"A SOUND MIND IN A SOUND BODY"
'Health
is wealth' and it does not take too much to maintain good
health. A balanced diet, regular care and proper medication are the secrets to
a long and healthy life.
The term vitamin was derived from
"vitamine", a compound word coined in 1912 by the Polish biochemist
Kazimierz Funk when working at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.
Why
do we need to eat vitamins?
Essential nutrients
for our body
Every day, your body produces skin, muscle, and bone. It
churns out rich red blood that carries nutrients and oxygen to remote outposts,
and it sends nerve signals skipping along thousands of miles of brain and body
pathways. It also formulates chemical messengers that shuttle from one organ to
another, issuing the instructions that help sustain our life.
But to do all this, our body requires some raw materials.
These include vitamins, minerals, and dietary components that your body needs
but cannot manufacture on its own in sufficient amounts.
Right
from the school days, we have been learning about the significance of vitamins
and minerals in our diet. As an adult, now is the time to take action. It is
our duty to see whether our daily diet consists of sufficient vitamins and
minerals. These days, owing to the hectic lifestyle, people tend to eat
processed food or even junk food. These foods do not provide the nutrients that
are required for proper functioning of the body. These days, people opt for
various supplements that are advertised in an attractive manner. In fact,
natural foods are a rich source of vitamins and minerals.
They should be incorporated in the regular diet as they promote physical growth and help keep diseases and illnesses away. Excessive consumption of fortified foods (excessive consumption of vitamins and minerals) leads to toxicity and can result in life-threatening side effects. In order to deal with problems of vitamin deficiency and overdose, it is imperative to know about vitamins and what they do. Take a look at the chart that provides information on important vitamins and their functions in the body.
They should be incorporated in the regular diet as they promote physical growth and help keep diseases and illnesses away. Excessive consumption of fortified foods (excessive consumption of vitamins and minerals) leads to toxicity and can result in life-threatening side effects. In order to deal with problems of vitamin deficiency and overdose, it is imperative to know about vitamins and what they do. Take a look at the chart that provides information on important vitamins and their functions in the body.
Vitamins and minerals are considered essential nutrients—because
acting in concert, they perform hundreds of roles in the body. They help shore
up bones, heal wounds, and bolster your immune system. They also convert food
into energy, and repair cellular damage.
Vitamins and minerals are often called
micronutrients because your body needs only tiny amounts of them. Yet failing
to get even those small quantities virtually guarantees disease. Here are a few
examples of diseases that can result from vitamin deficiencies:
• Scurvy. Old-time sailors learned that
living for months without fresh fruits or vegetables—the main sources of
vitamin C—causes the bleeding gums and listlessness of scurvy.
• Blindness. In some developing
countries, people still become blind from vitamin A deficiency.
• Rickets. A deficiency in vitamin D can
cause rickets, a condition marked by soft, weak bones that can lead to skeletal
deformities such as bowed legs. Partly to combat rickets, the U.S. has
fortified milk with vitamin D since the 1930s.
Just as a lack of key micronutrients can cause substantial
harm to your body, getting sufficient quantities can provide a substantial
benefit. Some examples of these benefits:
• Strong bones. A combination of calcium,
vitamin D, vitamin K, magnesium, and phosphorus protects your bones against
fractures.
• Prevents birth defects. Taking folic
acid supplements early in pregnancy helps prevent brain and spinal birth
defects in offspring.
• Healthy teeth. The mineral fluoride not
only helps bone formation but also keeps dental cavities from starting or worsening.
Our
bodies can’t produce all of the nutrients that we need to function properly, so
we have to eat them. Optimal body function cannot occur without a compliment of
vitamins, minerals, amino acids and co-factors. These substances all interact
with other essential nutrients, especially proteins, to keeps us alive , and at optimum functioning when in correct amounts and balances. Vitamins are compounds which are necessary
for our normal growth and function, which we cannot make within our bodies, and
so we must obtain them from our foods.
Most of the compounds
needed for our body cells to function for our health, can be made by our cells
from other nutrients. For some reason,
we evolved without the ability to make the small number that we call vitamins. They were present in ample amounts in
ordinary foods throughout evolution, so we did not need to make them. We only need tiny amounts of vitamins, and
they are still present in ample amounts in many foods, but it is possible to
become deficient in vitamins, and that damages health.
A vitamin is an organic compound and a vital nutrient
that an organism requires in limited amounts. An organic chemical compound (or
related set of compounds) is called a vitamin when the organism cannot
synthesize the compound in sufficient quantities, and it must be obtained
through the diet; thus, the term "vitamin" is conditional upon the
circumstances and the particular organism. Vitamins have diverse biochemical
functions. Each vitamin is typically used in multiple reactions, and,
therefore, most have multiple functions.For example, ascorbic acid (one form of
vitamin C) is a vitamin for humans, but not for most other animal organisms.
Supplementation is important for the treatment of certain health problems,
An organic compound
contains carbon. When an organism (living thing) cannot produce enough of an
organic chemical compound that it needs in tiny amounts, and has to get it from
food, it is called a vitamin. Sometimes the compound is a vitamin for a human
but not for some other animals. For example, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a
vitamin for humans but not for dogs, because dogs can produce (synthesize)
enough for their own needs, while humans cannot.
The body does not
manufacture or synthesize all the needed vitamins. It does however have the
capabilities to manufacture about half when the raw materials are available.
Therefore some of the much-needed vitamins must be supplied by the diet or in
dietary supplements. Vitamins are essential to the normal functioning of our
bodies. They are necessary for growth, vitality, health, general well being,
and for the prevention and cure of many health problems and diseases. Vitamins
interact with minerals and enzymes acting as co-enzymes within each cell of the
body.
Vitamins are a group of
substances that are essential for normal cell function, growth, and
development. There are many different vitamins
and they do different things to keep our body healthy and there is no
one food that contains all of them; some
help your body to digest food for example, and others build strong bones. We
need to make sure we eat a healthy, balanced diet with a good mix of foods to
ensure that we get everything we need.
Vitamins are nutrients that we need in small amounts
for our body to function properly and are all found in different foods. The
amount of vitamins and minerals our body needs is individual and varies
from person to person. It can depend on many things, including our gender, age
and activity levels. There are 13 essential vitamins, meaning they are needed
for the body to function.
Vitamins are organic
compounds which are needed in small quantities to sustain life. We get vitamins
from food, because the human body either does not produce enough of them, or
none at all.
Most of the
compounds needed for our body cells to function for our health, can be made by
our cells from other nutrients.
Function
Each of the vitamins has
an important job in the body. A vitamin deficiency occurs when you do not get
enough of a certain vitamin. Vitamin deficiency can cause health problems.
There
are 13 vitamins which all interact with our cell enzymes to regulate a variety
of essential bodily functions. They are crucial for many of our metabolic
processes, to release energy from nutrients, and in building and maintaining
bones, teeth, skin, blood and many other vital body tissues.
Not eating enough fruits,
vegetables, beans, lentils, whole grains and fortified dairy foods may increase
your risk for health problems, including heart disease, cancer, and poor bone
health (osteoporosis).
How can we get enough vitamins and minerals?
Most people are able to
get most of the vitamins and minerals they need by eating a healthy, balanced
diet. Aim to eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables each day. It’s
important to include starchy foods (such as bread, potatoes and pasta) and moderate
amounts of protein-rich foods (such as meat, fish and pulses) in your meals. A
lack of optimal intake due to the inferior nutrient content in the diet; or a
physical condition that inhibits absorption or depletes the vitamins can be
cause for deficiency, as can lifestyle choices such as smoking and drinking
excessively and prolonged physical or emotional stress. Many prescription drugs
also deplete nutrients the body needs for maintenance and repair.
Optimally food would be
our first choice for supplementing needed vitamins and by eating a varied diet.
Foods grown regionally and eaten fresh increase the chances of maintaining the
needed vitamins that the body requires. When it is impractical to get the fresh
locally grown foods not sprayed with chemical toxins, the next best option is
frozen. Stay away from canned foods as much as possible.
Health
effects
Other species do not all
need the same vitamins. For example:
birds and guinea-pigs, can make their own Vitamin C. Vitamins are essential for
the normal growth and development of a multicellular organism. Using the
genetic blueprint inherited from its parents, a fetus begins to develop, at the
moment of conception, from the nutrients it absorbs. It requires certain vitamins
and minerals to be present at certain times. These nutrients facilitate the
chemical reactions that produce among other things, skin, bone, and muscle. If
there is serious deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, a child may
develop a deficiency disease. Even minor deficiencies may cause permanent
damage.
Once growth and
development are completed, vitamins remain essential nutrients for the healthy
maintenance of the cells, tissues, and organs that make up a multicellular
organism; they also enable a multicellular life form to efficiently use
chemical energy provided by food it eats, and to help process the proteins,
carbohydrates, and fats required for respiration.
LIST
OF VITAMINS
In humans there are 13
commonly recognized vitamins: 4 fat-soluble; A, D, E and K and 9 water-soluble;
8 B vitamins ( B1thiamin, B2 riboflavin, B3niacin, B5 pantothenic acid, B6
pyridoxine, B7 biotin, B9 folic acid, B12 cobalamin), and vitamin C.
Vitamins are grouped into
two categories:
1. Water-soluble vitamins : Water soluble vitamins
can’t be stored in our bodies for long, and we wee them out, so we need to eat
them almost every day.Water-soluble
vitamins typically are absorbed quickly. They
travel in the bloodstream and need to be replenished every day.
2. Fat-soluble vitamins – Fat-soluble vitamins use
the fats that we eat as a transport system to get around our body, and are
stored in those fatty tissues and our liver. Fat-soluble vitamins can be stored
in our bodies (in the liver and fatty tissues), but they should still be part of a healthy diet. so they don’t need to be taken
every day: 2-3 times per week should be sufficient in most cases for adults.
One reason why we need
fat in our diet is that the fat-soluble vitamins are transported with fats in
“lipoproteins” in our blood, or with specific transport proteins because they
cannot dissolve in water (or blood).
These vitamins operate in cells and their membranes. Because these
vitamins can be stored in our body, excessively high intakes of them can be
toxic (harmful).
References:
https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information
http://kidshealth.org
References:
https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information
http://kidshealth.org
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