Via Lifehacker comes a link to Shannon Lattin’s pretty slick infographic on where to get vitamins from food:
Shannon Lattin’s “More than Supplemental” infographic.
Click for large version.
A couple of notes. First, while I’m a big fan of the Jaminets and their Perfect Health Diet, I think I’m with Kamal Patel — he doesn’t “totally agree with [their] supplementation strategy” (looking forward to part 2 where Kamal gets into specifics!). Me, I am a big fan of getting nutrients from food. While there are legitimate questions of whether or not food can provide an optimal amount of nutrients, I think there are also questions about the side effects of getting nutrients in the form of supplements (too much? right kind? lack of synergistic nutrients? etc). OTOH, supplements may be useful for folks who aren’t interested in eating the necessary nutrient-dense foods.
Second, re to grain or not to grain. If you want to eat your grains, be my guest. I find the concept of “traditional prepared grains” (a la Weston Price) compelling. But the above shows quite clearly that grains aren’t the nutrient-dense foods some folks suggest (and I don’t think the picture changes much when minerals are considered either). As a PHD-fan, my primary on-plan grain is white rice essentially lacking in nutrients. But I think I more than make up for it with my liver (via braunschweiger), eggs, and shellfish.
Finally, you probably know this, but many of the important vitamins in veggies are fat soluble. So if you’re eating plain steamed veggies, you’re not getting as much benefit as you could. So add a little vinaigrette or a little bit o’ butter to your veggies if there’s no other fat in your meal.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats! 
I’ve heard a lot of different ideas on this subject, and I’m prone to believing some of it.
1: That our food is so modified/stripped overfarmed soil leaves our food doesn’t contain as many nutrients/vitamins as they used to. Which makes a lot of sense, as we’re constantly breeding larger sized and large quantities of food.
2: There have been many studies and tests on over saturating oneself with vitamins and having great benefits. Especially treating cancer with extreme amounts of vitamin c.
3: I do also believe that one can definitely have too many minerals, like iron, and should try not to take too many concentrated supplements of those.
But there are also studies that show supplements can cause problems rather than prevent them. Re soil depletion, I’ve read other reports that suggest that this isn’t the problem others make it out to be, and in any case, other factors (such as shipping distance and handling methods) can also affect nutrient content.
I suspect that supplementation is one of those things that, like macronutrient ratio, are just going to wind up being personal decisions. As they say, your mileage may vary ;).
From an artistic POV alone, the vitamin chart might offer a nurturing element of warmth and color in almost any kitchen. :)
Um. Seriously, though, whenever I hear the debate about soil depletion and supplements, I can’t seem to avoid thinking about the OTHER KINDS of *supplements* we’re getting in our fresh produce, that is, the unmeasured and various combinations (“in trace amounts”) of pharmaceuticals (including vitamins from excreted urine-both human and livestock as source) taken up and left within all the the lovely carrots and green beans (etc)—absorbed from irrigation water (which contains an amount and variety of pharmaceutical surprises not unlike those in tap water).
Thinking about all those potential chemical interactions from diverse drugs, vitamins, and so forth, can make (for obsessive types like me) the OTHER supplement discussion seem much less worrisome. :)
OTOH, some of us are just as concerned about the prospect of contaminants in supplements … remember the tryptophan scare?
@Beth: I couldn’t agree more about the need for caution and concern in relation to contaminated OTC supplements, such as amino acids, etc. I think there are many herbal preparations (such as Mucuna Pruriens extract) that could play significant roles in healing several cognitive disorders but the risk of mistakes in preparation (given no FDA oversight, also) can’t be discounted. I long for a time when we can consult local herbalists who have devoted a lifetime of learning about safe vs. unsafe herbal preparations and their therapeutic applications. Apparently, though, a few thousand or more of these wise women (and men) who often served as their village healers and midwives were burned as witches and heretics (following the Malleus Maleficarum) during the 15th and 16th centuries. Nowadays we tend to shun “unprofessional” herbalists and put our trust instead in pharmaceutical companies and manufacturing “labs” operated by and overseen by god-knows-who. A local village herbalist—a well respected or beloved member within a community—would, I suspect, have a greater stake in ensuring the results of her or his work.