Vitamins and minerals
Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients that our body needs to work properly.
What's on this page:
Most of us can get all the vitamins and minerals we need by eating a healthy balanced diet, as shown in the Eatwell Guide. Visit Eat Well, Your Way for tips and tricks on how to improve your diet in a cost-effective way.
People who are planning to get pregnant, pregnant or breastfeeding have different needs for vitamins and minerals. View our nutrition advice on pregnancy for more information.
Vitamins
There are two main groups of vitamins: fat-soluble and water-soluble.
Fat-soluble vitamins are found in animal products and foods that contain fat, like milk, butter, vegetable oils, eggs, liver and oily fish. Our bodies can store fat-soluble vitamins. This means we don’t need to consume them every day. It can be harmful to consume a lot more fat-soluble vitamins than we need.
Fat-soluble vitamins include:
Water-soluble vitamins come from food like fruit, vegetables, milk, dairy and grains. Unlike fat-soluble vitamins, our bodies can't store them. This means we need to eat them more often. If we consume more than we need, our bodies flush out the extra through urine.
Water-soluble vitamins can be destroyed by heat or exposure to air. They can also get lost in water when cooking, especially when boiling food.
Top tip
Steaming vegetables in the microwave preserves more of their vitamins and minerals compared to boiling, and is often more cost-effective
Visit Eat Well, Your Way for more healthier and cheaper ways to cook.
Water-soluble vitamins include:
Minerals
We need minerals to build strong teeth and bones, control body fluids inside and outside cells and turn the food we eat into energy.
Minerals are found in foods like cereals, bread, meat, fish, milk, dairy, nuts, fruit and vegetables.
Fact
Frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals, and are affordable, convenient and have a long shelf life
We need more of some minerals than others. For example, we need more calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium chloride and potassium than we do iron, zinc, iodine, selenium and copper.
In this section
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is also known as retinol. Good sources of vitamin A include cheese eggs oily fish (such as mackerel) milk fortified margarine and yoghurt.
Vitamin B1 - Thiamin
Thiamin, also known as vitamin B1, is found in most types of food. Good sources include pork, vegetables, milk, cheese, peas, fresh and dried fruit, eggs, wholegrain breads and some fortified breakfast cereals.
Vitamin B2 - Riboflavin
Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is found in small amounts in many foods. Good sources include milk, eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, rice and mushrooms.
Vitamin B3 - Niacin
Niacin is also known as vitamin B3. Good sources of niacin include beef, pork, chicken, wheat flour, maize flour, eggs and milk.
Vitamin B9 - Folic acid
Folic acid is a B vitamin which we all need to produce red blood cells. It is one of the important vitamins in pregnancy.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is found in virtually all meat products and certain algae such as seaweed. Good sources include meat, salmon, cod, milk, cheese, eggs, yeast extract, and some fortified breakfast cereals.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C, also know as ascorbic acid, is found in a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Good sources include peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, oranges and kiwi fruit.
Calcium
Good sources of the mineral calcium include milk, cheese and other dairy foods, green leafy vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage and okra, but not spinach), soya beans, tofu, soya drinks with added calcium, nuts, bread and anything made with fortified flour, and fish where you eat the bones, such as sardines and pilchards.
Iodine
Iodine is a trace element found in seawater, rocks and in some types of soil. Good food sources include sea fish and shellfish.
Iron
Iron is an essential mineral. Good sources of iron include liver, meat, beans, nuts, dried fruit (such as dried apricots), whole grains (such as brown rice), fortified breakfast cereals, soybean flour and most dark green leafy vegetables (such as watercress and curly kale).
Magnesium
Magnesium is a mineral found in a wide variety of foods. The richest sources are green leafy vegetables (such as spinach) and nuts. Good sources include bread, fish, meat and dairy foods.
Manganese
Manganese is a trace element found in a variety of foods. These include bread, nuts, cereals and green vegetables (such as peas and runner beans). It's also found in tea, which is probably the biggest source of manganese for many people.
Molybdenum
Molybdenum is a trace element found in a wide variety of foods. Foods that grow above ground - such as peas, leafy vegetables (including broccoli and spinach) and cauliflower - tend to be higher in molybdenum than meat and foods that grow below the ground, such as potatoes.
Nickel
Nickel is a trace element found widely in the environment. Good food sources include lentils, oats, and nuts.
Pantothenic acid
Pantothenic acid is found in virtually all meat and vegetable foods. Good sources include chicken, beef, potatoes, porridge, tomatoes, kidney, eggs, broccoli and whole grains such as brown rice and wholemeal bread.
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is a mineral found in red meat, dairy foods, fish, poultry, bread, rice and oats.
Potassium
Potassium is a mineral found in most types of food. Good sources of potassium include fruit (such as bananas), vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds, milk, fish, shellfish, beef, chicken, turkey and bread.
Selenium
Selenium is a trace element found widely in the environment. Good food sources include brazil nuts, bread, fish, meat and eggs.
Sodium chloride
Sodium chloride is commonly known as salt. Salt is found naturally at low levels in all foods, but high levels are added to many processed foods such as ready meals, meat products such as bacon, some breakfast cereals, cheese, some tinned vegetables, some bread and savoury snacks.
Zinc
Zinc is a trace element found widely in the environment. Good food sources of zinc include meat, shellfish, milk and dairy foods such as cheese, bread, and cereal products such as wheatgerm.
Eatwell Guide Booklet
The Eatwell Guide shows the proportions in which different types of foods are needed to have a well-balanced and healthy diet.
