3 Easy Ways to Boost Your Vitamin Intake Daily (2025)

Table of Contents

1. Include a Variety of Foods in Your Diet Colorful Foods for Vitamins 2. Focus on Specific Foods 3. Taking Supplements Bonus: Other Ways Through the Skin High-Protein Bars Essential Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Needs Minerals Summary References

Your body needs vitamins to function normally and maintain your health. The best way to obtain vitamins is to consume a healthy diet with nutrient-dense foods. This helps you absorb vitamins in the best form possible.

You can also obtain vitamins through supplements. However, it is better to get your vitamins from food. Food includes a complex mix of nutrients that helps your body absorb and use vitamins better than supplements.

1. Include a Variety of Foods in Your Diet

Including various foods in your diet can help you naturally consume most of the vitamins you need. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, a nutrient-dense diet is a healthy eating plan in which most of your nutritional needs are met by 85% of the calories consumed.

This type of healthy eating plan includes consuming foods from the following food groups daily, noted with the subcategories listed in the guidelines:

Vegetables:

Dark green vegetables
Red and orange vegetables
Beans, peas, or lentils
Starchy vegetables
Other vegetables

Fruits:

Whole fruits
100% fruit juice

Grains:

Whole-grain products and products with whole-grain ingredients
Refined-grain products and products with refined-grain ingredients

Protein foods:

Colorful Foods for Vitamins

One way to ensure you're consuming many types of vitamins is to plan a diet that includes foods with a wide range of colors and textures. Think of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue fruits and vegetables. The intense colors of fruits and vegetables come from the types of nutrients they contain.

2. Focus on Specific Foods

You can easily obtain certain vitamins if you focus on specific nutrient-dense foods. Some vitamin-rich foods are known to be excellent sources of multiple vitamins. Consuming these foods can help you obtain the vitamins you need with fewer calories. These foods include:

Broccoli contains vitamins C, K, and A. It is also rich in the minerals potassium, calcium, and iron while providing a high dose of dietary fiber.
Asparagus contains vitamins A, C, E, K, and most of the B vitamins. It also provides potassium, copper, selenium, and manganese.
Chicken provides vitamins B3, B6, B12, and D. It is also an excellent source of potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, and protein.
Eggs are so rich in vitamins that eating two whole eggs can provide between 10% to 30% of the vitamin requirements for humans. Consuming the egg white and the egg yolk provides high amounts of vitamins A, D, E, K, B1, B2, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12. Eggs are also a major source of the mineral choline.
Milk is rich in vitamins B3, B5, and B12 and is often fortified with vitamins A and D. It also provides calcium, iodine, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, zinc, and protein.
Cruciferous vegetables include leafy greens and other green vegetables in the mustard family. They include broccoli, cabbage, kale, arugula, Brussel sprouts, and turnips. This family of vegetables is high in vitamins C, E, K, and B9. They are also good sources of fiber and minerals, including potassium, calcium, and selenium.

Berries, including blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, and strawberries, provide vitamin C. Many also provide vitamins K, E, B6, and B9. Berries are also excellent sources of dietary fiber and potassium. Other vitamins and minerals vary by type of berry.
Citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits are good sources of vitamins C, B1, B3, B5, B6, and B9. They also contain healthy amounts of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and copper.

3. Taking Supplements

Vitamin supplements include tablets, capsules, powders, and gummies. They can also contain other nutrients, minerals, herbs, enzymes, amino acids, and other ingredients.

Dietary supplements can help you get adequate amounts of certain nutrients if you can't get them through your diet. They can also provide the vitamins you need to improve your general health and manage some health conditions.

Even though you follow a healthy diet, you may not get adequate amounts of the vitamins your body needs. Common nutrient deficiencies in the United States include:

Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Zinc
Iron for people with uteruses of childbearing age

Age, sex, medical conditions, and activity level can affect your vitamin needs. While a varied diet can provide sufficient vitamins and minerals for most healthy people, people in the following groups may benefit from vitamin supplements:

Pregnant people who may need more B9 (folic acid)
People with osteoporosis (progressive bone loss) who may benefit from vitamin D and calcium
People at risk of vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who may benefit from a combination of vitamins C and E, zinc, copper, lutein, and zeaxanthin
Vegans or those with celiac disease who may need vitamins B12 and D, iron, copper, and zinc, or a combination of other supplements

To determine whether you can benefit from supplements, start by learning the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of necessary nutrients. This is the amount of a specific nutrient you need to stay healthy.

Bonus: Other Ways

In addition to foods and supplements, you may also be able to obtain certain vitamins in the following ways:

Through the Skin

The following vitamins have molecular structures that can permeate the skin and be absorbed into the body:

Vitamin D is produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight.
Vitamin E can be absorbed through the skin in an oil or cream form.
Vitamin C can be absorbed by using L-ascorbic acid serums and lotions.

High-Protein Bars

Athletes and other active adults often use specially formulated high-protein bars to supplement their nutritional needs. Ingredients vary widely by product. Some may contain added sugar, salt, and/or other ingredients that can offset other benefits.

However, the reports of one study found that high-protein bars using ingredients such as lupine seeds, wheat germ, and dried fruits may provide a convenient way to supplement good nutrition but should not be used as a replacement for a healthy diet.

Essential Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Needs

Your body needs certain micronutrients (vitamins and minerals required in small amounts) to remain healthy. Vitamins are either water-soluble or fat-soluble.

When you consume water-soluble vitamins, your body expels what it does not absorb. When you consume fat-soluble vitamins, leftover amounts are stored as reserves in your liver and fat tissues.

Water-soluble vitamins:

Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
Vitamin B3 (niacin)
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
Vitamin B7 (biotin)
Vitamin B9 (folate)
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin)
Vitamin C

Fat-soluble vitamins:

Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K

Minerals

Your body also needs minerals to remain healthy. They include the following macrominerals or major minerals (required in large amounts) and trace minerals or microminerals (required in smaller amounts.

Macrominerals include:

Calcium
Chloride
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Sulfur

Trace minerals include:

Chromium
Copper
Fluorine
Iodine
Iron
Manganese
Molybdenum
Selenium
Zinc

Summary

The best way to obtain vitamins is by eating a healthy diet that includes a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein, dairy, and healthy fats. The complex mixture of nutrients in food helps your body absorb and use vitamins effectively. Knowing the vitamin content of certain foods can help you eat wisely.

Supplements can help you obtain the necessary vitamins if you can't get them from your diet. Before taking them, you should check with your healthcare provider to ensure you're not at risk of adverse effects or overdosing on certain vitamins.