Vitamins

Vitamins are nutrients required in very small amounts for essential metabolic reactions in the body. The term vitamin does not include other essential nutrients such as dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, or essential amino acids. Nor does the term refer to the large number of other nutrients that promote health, but are not strictly essential. There are two types of vitamins: fat soluble and water soluble.

When you eat foods that contain fat-soluble vitamins, the vitamins are stored in the fat tissues in your body and in your liver. They go and wait around in your body fat until your body needs them.

Fat-soluble vitamins are happy to stay stored in your body for awhile - some stay for a few days, some for up to 6 months! Then, when it's time for them to be used, special carriers in your body take them to where they're needed. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat-soluble vitamins.

Water-soluble vitamins, such as Vitamin C and the B vitamins are stored in the body for only a brief period of time and are then excreted by the kidneys. The one exception to this is vitamin B12, which is stored in the liver. Water-soluble vitamins need to be taken daily.

Benefits of Vitamins

The benefits of vitamins are many, but they are no replacement for food. A vitamin has no caloric or energy value by itself, but when taken as a dietary supplement to your daily food intake, they can help supplement your daily diet by balancing out the deficiencies of improper eating habits, overcooked foods, and non-nutritive processed foods. Sometimes vitamins are used as therapies for various ailments and disease.

Vitamin Deficiencies

Vitamins are essential to healthy living, and they perform best when there are adequate amounts of each and every one. There are various types of vitamins, each of vitamins having its own benefit to various parts and functions of the human body. Vitamins mainly serve as catalysts for certain reactions in the body. They combine with proteins to create metabolically active enzymes that in turn produce hundreds of important chemical reactions throughout the body. They are required to do many things and their excess or depletion can lead to acute and chronic disease. Deficiencies of most of the vitamins will result in corresponding diseases such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s diseases, respiratory diseases and infectious diseases.

Select a vitamin on the left for more information.