How to Find Vitamins in Food We Eat

In today's fast-food food culture it can be difficult to know exactly what you are eating. We have become accustomed to eating meals without giving any pause to consider what the nutritional benefits are for our bodies. It can also be difficult to find this information. Food manufacturers aren't required to disclose full nutrient contents on labels, and restaurants are not required to offer nutritional information. Still, with a little exploration and a few tips, you can dissect your meals to find out exactly what vitamins are in the foods we eat.

Things You'll Need

• Food nutrition guide, program, software or website

Show More

Instructions

• 1

  Consult the label, if one is available. Food manufacturers are required to disclose the amounts of certain common vitamins in their foods, but they are not required to report all. Relying of labels can give you a quick overview of what nutrition you are getting, but can paint an incomplete picture. It's best used as a starting guide.

• 2

  Consult a food nutrition guide. This can be a book from the library or a website like the USDA's food pyramid site. This is a great way to find out exactly how much of every vitamin is in the food you eat because you can find complete food analysis and not just a few items on a label. This helps paint a more complete picture of your diet. See the Resources section for a list of online nutrition guides as well as information on books.

• 3

  Use the food's color to identify vitamins and minerals. This mainly works for fresh fruits and vegetables to identify phytonutrients. For example, orange foods like carrots are high in beta carotene, and red foods like tomatoes are high in lutene.

• 4

  Consult diet, recipe or nutrition software. Many programs, like Master Cook, Spark People, Diet Power and others allow you to add items that you have eaten into the software and generate a full report of all the vitamins in your meal. Many can chart this information for days, weeks and months to help you spot obvious deficiencies or overages with the added benefits of also tracking calories, fat, fiber and physical activity.