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But how many vegetables and fruits are you actually eating per day? Summer with all the fresh produce definitely makes it easier, but that doesn't mean you're always getting enough vitamins - it really depends on what you're eating, how often, and in what amounts. Even with good nutrition, you can have deficiencies in iron, calcium, or vitamin D, especially if you're not getting much sun in summer or you have dietary restrictions. If you feel good and eat a varied diet, extra vitamins probably aren't critical, but it makes sense to get blood work done at least once a year - you'll get a real answer instead of just guessing.
AngelinaPetrova asker
I eat salads almost every day, but I'm honestly rarely out in the sun! Thanks for the tip about getting tested, I'll get checked out.
In the summer I thought the same thing - if I'm eating tomatoes fresh from the garden and berries, then I'm covered. But then I read that a lot gets lost during storage and transportation, plus vegetables grown in depleted soil have fewer micronutrients than they used to. To be honest, it's easier to just take vitamins alongside everything - they won't hurt for sure, and at least you'll have peace of mind that you're not missing anything.
I've been keeping a food diary in an app for the second year now during summer - not to count calories, but to understand what I actually eat. Turns out I consume way less vegetables than I thought. Tomatoes, cucumbers, berries - yes, but that's not the full range. For example, you need quite a lot of greens to get a normal amount of iron and calcium, and I just have a handful of salad at lunch.
Plus here's what matters: vitamins in fresh vegetables start degrading within a few hours of being picked, and if they've been sitting on a shelf or traveled from far away - the losses are even more serious. In summer this is especially noticeable with vitamin C, which you need for immunity and wound healing. I'd suggest paying attention to crops that keep their vitamins longer: carrots, beets, cabbage. They're usually denser and don't oxidize as quickly.
The main hack: if you're buying vegetables and fruit at the market, ask the vendor when he picked them. If it's the same day as your purchase - great, more vitamins. If it was a week ago - it's not the same. And yeah, summer frozen berries and vegetables (harvested in season and frozen right away) are often more nutritious than fresh ones that have been sitting in your fridge for two weeks. So now I buy frozen cabbage and carrots along with fresh ones and add them to soups and smoothies.
From my own experience, I've noticed! In summer it seems like you're getting vitamins in abundance, but in reality it's way less exciting. Even if you eat a lot of fresh stuff, your body can still be short on vitamin D (the sun shines, but it's not always enough for synthesis), B vitamins, iron, zinc! Vegetables and berries are not a complete set, more like a partial one.
The thing is, in summer people often get fixated on one or two vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries. But your body needs different sources! Plus there's storage time (even in the fridge vitamins slowly break down), cooking methods, soil quality where the crops grew - all of this affects how much actually useful stuff ends up in you. And honestly, most people don't eat enough fish, nuts, and different greens in summer.
You can skip extra vitamins in summer if your diet is really varied and balanced - but it's hard to tell just by how you feel! If you want to figure out what you're missing, keeping a food diary or at least analyzing what you actually eat for a week instead of what you think you eat - that's a great idea.
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