What Are Vitamins And What Are Minerals
Natural Energy Supplements are: Vitamins, Minerals and Essential Fatty Acids.
In this post the following questions are asked and answered:
- What are vitamins and what are minerals and what is the difference between vitamins and minerals?
- Is it good to consume lots of vitamins and or minerals?
First a few fundamentals regarding nutrition. Proper and sufficient nutrition is required to sustain life, provide energy, and assist with tissue growth and repair. A proper and nourishing diet involves six types of nutrients:
1) carbohydrates
2) fats
3) proteins
4) vitamins
5) minerals
6) water
Carbohydrate, fat, and protein are required in huge quantitities for our bodies (grams per day) and they add energy. Hence carbohydrate, fat, and protein are called macrontrients; we need more of them.
Vitamins and minerals are considered micronutrients; required in lesser quantities (milligrams or micrograms/day). They do not provide energy, but they help our bodies perform necessary and vital physiological processes. Around 40 of these nutrients are essential for life because our bodies cannot synthesize enough to satisfy physiological needs.
The significant difference between Vitamins and minerals
Vitamins ("vita" = life and "amine" = comprising of nitrogen) are organic (containing carbon, that is an element found in all living things) supplements, containing atoms of many different elements.
Minerals are clean inorganic elements (containing atoms of the very same element), which signifies they are much more simple in chemical form than vitamins. All vitamins are necessary or required by our body, while only a few minerals are fundamental nutrients. Vitamins are susceptible to high temperature, light, and chemical agents, so cooking, food preparation, producing, and storage have to be appropriate to preserve vitamins in food. Minerals, however, are more stable to food preparation, but mineral reduction can occur when they are bound to different substances in foods (like oxalates found in spinach and tea, and phytates present in legumes and grains), making them unavailable for the body to utilize.
Vitamins are either water-soluble (water is required for absorption and are excreted in urine) or fat- soluble (necessitates fat for assimilation and are stored in fat tissue). There are 9 different water-soluble vitamins: vitamin C and the eight B vitamins (riboflavin, thiamin, niacin vitamins B6 and B12, folate, biotin, and pantothenic acid); and, 4 different fat-soluble vitamins: vitamins A, D, E, and K. All these vitamins have different roles and functions in our bodies.
Minerals are categorized as major or macro- (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfur), and trace or micro- (iron, iodine, zinc, chromium, selenium, fluoride, molybdenum, copper, and manganese) minerals, the former required in quantities of 100mg/day or more, and the latter needed in much smaller, or "trace," amounts. These 16 necessary minerals also play important roles in the body.
Rather than depending on dietary supplements, unless necessary due to a deficiency, work to satisfy your body's nutritional requirements by acquiring these nutrients from a varied and diverse diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that humans and animals should consume for healthy body as the body requires them but can't make them from other food components. The term refers to fatty acids needed for biological processes, and not those that only act as fuel.
To be able to function properly, the body requires optimal quantities of all of the fundamental nutrients 60 minerals, 16 vitamins, 12 amino acids and 2 to 3 essential fatty acids. If we do not include any of them in our eating routine then we might create health issues and diseases.
How Many Calories Does Your Body Require To Be Fit?
A healthy grown-up male should get at least 2550 calories everyday. Females should consume around 2000 calories per day.
PABA Vitamins Are A Substantial Part Of The B Complex Family With Remarkable Health Benefits
Some of the b complex vitamins are very popular, especially B12 and B6. However PABA vitamins are very useful not only for your body but also for many products.
Vitamin d Deficiency Symptoms May Be Devastating, Learn Just How To Avoid Them Now
Vitamin D is one of the most popular vitamins for your body. Most of us know that we need to be exposed to the sun to receive adequate amounts of it but sadly many people still suffer from vitamin d deficiency symptoms which are explained in detail here.
Vitamin D Is An Essential Vitamin If You Need To Avoid Dangerous Deficiency Symptoms!
This article has information on vitamin d deficiency symptoms that you definitely want to avoid. Also includes sources of vitamin d you should learn about to prevent this problem.
Usana Vitamins, A Popular Multivitamin Supplement Corporation With A Few Controversy!
If your looking for some multivitamin supplements you might have come across usana vitamins. If you look around for reviews you would see that many people say they are great quality products while others do not. This article is meant to give some back story on usana vitamins.
The Numerous Flax Seed Advantages That You Must Understand To Help Yourself Live A Healthy Life!
When searching how you can add a source of omega 3 to your diet you probably previously believed you needed fish. Certain seeds like those from flax are actually a good source of omega 3 and they have other benefits that you can learn in this article!
A Few Important Reasons To Explain Why Vitamin B12 Are Important For Your Health
There are many important vitamins that you should add to your diet. A good example of are the B family vitamins especially vitamin B12 which is very helpful for you and should be taken by everyone.
The Very Simple Addition Of Some Cranberry Juice To Your Daily Diet Could Pack Some Important Health Benefits!
Because of the ongoing health problems many people have especially in north America, a lot of people are becoming more conscious of their health and this is one reason why the benefits of cranberry juice has started to become more well known. |
Related Articles
Blogroll
|
