A life cycle micronutrient perspective for women's health.

Micronutrients not only benefit women's health during childbearing years and during pregnancy and lactation, but they also have substantial impact on women's health during adolescence and the aging years. Thus, for women, diet quality is important for health today and in the future. Realizing that there are many ways to improve the quality of a diet and to obtain adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals from foods, food-based approaches are still not attaining adequate intakes in most women, both in the United States and worldwide. Efforts are needed to improve diet quality, focusing on the diet as a whole, and not on single vitamins or minerals. However, consideration must be given to fortified foods and/or supplements to insure micronutrient adequacy.