Vitamin D is essential for good health; however, it is a required nutrient only when you don't get enough ultraviolet B (UVB) rays from the sun. Unfortunately, many people can't get enough sun exposure and need to get vitamin D from their diet or from supplements. When you have enough vitamin D in your body, you can protect the health of your bones and prevent osteoporosis.

Your mom may not be giving you chewable vitamins with your breakfast anymore, but that doesn't mean you can just forget about them! Following a daily program of taking supplements and eating nutrient-dense foods is vital for maintaining your health and getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy.

Glutathione is a not a protein-building amino acid, but a mixture of amino acid chains. Glutathione is a nutrient that forms enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase. It is essential to life. Dietary sources abound because glutathione is present in all plant and animal cells. It is an antioxidant nutrient that helps protect you from free radicals, keeping your tissues young and vital longer.

Aspartic acid is a nonessential amino acid, meaning that if your do not include this nutrient in your diet, your body can make sufficient amounts of it. Dietary sources include protein foods, such as meat, fish, eggs, and soybean products. Aspartic acid is essential to the process of chelating, or holding, minerals to make them easier to assimilate, digest, and utilize, as in calcium, potassium, and magnesium aspartate.

Lysine is an essential amino acid. Lysine occurs abundantly in fish and poultry, dairy, wheat germ, and other legumes, and in smaller amounts in grains and peanuts. You may need extra lysine if you eat a high-carbohydrate diet. Make sure that you’re getting enough lysine if you’re a vegetarian. Grains, especially refined grains, are particularly poor in lysine.

Need to know about your vitamins and minerals? Use these helpful tables to refresh your memory on reference nutrient intakes and get yourself up to speed. Vitamin RNI for women RNI for men Vitamin A 600 µg/day 700 µg/day Vitamin D N/a N/a Vitamin C 40 mg/day 40 mg/day Thiamin (vitamin B1) 0.8 mg/day 1.0 g/day Riboflavin (vitamin B2) 1.

Boron is a trace mineral essential to human health and must be obtained from diet or supplements. This nutrient recently gained popularity after researchers found that it helps the bones use calcium. Increased boron levels in the soil have been associated with a lower risk of osteoarthritis. Trace minerals occur in the soil, in foods, and in your body at much lower levels than the macrominerals, so they become more easily depleted.

Calcium is a critical mineral nutrient. You must include calcium in your diet because your body can’t manufacture it. Calcium is essential for the formation and maintenance of bones and teeth. The strength of your bones depends on calcium and other minerals like silicon and magnesium that you absorb from your diet, particularly during your years of growth and development.

Glycine is a nonessential amino acid. Dietary sources of this nutrient include fish, meats, beans, and dairy products. It also comes from choline in the liver and the amino acids threonine or serine. Glycine is an important nutrient for detoxifying chemicals in your body and helps wounds heal. Its beneficial effects for schizophrenics have been studied for more than ten years.