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VITAL VITAMINS

Introduction

Who needs vitamins? Do you need them? How many should you take? Is one multi-vitamin enough or do you need several different specialty vitamins? Can you get vitamins only from pills or are there other sources?

These are all questions that many people have. There is much controversy over whether the average, basically healthy person needs vitamin supplements. However, most nutrition professionals agree that the average person gets plenty of vitamins from their food, especially if they eat a balanced diet based on the food guide pyramid. Information in newspapers, magazines and on television can be confusing. The reason for the confusion is that scientists are quickly discovering new nutrition information, such as a new use for a vitamin. Sometimes, studies prove that a vitamin doesn't do what people thought it did. While this seems to make no sense, it is part of the research process. It is the way we learn new things that will help to keep people healthy.

What You Will Learn

In this lesson, you will learn about the two major types of vitamins, the fat-soluble and water-soluble. You will learn how each vitamin functions in your body and the symptoms of deficiency and over-consumption (toxicity). You will also learn which foods are the best sources of each vitamin and the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for each. Finally, this lesson will discuss vitamin supplements - who needs them and who doesn't. This information will help you plan a healthy diet, including all necessary vitamins and nutrients.

Food Guide Pyramid Review

The Food Guide Pyramid is a tool developed to teach people the healthiest way to eat. There are six categories included in the pyramid, and each contains nutrients that are vital to human beings. Each of the categories contains vitamins. Some contain the same vitamins or more than one kind of vitamin. However, no food or food group contains all the vitamins or other nutrients needed to maintain health. Therefore, it is important to eat a variety of foods from all the pyramid groups each day.

What Are Vitamins?

Vitamins are organic substances. This means they contain the element carbon.

Vitamins are required for specific body functions. Certain body functions need one or more vitamins to make them work. One example is blood clotting. The blood needs vitamin K to clot. If you have a lack of vitamin K, you may lose too much blood if your skin is scratched or cut.

Vitamins are needed in small amounts in the diet. Because of this, vitamins (and minerals) are known as micronutrients. Humans either can't make the vitamin in their bodies or can't make enough to meet their needs. If people eat a balanced diet, they will easily get all their vitamins.

There are 13 vitamins that fall into two categories: fat-soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins are dissolved by the water in body cells. Once they are dissolved, they are removed by urine. Fat-soluble vitamins do not dissolve in water, so it is harder to remove them from the body. If a person consumes too much of a fat-soluble vitamin, it can become toxic and have negative side effects. It is much harder to get too much of a water-soluble vitamin.

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