No fruit?

Question
I completely understand everything in moderation and importance of having variety in the diet. With this said; is it possible to obtain all of the vitamins and minerals in adequate amounts from protein, fat, and non starch vegetables?

Thanks,

Brent

Answer
Hi Brent,

I suppose it could be possible, if you carefully planned your diet every day and made sure to have vegetables high in calcium (usually the best source is milk) your minerals would probably be met from meat and vegetables. As for vitamins, dairy is also a very good source of riboflavin which isn't found in high amounts in many other foods. Grains do provide some, along with thiamin and niacin and that's hard to get from other foods as well, unless you are purposely planning your diet to include those B vitamins. Vitamin C you could get from the right vegetables also, again with planning.

The other option, if you're going to cut out fruits, dairy and grains from your diet, is to be sure and take a multi-vitamin mineral supplement.

Of course, there are valuable antioxidants and other components in food as well and we don't know all about them yet. A good variety is always a good idea.  

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