Know Your Vitamins 1

How much of your vitamins do you understand?

Vitamins

Vitamin is a group of organic compounds that, in very small amounts, are essential for normal growth, development and metabolism.

With a few exceptions, they cannot be synthesized or made in the body and must be supplied by the diet.

Vitamins are produced by living material, such as plants and animals, as compared to minerals that come from soil.

Lack of sufficient quantities of any of the vitamins produces specific deficiency diseases.

In fact, if a substance does not produce a deficiency symptom when it is removed from diet, it is not considered a vitamin.

Each vitamin functions in many diverse roles and always with other essential nutrients.

They participate in a variety of life-building processes, including the formation and maintenance of blood cells, hormones, all the cells and tissues of the body, and even the creation of our genetic material.

Vitamins contain no calories. They are not used as sources of energy as some believe. They cannot make you fat. They are used to form enzymes that are biologic catalysts in many metabolic reaction within the body.

Several vitamins help convert the calories in carbohydrates, protein, and fat into usable energy for the body.

Vitamins are not the fuel, but they are like the ignition switch that sparks the fuel and keeps the engine running. 

When vitamins are not present in sufficient quantity, metabolism ceases or is impaired.

Vitamins are fat soluble and water soluble

Fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K

Water-soluble Vitamins are the B and C

Vitamin A (Retinol) and Beta-Carotene (provitamin A)

Vitamin A (Retinol)

A fat-soluble vitamin

Food sources :found only in animal sources - fish liver oils (as in cod liver oil), liver, milk, cream, cheese, butter, eggs.

What it does: is required for all situations, that have to do with vision and the eyes, builds resistance to respiratory infections, increases immunity, protects against cancer, prevents birth defects, helps with skin conditions and acne. Is stored in the body.

Deficiency symptoms:night blindness or loss of adaptation to the dark, dry eye disease, sty in the eye, increased susceptibility to infection, sinus and bronchial infections, dry out of skin and mucous membranes, loss of taste and smell which leads to loss of appetite, loss of vigor, defective teeth and gums, slowed growth.

Optimal daily amount: 10,000 to 25,000 IU. RDA is 5,000 IU.

Pregnant women should not take over the 10,000 IUs of vitamin A.

Beta-carotene (provitamin A)

A fat soluble vitamin

Food sources: palm oil, yellow and colourful fruits like water melon, apple, paw paw, mango, berries, passion fruit, guava, orange, tangerine, bete root, lemon, lime, carrots, spring onions, tomato, okra,  dark green leafy vegetables like, ugwu, spinach, iyana ipaja, ewedu, green pepper, celery, lettuce, bitter leaf, green beans, locust beans (iru) etc.

What it does: important free radical fighter for various forms of cancer, protects against ultraviolet damage, enhances immune system, many of the same functions as vitamin A. Beta-carotene must be converted by the liver and the intestinal wall into usable vitamin A.

Deficiency symptoms: intake of alcohol decreases beta-carotene in the liver; those with hypothyroidism and diabetes may have trouble converting beta- carotene into vitamin A.

Optimal daily amount: 20,000 to 50,000 IU. No RDA has been established. Nontoxic.

We recommend a mixture of both vitamin A and Beta-Carotene. This can be gotten by eating enough from the food sources listed above and more.

Consult your favorite dietitian-nutritionist today to learn more on how to eat right.

Next post is on B vitamins. 

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