Find out what your daily vitamin diet should be.
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With aisles full of endless vitamins and supplements, which are the ones you really need to take? We asked experts for their best advice on what supplements to take — and more importantly, how to remember to take them!
Nutritionist Brooke Alpert, a registered dietician and author of “The Sugar Detox,” recommends all her clients to take vitamin D, omega-3 and a probiotic. Those three are what most people are lacking, she says, and they are vitamins that can be taken every day.
“The goal is to get these from your diet, but there’s no way to get enough vitamin D from your diet,” she says. “And there’s no way of being sure that we get enough omega and fatty acids from the quality of fish we’re eating.”
The nutritionist recommends that fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K should be taken with food. Fat helps you absorb those vitamins, she explains.
“But what’s most important is taking them at a time you will remember. I would rather have the vitamins be a little less effective, but taking them regularly instead of sporadically,” Alpert says.
And she has some good advice for how to remember it:
“Put the vitamins next to your toothbrush, so you remember to take them before you go to bed. You brush your teeth, you floss, you take your vitamins and you go to sleep.”
Another important thing is to get into a vitamin routine as early as possible.
“In their 20s, a lot of people aren’t thinking long term,” she says. “‘I’m 25, I’m invincible. I feel great, I don’t need sleep.’ But get into that routine of taking vitamins, and trust me — when you’re in your 30s you’ll appreciate what you did in your 20s,” the nutritionist says.
Dermatologist Dr. Mitchell Kline also highly recommends that people take a vitamin D supplement.
“You can’t get enough vitamin D by going in the sun for 15 minutes. That’s made up!” Kline says.
He also wants everyone to remember to get their antioxidants — especially men, who seem to forget it.
“It’s also important to gets these vitamins topically,” the dermatologist adds. “Use cream for your face. Again, that’s something men forget about. Cream is necessary.”
Lastly, the doctor adds that vitamins can be taken when it suits you.
“If it doesn’t upset the stomach you can take it whenever. If the vitamins upset your stomach you should take it after a meal,” he says.
