Diet tracking tools often include data about the vitamins and minerals you are (or arent) getting.
You dont have full control over the information, either.
So even if youre entering data directly from labels, you may be missing important components.
Another thing we often forget:our diets change with the seasons, and over time.
(How many pumpkin spice lattes did you have this April?
How much ice cream in January?
How many hearty beef stews in the heat of summer?)
Why bother tracking vitamins at all, then?
Honestly, most people probably dont need to.
How Much of a Nutrient Is Too Much?
Everybody has their own personal requirement for each nutrient.
That means that 97% of people need that amountor less.
If youre getting less than the RDI but feel fine, there may not actually be anything wrong.
What if it seems youre getting too much of something?
(If its possible to overdose, science hasnt seen it yet.)
However, youll hit the upper limit for zinc at only 400% of the RDI.
But sometimes that obscures the rest of the picture, where we dont have hard numbers.
Theyll put that data together with other information about your health to figure out whats really going on.
And perhaps most importantly, they can examine you.
Photos byShannon Kringen,Martinak15,Melissa.
