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Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients that the body needs to perform many normal functions. However, these micronutrients are not produced in our body and come from the food we eat.

Vitamins are organic substances that are generally classified as either fat soluble or water soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K) dissolve in fat and begin to be stored in the body. Water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and B vitamins such as vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folic acid) must dissolve in water before they can be absorbed by the body and therefore cannot be stored. Any water-soluble vitamins that are not used by the body are excreted primarily in the urine.

Minerals are inorganic elements found in soil and water that are absorbed by plants or consumed by animals. While you’re probably familiar with calcium, sodium and potassium, there are many other minerals, including trace minerals (such as copper, iodine and zinc), that are needed in much smaller amounts.

In the United States, the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) develops nutrient reference values called reference intake values (DRIs) for vitamins and minerals. [1] They are intended to be used as a guide to proper nutrition and as a scientific basis for the development of nutritional recommendations in both the US and Canada. DRIs vary by age, gender and life stage and cover more than 40 nutrients. The recommendations are based on available reports of deficiencies and toxicity for each nutrient. Learn more about vitamins and minerals and their recommended intakes in the table below.

What about multivitamins?

A diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, good protein packs and healthy fats should provide most of the nutrients they need for good health. But not everyone manages to eat right. Multivitamins can play an important role when nutritional needs are not met by diet alone. Learn more about vitamin supplements.

Did you know

Vitamins and their exact requirements have been controversial since their discovery in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was the combined efforts of epidemiologists, physicians, chemists and physiologists that led to the modern understanding of vitamins and minerals. After many years of observation, experimentation, trial and error, they were able to determine that some diseases were not caused by infection or toxins (a common belief at the time), but by vitamin deficiencies. [2] Chemists are working to determine the chemical structure of the vitamin so that it can be reproduced. Soon after, researchers determined specific amounts of the vitamin needed to prevent deficiency-related diseases.

In 1912, biochemist Casimir Funk was the first to coin the term “vitamin” in a research publication, which was accepted by the medical community, derived from “vita” meaning life and “amine”, a nitrogenous compound essential to life. refers to matter. [3] Funk is considered the father of vitamin therapy, as he identified missing nutrients in diseases such as scurvy (too little vitamin C), beriberi (too little vitamin B1), pellagra (too little vitamin B3). and rickets (too little vitamin D). All vitamins were discovered in 1948.

Vitamins were obtained only from food until the 1930s, when commercial supplements of some vitamins became available. The US government began fortifying foods with certain nutrients to prevent deficiencies common at the time, such as adding iodine to salt to prevent goiter and folic acid to grain products to reduce birth defects during pregnancy. Add. In the 1950s, most vitamins and multivitamins were available for sale to the general public to prevent deficiency, some of which were widely circulated in popular magazines, such as those bottled for cod liver oil containing vitamin D. Advertising in the form of incense.