Health & Fitness Blog

Vitamins and Minerals and What they do – more details

In the last post, we saw that there are thirteen Vitamins, and sixteen (or more) minerals currently recognized by science.   We learned that, of these 13 Vitamins, there are two basic groups – Fat Soluble and Water Soluble.

This time I’d like to give a bit of detail as to what each Vitamin can do for you, and how much you should aim to get, in order to be sure that you have a healthy diet.

Let’s start with the Fat Soluble Vitamins:

Vitamin A

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

Vitamin K

Vitamin A: (Also called Retinol)

Functions:

• Vitamin A is called the “anti-infective” vitamin because the human immune system cannot function without it. Vitamin A plays a central role in the development of lymphocytes – the white blood cells that play critical roles in the immune response.
• Vitamin A keeps skin flexible.
• It increases mucous secretion.
• It helps Night vision – carrots really are good for your eyes, just like your Mother used to tell you !
• Vitamin A is necessary for the growth and repair of body tissue
• Beta carotene (Pro Vitamin A) is a powerful antioxidant.

Sources: Colored fruits and vegetables are generally high in vitamin A. Spinach, Carrots, Broccoli, eggs, and other dairy products are some of the excellent sources of vitamin A

RDA: 2333 IU for adult women and 3000 IU for adult men.

Degradation: Vitamin A is reduced by heat, light, and oxygen.

Vitamin D (Also called the “Sunshine Vitamin” )

Functions:

• Vitamin D is essential for keeping your bones and your immune system healthy
• Vitamin D regulates the Calcium absorption and thus helps in building strong and healthy bones (and warding off osteoporosis) and keeping your teeth strong and healthy.
• Vitamin D can help prevent certain forms of cancer

Sources: Sunshine is the  healthiest source of Vitamin D, Milk Products, Salmon etc.

RDA: The RDA, for men and women, 25 to 50 years old, is 5 mcg per day.

Vitamin E (Also called Tocopherol)

Main Functions:

• Vitamin E is special because it’s especially good at protecting your cell membranes against free radicals – it’s what is known as an anti-oxidant.
• Vitamin E also teams up with Vitamin A, beta carotene, and Vitamin C, the other major antioxidant vitamins, to give you extra protection
• Vitamin E, when added to creams and lotions, can help in reducing the natural effects of aging on your skin.
• Vitamin E helps in the treatment of some skin diseases such as psoriasis and excema.

Sources: almonds, sunflower seeds, and cold pressed oils, wheat germ, and whole grain products.

RDA: adolescents and adults, 22.5 IU (15 mg); children, 6–16 IU (4–11 mg).

Degradation: can be oxidized during food preparation or storage.

Vitamin K (Also called the “Green Leafy Vitamin”)

Functions:

Vitamin K helps the clotting of blood and the healing of wounds. This vitamin can be obtained from green vegetables, milk products, cod-liver oil, apricots and whole grains.

Vitamin K is also produced by the natural healthy bacteria that are found in your large intestine.   These “friendly” bacteria are killed off if you’re taking a course of antibiotics for some infection, and this will reduce your levels of naturally -produced Vitamin K.   It will also reduce the levels of the other Vitamins which you absorb from your food, because the temporary lack of these “friendly” bacteria will weaken your digestion which in turn will reduce your system’s ability to process and absorb the nutrients in your food.