Healthy
What vitamins and minerals does a woman need?
Individual nutritional needs vary according to age and overall health status. Some requirements are specific to women. What vitamins a woman should take daily can depend on what stage of life they are in.
Women can benefit from a higher intake of some nutrients at specific stages of their life. This article looks at some of the vitamins and minerals a woman needs at different stages of life.
In the United States, the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) advise on nutrition. They set the recommended daily allowance (RDA) and adequate intake (AI) for a range of nutrients.
The FNB set the RDA for a specific vitamin when there is enough scientific evidence to suggest that a specific daily dietary intake is beneficial. This happens when the vitamin is proven to meet the nutritional requirement of 97–98%Trusted Source of healthy people in a particular group.
If the FNB do not have enough scientific evidence to establish an RDA, they usually recommend an AI instead.
The tables below, which use information from the FNB and the Office for Dietary Supplements (ODS), list the RDAs for some vitamins and minerals for women of various ages. AIs have an asterisk (*), and vitamin amounts are in milligrams (mg) or micrograms (mcg).
This table shows the requirements for women aged 9–50 years:
The table below shows the requirements for women aged 51 years and older, those who are pregnant, and those who are breastfeeding:
