Can Raw Vegetable Juices Supply 100% of Daily Vitamin Needs?

You can't live on vegetable juice alone.

You can't live on vegetable juice alone.

Although vegetables and vegetable juice provide significant amounts of vitamins, you can't meet 100 percent of your vitamin needs by drinking vegetable juice alone. You need to eat other foods to make up for the many vitamins not found in large amounts in vegetable juice. Eating a balanced diet including foods from all of the food groups will help you get enough of all of the essential nutrients.

Vitamin B-12

One vitamin raw vegetable juice definitely doesn't provide is vitamin B-12. Animal products and fortified foods are the only reliable sources of this vitamin. You need vitamin B-12 for forming red blood cells and DNA and for proper brain function. People following a vegetarian diet need to take vitamin B-12 supplements or eat fortified foods, which include some breakfast cereals.

Other B Vitamins

Vegetables provide significant amounts of folate, which you need for forming healthy red blood cells and preventing neural tube birth defects. However, vegetables aren't the best sources of vitamin B-6, niacin and thiamine, and many of the better vegetable sources of these nutrients aren't necessarily used in juice, such as peas, beans, potatoes and mushrooms. Carrot juice and tomato juice, however, do provide at least small amounts of these nutrients. Broccoli, asparagus and spinach all provide small amounts of the other B vitamin, riboflavin, but this is another vitamin you aren't likely to get enough of just by drinking raw vegetable juice. These B vitamins are essential for turning the food you eat into energy.

Fat-Soluble Vitamins

You won't get enough vitamin D from drinking vegetable juice. It's found mainly in fatty fish, cheese, mushrooms, egg yolks, beef liver and fortified foods. You need vitamin D for proper immune function, absorbing calcium and forming strong bones. Raw vegetable juice may contain vitamins A, E and K, especially if you've included greens in the juice, but you won't be able to absorb these fat-soluble vitamins if you don't eat or drink something containing fat along with your vegetable juice. Vitamin A is important for immune function and healthy vision. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant, and without vitamin K, your blood wouldn't clot properly.

Vitamin C

Raw vegetable juice is likely to provide you with plenty of vitamin C, because many vegetables contain this essential nutrient, which is important for improving iron absorption, keeping your gums and teeth healthy and healing cuts and other wounds. Some of the better vegetable sources of vitamin C include tomatoes, peppers and cabbage. Eating these vegetables raw, or drinking raw juice containing these vegetables, will provide more vitamin C than eating them cooked because vitamin C is heat sensitive.

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