Are micronutrients important in metabolism?

I want to discuss a question I get asked quite a lot - how do I know what micronutrients and from where and how much I should get. 

First of all - what are micronutrients? Vitamins and minerals are traditionally considered micronutrients because they are essential to our health meaning we have to get them from food or we die. There are also non-essential micronutrients for example flavonoids, that are health promoting, but not essential. 

There is only one way to know if you are actually getting enough micronutrients. You see - eating enough micronutrients and having enough micronutrients in your body are two different things. For example we may eat all the b12 vitamin we want but if we have pernicious anemia, our intestines don't absorb any. So the only way to truly know if we are getting enough micronutrients is to measure them from blood tests.

The second best way is to eat a good variety of micronutrient rich foods and hope you’ll get enough of micronutrients from those. 

A good thing is that if you eat by my instructions, you’ll be getting many of your micronutrient needed. There are different classes of food you should be eating, because all of them have different micronutrient composition. Those are:

• vegetables, also fruits and berries
• fish
• seeds and nuts
• diary (if you aren’t allergic to milk protein)

And that’s it. Of course you can and should eat more food groups, but my point is that 4 groups above will fill your micronutrient need. 

There are couple of exceptions. 

First one is d-vitamin. Nowadays in at least here in the north we aren’t getting nearly enough sun and eating enough fish to get enough of d-vitamin. Most people in Finland have at least moderate d-vitamin deficiency. Vitamin d is extremely important for many metabolic processes in our body besides strong bones that we usually know of. Vitamin d deficiency raises the risk of diabetes, some cancers, dementia, cardiovascular diseases ect. Vitamin d concentration should be taken from the blood sample for every single person to identify the right amount of supplementation.  Most adults need at least 50 micrograms a day to get to the target concentration of >100 nmol/l. 

The second one is a mineral iodine. We don’t get enough iodine from our water sources and food. Most people in western world have a moderate iodine deficiency that can lead to many unpleasantries. Iodine is of course most known for its function in thyroid hormones. Fully functioning thyroid gland needs at least the urine concentration (taken from urine for practical purposes) >100 micrograms/l. Most of us need an iodine supplement to cover the need, but the right amount depends on the concentration. 

But what about multivitamins - can I just take that 1 pill per day and forget the problem? Unfortunately it is not that simple. First of all - multivitamins do have a lot of micronutrients combined as one, but they contain every one those just a tiny amount that doesn’t really do anything in your body. For example a typical multivitamin has 5-20 micrograms of vitamin d that is not nearly enough to cover your need. Of course taking multivitamin doesn’t hurt. In large studies there haven’t been any rise in mortality, but no lowering effect also. If you really have a deficiency in any micronutrient, you probably need that micronutrient in a larger dose. 

All in all - eating a variety of foods from at least four main food groups, you will cover a large portion of your micronutrient need. In cases of diseases, especially intestinal that can cause malabsorption, you should definitely consider measuring micronutrient levels or consult with a competent doctor. Vitamin D measurement and supplementation is unavoidable if you want to get your metabolism going, so mark this on your calendar!