Posted on Dec 17, 2016

33 Foods You Should Eat Instead Of Popping a Multivitamin

Because those gummy vitamins are really just an excuse to eat candy.

BuzzFeed News Reporter

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You've probably heard of the 13 essential vitamins (A, C, D, E, K and 8 B vitamins) and essential minerals (like calcium and potassium). They're good for you and keep your body running smoothly. But since we don't make enough of these on our own, we need to get them through our diet, as Dr. Donald Hensrud, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, tells BuzzFeed Health.

Each vitamin and mineral has a recommended daily allowance (RDA) determined by the USDA. That's because you only need so much of each vitamin and mineral; too much or too little can cause problems, registered dietitian Brian St. Pierre, director of performance nutrition at Precision Nutrition, tells BuzzFeed Health.

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Vitamins kind of work like gas in a car. "If your tank is empty, then you need to add more gas for your car to run properly — but if the tank is full, adding more gas isn't going to make the car run any better," Hensrud says. So, while a vitamin A deficiency can lead to vision problems, getting more vitamin A than recommended won't make you wake up with perfect vision.

In fact, your body can only absorb as much as it needs of a certain vitamin, and any extra amount won't be used. Excess amounts of water-soluble vitamins (like B-complex or C) will just come out in your urine, Hensrud says, and excess amounts of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K ) will get stored in your body's tissues.

Here's a list of some of the most common vitamins and minerals you might typically get from a multivitamin — but instead, we included a few options for getting them in food form. Eat up!