods, cereals and legumes disappears – all the things from which we received these vitamins in the winter.
The deficiency of ascorbic acid in the summer is easy to make up for by eating fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. Vitamins A and E are mostly found in animal products, which we try to limit ourselves in the summer. To make up for their deficiency, you need to eat carrots, pumpkin, spinach, parsley, grapes, apples, nuts, cereals and legumes. As for the B vitamins (in particular, B6 and B12), to compensate for their lack, it is necessary to lean on avocados, bananas, legumes, grains, poultry, cheese, eggs, fish, meat, and milk. It will not work to “stock up” on vitamins for the cold season, because they are very active compounds that almost immediately after entering the body begin to take part in the metabolism and cannot be stored in the body for a long time.
Nature has come up with a complex mechanism: to produce vitamin D, a person must not only be under the sun with unprotected skin but also actively move in this state for several hours.
A balanced diet can completely solve the problem of vitamin deficiency?
Often, just eating right and eating fresh vegetables and fruits is not enough to fill the body’s daily need for vitamins and microelements – for this, you would have to eat a huge amount of food, which is physically impossible.
If the diet is inadequate – there are few foods with a high content of nutrients or monotonous with the predominant consumption of only one type of food (vegetarianism, carbohydrate-free diets, etc.), a vitamin deficiency may occur. The use of alcoholic beverages and smoking can also lead to a deficiency: these bad habits disrupt the metabolism and absorption of beneficial trace elements.
It’s no secret that now most of the products are grown artificially, with the use of various additives, and we may not receive certain trace elements necessary for the body. Therefore, ideally, you should regularly monitor their levels and take tests. If this is not possible, it is quite possible to take official statistics with information as a guide.
Make sure that the products on your table are varied in colour. After all, it is vitamins and other useful substances that give them this or that colour. So, for example, astaxanthin gives a pink tint to salmon and shrimp makes broccoli green and not only, and curcumin and vitamin A are present in orange foods … So, if you often have red, yellow, or orange on your table, green and purple foods, you can be sure that your body gets enough nutrients.
Can pharmacy vitamins replace the beneficial substances contained in vegetables and fruits?
A modern person receives less than half of the vitamins necessary for the normal functioning of the body. To solve this problem, you can take balanced vitamin complexes.
There is a myth that pharmacy vitamins are absorbed worse than vitamins from food. In fact, pharmaceutical preparations contain microelement compounds and variants of the vitamin molecule, which are even easier to digest than similar products, and act more efficiently. In addition, everything in multivitamins is chosen so that useful substances do not conflict with each other.
Which vitamins from the pharmacy can be taken on their own, and which ones only on the recommendation of the attending physician?
When patients come to us, we already know in advance that, according to the average statistics, they will be deficient in vitamin D and some B vitamins – they are most often lacking in those who do not take additional micronutrients.
But vitamins E, A and C are less likely to be deficient. We consume them more actively from food, so sometimes we don’t even need to artificially fill in the gaps. It is the peculiarities of human nutrition that often limit the intake of vitamins in the body. In addition, any digestive problems get in the way of the absorption of beneficial trace elements into the blood, which also creates another artificial barrier.
But uncontrolled intake of vitamins can lead to hypervitaminosis. It concerns, first of all, fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. They are well absorbed and slowly excreted. Hypervitaminosis A and D are more severe than others.
What exactly can the wrong dosages of vitamins lead to?
The risk of earning hypervitaminosis is present only with the uncontrolled use of vitamin-mineral complexes. Therefore, before you start taking vitamins, you should consult with your doctor. It is almost impossible to get an excess of vitamins from food: a person is not able to eat such an amount of food.
Symptoms of hypervitaminosis depend on the overdose of which vitamin is present in the body. Most often it is skin itching, headache, weakness, malaise, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. As a rule, an overdose of vitamins is easily remedied, it is enough to reduce their dosage. However, an overdose of fat-soluble vitamins (particularly A and D) may require additional treatment.
Incorrect dosages can lead to an excess of a substance in the body, although in the case of vitamin D this is less likely than with vitamins E or A. First of all, we are talking about the fact that a person takes on extra expenses, without which it would be quite possible to manage, knowing the exact amount of the microelement needed by a particular patient. In addition, an overdose of vitamin D is dangerous for children – it leads to excessive calcium deposits. But even if there is no acute danger, a chronic overdose may occur, which, according to medical data, can lead to the formation of kidney stones and other diseases. But it is almost impossible to exceed the daily intake of vitamins through food.