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Human Requirements

What are human vitamin and mineral requirements?

It is impossible to determine what they are. Simply because the need for vitamins and minerals depends on many factors, like:
- the foods consumed
- the processes in the body that depend on what one eats, does, breathes and experiences
- how much sleep, stress and sun one gets
- how happy one is
- hormonal contraceptive use
- how much one weighs
- etc.

Absorption rate of minerals and trace elements can easily vary from 5 to 80%, implicating a 16-fold different 'requirement'. Mineral and trace element contents can easily vary a 10-fold (even in the same foods!), and vitamin B12 for example even 12-fold. (1) So only considering differing food contents and absorption rates, equal recommendations already will lead to over 100-fold different actual total absorption.
Therefore, it isn't even slightly possible to make a correct estimate of the amounts we need.

So how can we know how much we need?

We can't, but our body always does. Our body will absorb the nutrients it needs, through varying absorption rate. The only thing we need to do is to offer our body the opportunity, by consuming sufficient natural foods every day. Consuming (a minimum) 1½ kg of well-combined food a day, one will even meet official recommendations (except for the extremely wrong calcium recommendation).

Vitamin and mineral content

In comparison to other foods, combined fruits contain most vitamin C, β-carotene and also supply the body in abundance with all other vitamins (except D and B12) and minerals.
Of all other (natural + unnatural) foods, raw egg yolk unquestionably is the "vitamin champ", containing highest vitamin and mineral levels.
Brazil nuts are runners up.

Vitamin and mineral contents of different proteinous foods are compared below. Contents have been indexed to the highest level (= 100). Original contents have been taken from: Souci, S.W. et al, Food Composition and Nutrition Tables, Medpharm Scientific Publishers Stuttgart 1994.
Cheese calcium contents have been disregarded for being far too high.

vit.B2 vit.B5 vit.B8 vit.B9 iron calcium  
100 100 100 100 100 100 egg yolk
9 6   24 47 94 Brazil nut
43 27 14 2 14 9 salmon
40 18   9 14 29 tuna
90 12 8 1 14 9 mackerel
65 16 6 2 30 4 beef, muscles
58 19 9 2 15 2 pork, muscles
38 17 7 16 28 45 whole meal wheat bread
88     8 571   Edam cheese, 30%


    vit.E vit.B1 selenium magnesium  
    75 29 18 10 egg yolk
    100 100 100 100 Brazil nut
    29 17 52 18 salmon
      16 80   tuna
    16 13 38 19 mackerel
      6 23 5 beef, muscles
    5 90 8 17 pork, muscles
    11 86 8 58 whole meal wheat bread
    5 21   37 Edam cheese, 30%


    zinc vit.B3 vit.B6 vit.B12  
    89 1 31 22 egg yolk
    93 2 11 0 Brazil nut
    19 89 100 32 salmon
      100 47 47 tuna
      89 64 100 mackerel
    100 89 19 56 beef, muscles
    47 59 23 5 pork, muscles
    49 41 8 0 whole meal wheat bread
    0 1   0 Edam cheese, 30%


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Abstracts of most sources can be found at the National Library of Medicine

(1) Souci, S.W. et al, Food Composition and Nutrition Tables. Medpharm Scientific Publishers Stuttgart 1994.