What Vitamins Do You Actually Need to Survive (Part 2 of 3)

**The Difference Between Fat-Soluble and Water-Soluble Vitamins: A Comprehensive Guide**

Welcome back to another episode of *Seeker Plus*. In this series, we’re diving deep into the world of vitamins—what they are, where they come from, and how they impact our health. If you missed the first episode, make sure to check it out to get up to speed on the basics of vitamins.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore the difference between fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, which vitamins fall into each category, and why it matters for your health. We’ll also discuss whether there can be too much of a good thing when it comes to vitamins and why balance is key.

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### Fat-Soluble Vitamins: What They Are and How They Work

Fat-soluble vitamins are processed by our bodies using fat, which means they are stored in the body for long-term use. This storage capability makes them essential but also means they can accumulate to harmful levels if consumed in excess. The fat-soluble vitamins include:

- **Vitamin A**: Vital for red blood cell formation, skin health, vision, and growth.

- **Vitamin D**: Crucial for bone health, calcium absorption, and hormone production.

- **Vitamin E**: Acts as an antioxidant, protecting cells from damage, and supports blood vessel health.

- **Vitamin K**: Essential for blood clotting and maintaining bone strength.

These vitamins are stored in the liver and fatty tissues, ensuring they’re available when needed. However, this storage also means that overdosing on fat-soluble vitamins can lead to toxicity. For example, excessive vitamin A intake has been linked to bone health issues, while too much vitamin D can cause calcium buildup in the blood.

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### Water-Soluble Vitamins: The Temporary Solution

Water-soluble vitamins, on the other hand, are processed by our bodies and excreted through urine if not used immediately. This makes them less likely to accumulate to toxic levels but also means they need to be consumed regularly to maintain adequate levels. The water-soluble vitamins include:

- **Vitamin C**: Supports connective tissue formation, wound healing, and acts as an antioxidant.

- **B Vitamins (B1, B2, B3, etc.)**: Play a role in energy metabolism, red blood cell formation, and nervous system function.

If you’ve ever heard the term “expensive urine,” it refers to the fact that excess water-soluble vitamins are flushed out of your body. This doesn’t mean they’re less important—far from it. These vitamins are essential for daily bodily functions, which is why deficiencies can occur quickly if not consumed regularly.

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### Where Do Vitamins Come From?

Vitamins are found in a wide variety of foods, making it possible to meet your needs through a balanced diet. For example:

- **Vitamin A**: Found in orange foods like carrots and pumpkins, as well as eggs and milk.

- **B Vitamins**: Present in many foods, including green vegetables, nuts, peanuts, and vegetable oils.

- **Vitamin K**: Abundant in green vegetables.

While no single food group exclusively provides a specific vitamin, the variety of vitamins in our diets ensures that we can meet our nutritional needs. Even b12, which is primarily found in animal products, can be obtained through fortified foods for vegetarians and vegans.

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### Supplements: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Supplements are widely available and used by millions of people globally. According to a 2012 Harvard Medical School study, over 114 million Americans take at least one supplement, with 68% of the global population using them as well. The supplement industry is a massive $133 billion business.

However, it’s important to remember that supplements are not regulated like medications. If a product claims to cure something, that should be a red flag. Instead, think of supplements as a way to fill gaps in your diet when necessary.

Multivitamins, for instance, can be helpful if you’re at risk of deficiency or have an imbalanced diet. But they shouldn’t replace whole foods entirely. After all, the best source of vitamins is still a healthy, varied diet.

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### A Fun Fact About Vitamin D

Did you know that vitamin D is produced in your skin when exposed to sunlight? Cholecalciferol, a form of vitamin D, is created when UVB rays from the sun hit your skin and convert cholesterol into this essential nutrient. Only five to thirty minutes of sun exposure a few times a week can meet your body’s needs for vitamin D.

But with 1 billion people worldwide suffering from low levels of vitamin D, supplementation is often necessary—especially for those in northern climates or older adults. While it’s rare to overdose on vitamin D (it would require taking large doses over months), excessive intake can lead to calcium buildup and other health issues.

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### The Truth About Fortified Foods

Fortified foods are products that have had vitamins added during processing. For example, 2% milk is fortified with vitamin A after removing it during fat reduction. These products are designed to boost nutritional content, making them a convenient option for those looking to meet their vitamin needs.

However, as always, balance is key. Relying too heavily on fortified foods may not provide the same benefits as consuming whole, unprocessed foods. They’re a useful tool but shouldn’t be your sole source of vitamins.

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### Why You Need to Keep Listening

In next week’s episode, we’ll delve deeper into why the supplement industry thrives and how it markets its products. We’ll explore whether taking multivitamins is as beneficial as it seems and what you need to know about potential risks and benefits.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to *Seeker Plus* on your favorite podcast platform for more episodes in this series. You can also find full-length articles based on our episodes on the [audio podcast feed](#).

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### Final Thoughts

Vitamins are essential for health, but they work differently depending on whether they’re fat-soluble or water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins require careful balance to avoid toxicity, while water-soluble vitamins need to be consumed regularly to maintain their benefits.

As always, the best way to get your vitamins is through a balanced diet rich in whole foods. However, supplements can be a helpful addition when needed. Stay tuned for more insights into the world of vitamins and how they impact your health.

Thank you for tuning into *Seeker Plus*. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and family. You can find more episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. Until next time, this is Tres signing off—catch you on the flip side!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneveryone thanks for tuning into seeker plus again this week my name is tres this is episode two of three in our series on vitamins if you haven't listened to the first episode that explains all about vitamins where they came from you should probably go back and do that make sure you subscribe for all the episodes in this series and you can come find an audio podcast of this over on SoundCloud iTunes or wherever you get your podcast so make sure you check that out okay so today we're gonna talk about the difference between fat soluble and water soluble vitamins which vitamins do what cuz there are a lot of them and they all do different things and whether there can be too much of a good thing hint yeah there can be there can be it's really bad okay so let's kick into it we left off last time thinking about vitamins and exploring the different types of vitamins right we had fat soluble vitamins water soluble vitamins we explained where vitamin A came from vitamins are everywhere and yet we have to eat specific things to check all of the different boxes and get all of the different vitamins to make ourselves healthy and it seems like there are so many different vitamins right a b c d e k b1 b2 b3 there are so many B vitamins actually but which of these are needed and which can we kind of skimp on that's what I want to know right what's the reality behind vitamins which vitamins are the most important so let's start with the fat soluble vitamins a fat soluble vitamin is something that we consume and then it is processed by our fat which means it goes into the fat and it's stored there it stays in our body it's easier to overdose on that would mean because it just builds up inside that's a vitamin A D E and K and they each do very specific things a helps with red blood cell formation skin formation vision growth and development D helps with blood pressure bone growth and calcium balance hormone production and nervous system function E helps with blood vessel growth and antioxidants K helps with blood clotting and bone strength and remember these are very important things and that's good that they can be stored because we don't necessarily eat them every day so when we need them they're there then there's water soluble vitamins these are more temporary we eat them and they're processed through the water of our body which means get excreted if you have a lot of this then you're basically gonna have really expensive urine which I'm probably gonna say more than once just you know so all the B vitamins under the B umbrella 1 2 3 5 7 9 you know there's so many different ones according to the Encyclopedia Britannica all have the same name because of loose similarities in their properties and their distribution in natural sources together I'm just gonna take all the B vitamins they can help with energy protein carbs fat metabolism it can help stop birth defects help with red blood cell formation cholesterol production nervous system functions they can help the food to energy conversion hormone production growth and development very important stuff right which means you have to consume these vitamins constantly because again your excreting them vitamin C is the same you have to eat it constantly and it can help with connective tissue formation wound healing and antioxidants and again cannot be stored so you have to continually consume it extra though doesn't always help and we'll come back to why in a minute nutritionists and scientists are pretty clear on this the best way to get vitamins is through a healthy diet not necessarily through chewy tasty gummy candies it's obviously different for everyone but it is possible to eat all of these things in just a normal diet because they exist in so many different foods I'm not gonna list all the different foods that all the different vitamins could come in because I'd basically be reading you a spreadsheet but you can find it out there it's so easy to find and they exist in a bunch of different things so let me give you some brief examples a vitamins come from orange foods yeah things like eggs and milk as well obviously B vitamins come in so many things I'm gonna listen am there's just so many that have B vitamins in them Eve item ins come in green vegetables nuts peanuts and vegetable oils k vitamins also are found in green vegetables none of the vitamins are exclusive to any one type of diet although b12 is something that we get from meat because we will eat a animal that has consumed b12 in its environment it's found via soil bacteria so vegetarians can't actually get supplements that will get them b12 but for the most part people can just eat normal diet and get all of these different vitamins also fYI vegans can eat b12 because it comes from bacteria and bacterias vegan fun fun fact but let's say that you don't want to or you can't maybe an allergy eat all of these different things or do you want it to be simple right you just want a pill take care of it have a supplement you no problem vitamin supplements are widely available and have been for a long time a 2012 Harvard Medical School study says quote 114 million Americans roughly half of the adult population take at least one supplement and in 2015 the council for Responsible nutrition which by the way is a lobbying front for the supplement industry says that 68% of Americans take a supplement globally the supplement industry is one hundred and thirty three billion dollars but again you don't always need vitamins it's a supplement Caryl Hagen's a dietician and consultant to the National Institutes of Health quote says supplements can be useful for filling gaps in your diet end quote the thing is supplements are not drugs so they're not regulated by the FDA in the same way if a supplement claims to cure something like a drug would that's a red flag so when you do go to look for supplements make sure that you're keeping that in mind another quick sidebar if you see the word fortified on something you know what that means because I didn't basically it means that they've added a vitamin to it so fortified milk or fortified cereal is something that they added vitamins to to make it quote unquote in the air healthier right 2% milk has 36% less vitamin A because they stripped out some of the milk fat from the whole milk so they put it back in and they fortify the milk that means vitamins again have been added for simplicity just assume that you can get vitamins just as easily from fortified products they've been around for almost 100 years so they're pretty safe in sidebar before I explain anything else though you may have noticed it's that time of year again the time when you need thoughtful gifts for loved ones in your life or hey yourself self-care very important treat yourself so think about the gift of an audible membership now is the best time to do it because they are running a special offer audible has access to an unbeatable selection of audio books including bestsellers mysteries science fiction novels and more I've been listening to astrophysics for people in a hurry it is so good I really like it and I get to learn while I ride the bus or do a road trip and with an audible membership you get to choose three titles every single month and you can listen on any device at any time at the gym on your commute on the go you name it right now for a limited time you can get three months of audible for only $6.95 a month that is more than half off their regular price give yourself the gift of listening and while you're at it think about giving the gift of audible to someone else on your list as well so for more go to audible.com slash seeker or text seeker to five hundred five hundred that's a UD IB le comm slash seeker or text seeker to five hundred 500 okay so vitamins as you know they are needed you have to get them from the environment you have to eat them and consume them in order to do all sorts of amazing things within your body but every vitamin works differently so let's trace vitamin D through the whole process vitamin D is found in fatty or oily fish it's also created funfact inside of your skin let's take that root deep in the skin is a steroid called 7d Hydra cholesterol it's a cholesterol and when it's hit by UVB from the Sun just being outside it breaks one of its chemical bonds and it converts to cholecalciferol or vitamin D then a protein called vitamin D binding protein or DBP grabs it and transports it into the bloodstream to where it's needed it helps us express our genes up to twelve hundred and fifty different genes can be expressed and helped by vitamin D and it's used to build bones because vitamin D helps us absorb calcium out of our diet the thing is only five to thirty minutes in the Sun will do it two to three times a week so if you're outside just make sure yours got some skin exposed to the Sun that's really it if you don't consume enough of the vitamin you can have a deficiency and vitamin D is one of those it's actually fairly common 1 billion people worldwide could have low vitamin D senior citizens commonly have low vitamin D people in northern countries often don't see as much of the Sun especially in the winter months so they might have low vitamin D sun exposure can be tough to come by in a lot of different places right and it can contribute to bone loss it can often cause people to get sick more often can cause fatigue over time and it can even make people have a little trouble healing but of course you can take a vitamin supplement for something like that right if that is the situation that you're living in don't just live without vitamin D take a small supplement and you should be ok but if you overdose on vitamin D that can be bad so this is what I mentioned earlier too much of a good thing if you overdose on vitamin D it can cause a buildup of calcium in your blood basically the vitamin D doesn't know when to stop binding and bringing calcium out right it just does it that's its job so if you have a lot of vitamin D you're gonna get a lot of calcium and that can cause a problem in your body it can also cause nausea and vomiting weakness and frequent urination it can cause bone pain it can cause kidney problems of course this isn't like I took one vitamin D supplement and suddenly all of this happened you'd have to take handfuls of vitamin D pills every day for months but that's not always the case some vitamins are a little more prone to being overdosed let's go back to vitamin A vitamin A eventually once we figured out exactly what it was and where it was coming from we learned to synthesize it it was first synthesized in 1947 and put into tablets or pills to supplement people's diets to make sure that they could still grow even if they didn't have vitamin A in their diet the thing is you only need 3 milligrams per day of vitamin A that's not very much and according to Harvard quote large amounts of supplemental vitamin A can be harmful to your bones and it doesn't get excreted remember this is fat soluble vitamin a water-soluble things like vitamin C and b12 again very expensive urine fat soluble vitamins if you eat too many of them can build up cause all sorts of problems so there are times when by 2 can be helpful like fortification or say you do have a deficiency in your diet or in your environment or if you're at risk for a deficiency what about like multivitamins right something that's it's just a broad-spectrum vitamin that you can take every day and cover all your bases that's a good thing right people take them all the time but should they I mean we sort of touched on what happens if you overdose with vitamins but there is an industry that's there to try and sell you on the idea that you're missing something how does this affect your body well find out more about that next week thanks for watching seeker + everyone I am trace for more episodes come find us wherever you get your audio podcasts there are also new full stories on the audio podcast feed every single week in the meantime you can watch more seeker videos just come find us all you got to do is look for seeker you can also find me out there I'm at trace Dominguezeveryone thanks for tuning into seeker plus again this week my name is tres this is episode two of three in our series on vitamins if you haven't listened to the first episode that explains all about vitamins where they came from you should probably go back and do that make sure you subscribe for all the episodes in this series and you can come find an audio podcast of this over on SoundCloud iTunes or wherever you get your podcast so make sure you check that out okay so today we're gonna talk about the difference between fat soluble and water soluble vitamins which vitamins do what cuz there are a lot of them and they all do different things and whether there can be too much of a good thing hint yeah there can be there can be it's really bad okay so let's kick into it we left off last time thinking about vitamins and exploring the different types of vitamins right we had fat soluble vitamins water soluble vitamins we explained where vitamin A came from vitamins are everywhere and yet we have to eat specific things to check all of the different boxes and get all of the different vitamins to make ourselves healthy and it seems like there are so many different vitamins right a b c d e k b1 b2 b3 there are so many B vitamins actually but which of these are needed and which can we kind of skimp on that's what I want to know right what's the reality behind vitamins which vitamins are the most important so let's start with the fat soluble vitamins a fat soluble vitamin is something that we consume and then it is processed by our fat which means it goes into the fat and it's stored there it stays in our body it's easier to overdose on that would mean because it just builds up inside that's a vitamin A D E and K and they each do very specific things a helps with red blood cell formation skin formation vision growth and development D helps with blood pressure bone growth and calcium balance hormone production and nervous system function E helps with blood vessel growth and antioxidants K helps with blood clotting and bone strength and remember these are very important things and that's good that they can be stored because we don't necessarily eat them every day so when we need them they're there then there's water soluble vitamins these are more temporary we eat them and they're processed through the water of our body which means get excreted if you have a lot of this then you're basically gonna have really expensive urine which I'm probably gonna say more than once just you know so all the B vitamins under the B umbrella 1 2 3 5 7 9 you know there's so many different ones according to the Encyclopedia Britannica all have the same name because of loose similarities in their properties and their distribution in natural sources together I'm just gonna take all the B vitamins they can help with energy protein carbs fat metabolism it can help stop birth defects help with red blood cell formation cholesterol production nervous system functions they can help the food to energy conversion hormone production growth and development very important stuff right which means you have to consume these vitamins constantly because again your excreting them vitamin C is the same you have to eat it constantly and it can help with connective tissue formation wound healing and antioxidants and again cannot be stored so you have to continually consume it extra though doesn't always help and we'll come back to why in a minute nutritionists and scientists are pretty clear on this the best way to get vitamins is through a healthy diet not necessarily through chewy tasty gummy candies it's obviously different for everyone but it is possible to eat all of these things in just a normal diet because they exist in so many different foods I'm not gonna list all the different foods that all the different vitamins could come in because I'd basically be reading you a spreadsheet but you can find it out there it's so easy to find and they exist in a bunch of different things so let me give you some brief examples a vitamins come from orange foods yeah things like eggs and milk as well obviously B vitamins come in so many things I'm gonna listen am there's just so many that have B vitamins in them Eve item ins come in green vegetables nuts peanuts and vegetable oils k vitamins also are found in green vegetables none of the vitamins are exclusive to any one type of diet although b12 is something that we get from meat because we will eat a animal that has consumed b12 in its environment it's found via soil bacteria so vegetarians can't actually get supplements that will get them b12 but for the most part people can just eat normal diet and get all of these different vitamins also fYI vegans can eat b12 because it comes from bacteria and bacterias vegan fun fun fact but let's say that you don't want to or you can't maybe an allergy eat all of these different things or do you want it to be simple right you just want a pill take care of it have a supplement you no problem vitamin supplements are widely available and have been for a long time a 2012 Harvard Medical School study says quote 114 million Americans roughly half of the adult population take at least one supplement and in 2015 the council for Responsible nutrition which by the way is a lobbying front for the supplement industry says that 68% of Americans take a supplement globally the supplement industry is one hundred and thirty three billion dollars but again you don't always need vitamins it's a supplement Caryl Hagen's a dietician and consultant to the National Institutes of Health quote says supplements can be useful for filling gaps in your diet end quote the thing is supplements are not drugs so they're not regulated by the FDA in the same way if a supplement claims to cure something like a drug would that's a red flag so when you do go to look for supplements make sure that you're keeping that in mind another quick sidebar if you see the word fortified on something you know what that means because I didn't basically it means that they've added a vitamin to it so fortified milk or fortified cereal is something that they added vitamins to to make it quote unquote in the air healthier right 2% milk has 36% less vitamin A because they stripped out some of the milk fat from the whole milk so they put it back in and they fortify the milk that means vitamins again have been added for simplicity just assume that you can get vitamins just as easily from fortified products they've been around for almost 100 years so they're pretty safe in sidebar before I explain anything else though you may have noticed it's that time of year again the time when you need thoughtful gifts for loved ones in your life or hey yourself self-care very important treat yourself so think about the gift of an audible membership now is the best time to do it because they are running a special offer audible has access to an unbeatable selection of audio books including bestsellers mysteries science fiction novels and more I've been listening to astrophysics for people in a hurry it is so good I really like it and I get to learn while I ride the bus or do a road trip and with an audible membership you get to choose three titles every single month and you can listen on any device at any time at the gym on your commute on the go you name it right now for a limited time you can get three months of audible for only $6.95 a month that is more than half off their regular price give yourself the gift of listening and while you're at it think about giving the gift of audible to someone else on your list as well so for more go to audible.com slash seeker or text seeker to five hundred five hundred that's a UD IB le comm slash seeker or text seeker to five hundred 500 okay so vitamins as you know they are needed you have to get them from the environment you have to eat them and consume them in order to do all sorts of amazing things within your body but every vitamin works differently so let's trace vitamin D through the whole process vitamin D is found in fatty or oily fish it's also created funfact inside of your skin let's take that root deep in the skin is a steroid called 7d Hydra cholesterol it's a cholesterol and when it's hit by UVB from the Sun just being outside it breaks one of its chemical bonds and it converts to cholecalciferol or vitamin D then a protein called vitamin D binding protein or DBP grabs it and transports it into the bloodstream to where it's needed it helps us express our genes up to twelve hundred and fifty different genes can be expressed and helped by vitamin D and it's used to build bones because vitamin D helps us absorb calcium out of our diet the thing is only five to thirty minutes in the Sun will do it two to three times a week so if you're outside just make sure yours got some skin exposed to the Sun that's really it if you don't consume enough of the vitamin you can have a deficiency and vitamin D is one of those it's actually fairly common 1 billion people worldwide could have low vitamin D senior citizens commonly have low vitamin D people in northern countries often don't see as much of the Sun especially in the winter months so they might have low vitamin D sun exposure can be tough to come by in a lot of different places right and it can contribute to bone loss it can often cause people to get sick more often can cause fatigue over time and it can even make people have a little trouble healing but of course you can take a vitamin supplement for something like that right if that is the situation that you're living in don't just live without vitamin D take a small supplement and you should be ok but if you overdose on vitamin D that can be bad so this is what I mentioned earlier too much of a good thing if you overdose on vitamin D it can cause a buildup of calcium in your blood basically the vitamin D doesn't know when to stop binding and bringing calcium out right it just does it that's its job so if you have a lot of vitamin D you're gonna get a lot of calcium and that can cause a problem in your body it can also cause nausea and vomiting weakness and frequent urination it can cause bone pain it can cause kidney problems of course this isn't like I took one vitamin D supplement and suddenly all of this happened you'd have to take handfuls of vitamin D pills every day for months but that's not always the case some vitamins are a little more prone to being overdosed let's go back to vitamin A vitamin A eventually once we figured out exactly what it was and where it was coming from we learned to synthesize it it was first synthesized in 1947 and put into tablets or pills to supplement people's diets to make sure that they could still grow even if they didn't have vitamin A in their diet the thing is you only need 3 milligrams per day of vitamin A that's not very much and according to Harvard quote large amounts of supplemental vitamin A can be harmful to your bones and it doesn't get excreted remember this is fat soluble vitamin a water-soluble things like vitamin C and b12 again very expensive urine fat soluble vitamins if you eat too many of them can build up cause all sorts of problems so there are times when by 2 can be helpful like fortification or say you do have a deficiency in your diet or in your environment or if you're at risk for a deficiency what about like multivitamins right something that's it's just a broad-spectrum vitamin that you can take every day and cover all your bases that's a good thing right people take them all the time but should they I mean we sort of touched on what happens if you overdose with vitamins but there is an industry that's there to try and sell you on the idea that you're missing something how does this affect your body well find out more about that next week thanks for watching seeker + everyone I am trace for more episodes come find us wherever you get your audio podcasts there are also new full stories on the audio podcast feed every single week in the meantime you can watch more seeker videos just come find us all you got to do is look for seeker you can also find me out there I'm at trace Dominguez\n"