Get the Most from Your Vitamins
You work out, you diet, you hit your macros. You’ve got your protein/carb/fat ratio down to a science. Now it’s time to talk about vitamins. A glamorous topic, I know. But hear me out. Even if you eat veggies and take your vitamins, you might be doing it wrong.
First of all, some vitamins are water soluble and some are fat soluble - in other words, they dissolve in water or fat. Pay attention! This is important.
Vitamins like C are water soluble, which means you will never have too much; you just excrete the extra. However, coffee is a diuretic, so it causes the body to excrete water soluble vitamins. If you drink a lot of coffee, just know that you’ll need to take some extra vitamin C and calcium.
Cooked vegetables are great, but be careful not to over do it; those water-soluble vitamins will break down and you’ll end up with useless vegetables and hot vitamin water.
Fat soluble vitamins, on the other hand, are pretty interesting. A, D, E, and K are all stored in fatty tissues and they don’t break down in cooking. They easier for the body to absorb when they’re eaten with fats like olive oil or nuts. Tomatoes and their disease-fighting antioxidants work better when eaten with olive oil.
Pairing: some vitamins are more effective when taken together.
Vitamin K and calcium help your body absorb Vitamin D.
Vitamin C helps your body absorb vitamin E
Vitamin C also helps you absorb iron better; they’re better when taken together, rather than separately throughout the day.
Competing vitamins
Zinc and iron compete with each other, so they’re better taken at separate times; for instance, zinc in the morning and iron at night.
Again, calcium and iron are frenemies, so it’s better to take those separately.
