Getting enough calcium is key to keeping your bones healthy and preventing osteoporosis. "As we age our bone mass decreases," explains Zuckerbrot, so you should be at the upper end of your daily calcium requirements (somewhere between 1000 mg and 1500 mg) to lower your risk of osteoporosis," she says. Get your calcium from the usual suspects: milk, low-fat cheese, yogurt and soy-based products. "One cup of plain, low-fat yogurt supplies about 450 mg of calcium -- that's close to half of your daily calcium needs," says Drayer. Cooked greens, like collards, are also high in the vitamin and super tasty.
Bonus tip: If you suffer from PMS, calcium is shown to reduce symptoms by half. Nice.
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Vitamin D (600 IU daily): To boost calcium absorption
Just as important as calcium, vitamin D should be top of mind. "Without vitamin D, your body can't use calcium," says Zuckerbrot -- it's essential to activating it in your bloodstream. The best news about vitamin D? It's so easy to get your fill. It can be obtained through sun exposure, which we're sure you've heard plenty about in the news. Aim to get 10 to 15 minutes of exposure three times a week. If you, like us, would rather get it elsewhere in order to prevent more sunspots and wrinkles from rearing their ugly old heads, eat fortified eggs, milk, orange juice and fish. A cup of fortified milk or OJ has about a sixth of what you need in a day and you can get it all in just 3� ounces of cooked salmon.
As women we're obsessed with staying healthy (read: maintaining our weight and youthful appearance) and eating right; but figuring out which vitamins for women your body really needs can be more than a little confusing -- and, not surprisingly, as a result, a lot of women aren't getting the nutrients they need.
Want examples? Well, according to dietitian Lisa Drayer, MA, RD, author of "The Beauty Diet: Looking Great Has Never Been So Delicious" (McGraw-Hill, 2008), many women's diets are low in calcium and vitamin D, both of which are important to bone health. "Additionally, research has linked vitamin D to various other health benefits, such as providing protection against breast cancer," says Drayer. And, iron and vitamin B6 deficiencies are also widespread among women. So what does this all mean? Well, we suggest bucking the trend and making a few simple adjustments to get the vitamins for women that you actually need.
Here we'll share the most important nutrients and vitamins for women that should be on your radar, and we explain how you can easily incorporate them into your diet. Most dieticians and nutritionists agree that it's best to get these vitamins from your food -- since you can get various nutrients at once. But they also agree that it's "smart to take a multivitamin or multimineral to fill any nutrient gaps," explains dietician Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD. So if you can't squeeze these nutrients into your meal plan, supplements are the next best thing.
