Reference

Daily Vitamins and Minerals: A Quick Reference

Your body needs a set of vitamins and minerals in small amounts, and most of them come directly from the foods you eat. This reference names the ones most worth checking, explains how the Daily Value on food labels works, and flags the people who often need more. It is a map of what to look for, not a prescription.

The reference values, and which one applies to you

The number that matters for reading a food label is the Daily Value, or DV, which the FDA sets for use on packaged food. The DV is deliberately simple: one value per nutrient for adults and children age 4 and over, chosen to be near the top of the safe range so that 100% DV of a vitamin is generally enough and 100% of an energy nutrient is not automatically too much. For most vitamins the DV equals or sits close to the RDA, so the columns look similar; they are different documents with different purposes.

Daily Values for the nutrients most often short

These are the FDA Daily Values printed in the percent-DV column of a U.S. Nutrition Facts label. A percentage at or below 5% per serving is low; 20% or more is high.

• Vitamin D: 20 micrograms (800 IU) - AI 15 mcg for ages 14 to 70, 20 mcg over 70
• Calcium: 1,300 mg - RDA 1,000 mg ages 19 to 50, 1,200 mg over 50 and for women over 50
• Potassium: 4,700 mg - the nutrient with the largest gap between the DV and typical intake
• Sodium: 2,300 mg - a maximum, not a target to reach
• Magnesium: 420 mg for men and 320 mg for women aged 19 to 30; 420 mg and 320 mg over 30 (DV shown as 420 mg)
• Iron: 18 mg - 8 mg for men and for women after menopause, 27 mg during pregnancy
• Zinc: 11 mg for men, 8 mg for women; UL 40 mg
• Vitamin A: 900 micrograms RAE for men, 700 for women; UL 3,000 mcg of preformed vitamin A
• Vitamin C: 90 mg for men, 75 mg for women; smokers need 35 mg more
• Folate: 400 micrograms DFE, 600 during pregnancy; vitamin B12: 2.4 micrograms
• Vitamin E: 15 mg; vitamin K: 120 micrograms for men, 90 for women; iodine: 150 micrograms

Who often needs more, and where the risk of too much sits

More is not better without limit. The UL is a real ceiling. Preformed vitamin A above 3,000 micrograms a day is associated with liver effects and birth defects, which is why the recommendation for pregnant people is to obtain vitamin A from food and to be careful with high-dose supplements. Vitamin D supplements in large amounts cause hypercalcaemia. The upper limit for the mineral selenium is 400 micrograms a day, for zinc 40 mg, and for magnesium from supplements and medications 350 mg, a number that does not apply to magnesium in food. The UL for vitamin E of 1,000 mg applies to supplemental alpha-tocopherol. Iron is a frequent cause of accidental overdose in small children when adult supplements are within reach.

Food first, and how to check your own numbers

The consistent advice from the Dietary Guidelines, from NIH and from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is that a varied diet built on vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, dairy or a fortified alternative, and some source of protein covers essentially all of these for most healthy adults without any supplement. Harvard's coverage of what to eat makes the same point that nutrients in whole foods arrive in packages that the body handles differently from isolated doses, and that high-dose single-nutrient supplements have repeatedly failed to reproduce the benefits seen in dietary patterns.

A reasonable way to check your own intake is to record three normal days, including one weekend day, and look them up in USDA FoodData Central, the free database behind the label data. Compare the totals with the RDA or AI column above rather than with the label's 100% DV, which is set at the top of the range. If a number is persistently low, the first question is whether a food change closes it; if a supplement is used, check that the dose sits below the UL and, if you take prescription medication, raise it with your own clinician or pharmacist, since interactions are the usual practical problem rather than the nutrient itself.

• Percent DV of 5% or less per serving is low; 20% or more is high
• Ages 4 and up share one Daily Value per nutrient; infants need their own values
• The UL applies to total intake from food, fortification and supplements combined for most nutrients
• Three recorded days in USDA FoodData Central is enough for a rough personal estimate

Updated 2026-10-07