How many vitamins and minerals do you really need?

Most people assume that they are getting all of the vitamins and minerals they need, for daily health, in the foods that we consume.
Not so much...with all of the stress that our bodies endure...including work, home, environment, economics...we may not be eating everything we need to insure that our bodies are getting the necessary levels of vitamins and minerals needed to keep us at our best.
To know if we should take supplements or not..we need to understand a little about the following. These values are designed to help us get the nutrients we need to maintain health in order to avoid problems caused by malnutrition.

• The RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) and the AI (Adequate Intake) are the amounts of a vitamin or mineral you need to stay healthy and avoid nutritional deficiencies. They are tailored to women, men, and specific age groups.
• The UL (Tolerable Upper Intake Level) is the maximum amount of daily vitamins and minerals that you can safely take without risking an overdose or serious side effects. For certain nutrients, the higher you go above the UL, the greater the chance of having problems.

High doses of some supplements might have risks. So, how do you know when it’s OK to take more than the RDA levels?

First, look for the UL (tolerable upper intake level) of a nutrient. This is set by the Institute of Medicine after studying each nutrient.

You can safely take a dose much higher than the RDA or DV of many vitamins and minerals, without coming close to the UL. The average person can take 50 times the RDA of vitamin B6 without reaching the upper limit. But be cautious and keep these things in mind.

• With some vitamins and minerals, the upper limit is pretty close to the RDA.
• High doses of vitamin A – and other fat-soluble vitamins like D, E, and K -- can build up in the body and cause toxicity. Other risky supplements include the minerals iron and selenium.
  
• Eat a well balanced and healthy diet. But, fill in any gaps in your optimum nutrition with a daily supplement.
• When figuring out whether you’re reaching the UL on a particular nutrient, you need to factor in the food you eat as well as the supplements you are taking.

Here is a chart of the RDA and UL.

Vitamin or Mineral	Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) or Adequate Intake (AI) Nutrients with AIs are marked with an (*)	Upper Tolerable Limit (UL) The highest amount you can take without risk
Boron	Not determined.	20 mg/day
Calcium	Age 19-50: 1,000 mg/day * Age 51 and up: 1,200 mg/day *	2,500 mg/day
Chloride	Age 19-50: 2,300 mg/day Age 50-70: 2,000 mg/day Age 70 and older: 1,800 mg/day	3,600 mg/day
Choline (Vitamin B complex)	Age 70 and older: 1,800 mg/day Women: 425 mg/day *	3,500 mg/day
Copper	900 micrograms/day	10,000 micrograms/day
Fluoride	Men: 4 mg/day * Women: 3 mg/day *	10 mg/day
Folic Acid (Folate)	400 micrograms/day	1,000 micrograms/day This applies only to synthetic folic acid in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for folic acid from natural sources.
Iodine	150 micrograms/day	1,100 micrograms/day
Iron	Men: 8 mg/day Women age 19-50: 18 mg/day Women age 51 and up: 8 mg/day	45 mg/day
Magnesium	Men age 19-30: 400 mg/day Men age 31 and up: 420 mg/day Women age 19-30: 310 mg/day Women age 31 and up: 320 mg/day	350 mg/day This applies only to magnesium in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for magnesium in food and water.
Manganese	Men: 2.3 mg/day * Women: 1.8 mg/day*	11 mg/day
Molybdenum	45 micrograms/day	2,000 micrograms/day
Nickel	Not determined	1.0 mg/day
Phosphorus	700 mg/day	Up to age 70: 4,000 mg/day Over age 70: 3,000 mg/day
Selenium	55 micrograms/day	400 micrograms/day
Sodium	Age 19-50: 1,500 mg/day Age 51-70: 1,300 mg/day Age 71 and up: 1,200 mg/day	2,300 mg/day
Vanadium	Not determined	1.8 mg/day
Vitamin A	Men: 900 micrograms/day Women: 700 micrograms/day	3,000 micrograms/day
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)	Men: 16 mg/day Women: 14 mg/day	35 mg/day This applies only to niacin in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for niacin in natural sources.
Vitamin B6	Men age 19-50: 1.3 mg/day Men age 51 up:1.7 mg/day Women age 19-50: 1.3 mg/day Women age 51 up: 1.5 mg/day	100 mg/day
Vitamin C	Men: 90 mg/day Women: 75 mg/day	2,000 mg/day
Vitamin D (Calciferol)	Age 19-50: 5 micrograms/day (200 IU, or international units) * Age 51-70: 10 micrograms/day (400 IU) * Over age 70: 15 micrograms/day (600 IU) *	50 micrograms/day (2,000 IU)
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	15 mg/day	1,000 mg/day This applies only to vitamin E in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for vitamin E from natural sources.
Zinc	Men: 11 mg/day Women: 8 mg/day	40 mg/day

I got this chart at this site.

There are no UL values for vitamin B₁₂, since the risk of toxicity is quite low.

It is recommended that people over 50 years old should get most of their vitamin B₁₂ requirements through supplements, such as a multivitamin, or fortified foods to which vitamin B₁₂ has been added. Older people have difficulty absorbing vitamin B₁₂ naturally found in food, but not the vitamin B₁₂ in supplements or fortified foods.