Example Day of Eating: How to Hit Your RDAs Through Whole Foods (No Supplements Required)

If metabolism matters, micronutrients matter.

In the last post, we covered why vitamins and minerals are not optional extras, they are required for your body to convert your food into usable cellular energy.

Micronutrients are the tools that allow your metabolism to run.

They act as essential cofactors and components of enzymes that help transform the energy stored in carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into ATP, the fuel your cells actually use.

They are required for optimal mitochondrial function, digestion, carbohydrate oxidation, detoxification pathways, nervous system signaling, cellular repair and so much more. When intake is inadequate, many of those processes can slow down, and symptoms often follow.

A nutrient deficiency is, quite literally, a metabolic brake. (Ultimately limiting your metabolism and overall systemic function).

So if micronutrient sufficiency matters this much, what does it actually look like to hit the target vitamin and mineral levels (RDAs) through real food?

Let’s make this practical.

Below is a simple three-meal example (breakfast, lunch, dinner) showing how you can meet vitamin and mineral targets through whole foods without relying on supplements.

This isn’t a prescription, and I am not saying you have to eat this way.

It’s a demonstration. A plug-and-play example I built in a few minutes inside Cronometer to show how doable this really is when you eat enough and build balanced meals!

How you fit your target macros and the RDA for micros varies on what foods you like and have access to, the time of year, your schedule, and daily eating patterns.

Example Day of Meals Hitting the RDAs

Breakfast might look like sourdough bread with three eggs, green beans, and oranges, alongside a coffee with ¼ cup whole milk and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Lunch could be a hearty hash of butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and collard greens topped with fresh herbs and 2–3 ounces of cooked pork chop. The whole dish is finished with an ounce of freshly grated cheese and served alongside a nourishing cup of bone broth. Dinner might be potatoes, ground beef, Brussels sprouts, stewed apples with cinnamon and nutmeg, and 1.5 oz of cheese.

The general trend of these meals is simple: made from scratch, built on whole food ingredients, and straightforward yet satisfying.

It’s not practical (or necessary) to prepare elaborate recipes every day. In fact, constantly changing complex meals can make it harder to fine-tune a dietary strategy that truly supports your goals. Keeping meals simple makes it easier to track patterns, adjust macros, assess how you feel, and steadily move the needle forward in energy production, metabolic health, and body composition.

Here are the cronometer screenshots of meal composition, and then the resulting Vitamin and Mineral values.

In this example, the day totaled about 2,200 calories with a macro split of roughly 22% protein, 55% carbohydrates, and 25% fat. That doesn’t mean this is the right macronutrient split or calorie level for you. 

Macronutrient and calorie needs vary depending on metabolic health, muscle mass, body composition, activity level, exercise routine, and personal goals, not to mention taste preferences, food access, and even the time of year. 

This particular day was written in winter (Feb), when storage crops like squash and potatoes are abundant, and oranges are easily accessible since its mid citrus season. Summer would naturally bring a different mix of fruits and vegetables.

This macro approach is relatively carb-forward and metabolically supportive, consistent with a higher-energy, lower-PUFA framework.

There are many other ways to build a day like this! You could swap the pork for skin-on chicken thighs and still meet micronutrient needs. You could choose a leaner protein like chicken breast, shrimp, or your favorite seafood option and add cheese to balance things out.

And if you like having 3 meals plus a snack, no problem.

For this example, would make each meal slightly smaller. Then could have a snack of Greek yogurt, clean chocolate, and desired fruit. (as an example)

The framework is flexible.

Think of it as plug-and-play built around foods you enjoy, tolerate well, and have access to, adjusted to your preferred macro balance and meal frequency, while still keeping an eye on both micronutrient sufficiency and macronutrient targets.

You can further support mineral intake by incorporating a sparkling mineral water like Gerolsteiner. Each one-liter bottle provides approximately 345 mg of calcium and 100 mg of magnesium, a meaningful contribution toward daily targets! I include it regularly, often daily. The calcium and magnesium found naturally in mineral water are present in bioavailable ionic forms and can significantly contribute to overall intake. These minerals play essential roles in hydration, muscle contraction, bone integrity, nerve signaling, and numerous metabolic pathways.

When adding Gerolsteiner to this example day, total mineral intake improves further, bringing the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio closer to 1:1, which is generally considered favorable for long-term skeletal and metabolic health.

(You can also further boost your calcium intake through incorporating more raw dairy or well-cooked leafy greens to your day.)

Bottom: increase in calcium and magnesium through Gerolsteiner.

No, it's not perfect

Let’s acknowledge something upfront: the micronutrient data in Cronometer and the USDA Food Database isn’t perfect.

Nutrient levels naturally vary based on soil quality, farming practices, animal diet, and sourcing. For example, pasture-raised eggs, meat, and dairy often contain higher levels of certain micronutrients compared to products from confined livestock, which are more commonly represented in large national databases.

(Micronutrient testing is very expensive, and there is some missing data comparing different food sources).

There are also gaps in the data itself. Some entries are incomplete. Biotin and iodine, for instance, is frequently missing for a number of foods. You can, however, create copies of food and add well documented nutrient values to fill those gaps. (But it is something to be aware of if you see your day of eating is low in biotin and iodine). 

That said, tracking still moves you significantly closer to ensuring your body has what it needs.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness and consistency.

Using the database provides a structured baseline. From there, if you’re sourcing pasture-raised or regeneratively produced foods, you’re likely consuming even more micronutrients than what appears on your report, which is a great position to be in!

This example uses conventional meat and produce because that’s what the USDA database is built upon. Nutrient values will always vary depending on sourcing. But imperfect data doesn’t make the exercise meaningless. It gives you a starting framework, and progress built on a reasonable structure will always outperform winging it and guessing.

A Quick Note on Vitamin A

You may notice that the vitamin A appears quite high in this example.

It’s important to understand that nutrition databases like Cronometer report vitamin A in RAE (Retinol Activity Equivalents) and combine both plant-based provitamin A carotenoids (like beta-carotene) and preformed retinol from animal foods into one total number. However, beta-carotene is not the same as retinol.

Beta-carotene must be converted into retinol in the body, and that conversion rate is relatively low and highly variable depending on genetics, thyroid function, zinc status, metabolic health, and overall nutrient sufficiency. Because of this limited conversion efficiency, high beta-carotene intake from foods like sweet potatoes does not carry the same toxicity risk as high intakes of preformed retinol.

For that reason, I am not concerned about vitamin A toxicity in this example.

That said, some individuals don’t feel their best consuming very high amounts of beta-carotene-rich foods. If that’s you, you could easily swap orange sweet potatoes for white-fleshed varieties such as Japanese or Hannah sweet potatoes. Those are actually the varieties I typically eat myself (largely because I prefer the taste!)

And remember, you don’t even have to use sweet potatoes. You can use a different carb source here like products made from heritage wheat, more sourdough, nixtamalized corn tortillas, other white/yellow potato varieties.

As always, the framework is flexible!

Aren't Vitamin E and Vitamin D Low In Your Example?

You might also notice that vitamin D and vitamin E appear lower in the micronutrient screenshots. Let's address that!

Vitamin D is unique among nutrients because the human body is designed to produce it from sunlight. Historically and biologically, sun exposure has always been the primary source, with food playing only a minor supporting role. Diet was never meant to supply the majority of our vitamin D.

Even the richest food sources provide relatively small amounts, making it nearly impossible to consistently reach the 600–800 IU RDA through food alone. So don't worry if your Vit D level is low in Cronometer (or whatever app you are using).

Ensuring adequate sun exposure remains the most effective way to support healthy vitamin D levels and metabolic function.

Building vitamin D stores toward the end of summer can be especially helpful heading into winter. During darker months, tools like Sperti UVB lamps or intentional sun exposure on a short warm vacation can meaningfully support Vit D levels.

There is ongoing debate around vitamin D supplementation, but some individuals do well using a high-quality vitamin D3 source based on personal needs and budget. Foods fortified with Vit D are generally best avoided, as they often contain vitamin D2, a less biologically effective form.

Then for Vitamin E, this must be considered in context.

Its primary role is to protect polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) from oxidative damage. As PUFA intake increases, vitamin E requirements increase proportionally. The current RDA was established in the context of a higher-PUFA standard American diet, often containing 25–30 grams of PUFA per day. (Which isn't reflective of more ancestral diets where PUFA intake was naturally lower).

In this example above, PUFA intake was approximately 8 grams, and would likely be even lower when using low-PUFA animal products at Nourish (which are not reflected in the USDA database).

(For a deeper discussion on how vitamin E requirements scale with PUFA intake, see this post.)

Using the upper range estimate of 0.4–0.6 mg of vitamin E needed per gram of PUFA intake, estimated needs would fall around 5 mg per day. This example day provided about 12 mg of vitamin E from whole foods alone, meeting biological needs based on PUFA intake. (While slightly below the 15 mg Vit E RDA set based on higher PUFA intakes). I also probably could have spent a few more minutes tweaking even more to get closer to that 15 mg, but I don't think its a nutrient that needs to be stressed about as much since its needs are determined by PUFA intake. (If your PUFA intake is higher, then yes please consume more Vitamin E! But I personally intentionally keep my PUFA intake lower for optimal long term metabolic health).

My favorite low PUFA vitamin E sources include: truly pasture-raised eggs, some fruits (like mango, kiwi, blackberries, peaches), tomatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, and cooked veggies you do well with (like peppers, spinach, chard, kale, asparagus, broccoli), truly grass-fed beef, and grass-fed butter/ghee/tallow.

It’s also important to note that pasture-raised animal foods likely contain more vitamin E than what’s reflected in standard databases. Animals grazing fresh green pasture consume vitamin E–rich plants, and that alpha-tocopherol is transferred into egg yolks, dairy fat, and body fat. This is why pasture-raised eggs, grass-fed beef, and pasture-based dairy consistently test higher in vitamin E compared to grain-fed counterparts.

So in practice, vitamin E intake in this example may be higher than what appears on paper when sourcing high-quality foods. But again, I cover this in more depth here.

In Conclusion

So here’s a simple challenge: try logging your normal eating patterns (honestly!) in Cronometer for a couple of weeks. Don’t change anything at first. Just observe. See where you may be falling short in total calories, macronutrients, or micronutrients.

Does it hurt to try?

You might be surprised at how small adjustments can make a big difference!

At best, you build a stronger metabolic foundation, improve energy, and reduce symptoms. At minimum, you gain clarity about what your body actually needs. And you might even save yourself a significant amount of money on expensive supplements.

Let’s bring back the mindset that supplements are truly supplemental, not foundational. A well-balanced, whole-food diet (without extreme restriction) can go a long way toward meeting micronutrient targets and helping your body thrive.