A vitamin is an organic compound, which means that it contains carbon. It is also an essential nutrient that the body may need to get from food. It presents in minute amounts in natural foodstuffs. Vitamins are needed for normal cell function, growth, and development.
In 1912, a Polish chemist named Casimir Funk, proposed that disease may be caused by a missing ingredient that should be in the diet. The major period of discovery began in the early nineteenth century and ended at the mid-twentieth century.
Vitamins are essential dietary substance needed in small amounts to regulate chemical reactions in the body. They include vitamins A, C, D, E, and K, choline, and the B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate/folic acid).
Vitamins are team players – they help other nutrients work better, e.g., vitamin D enhances the absorption of calcium, vitamin C is needed to absorb iron and B vitamins work together in cells.
Vitamins needed to make enzymes and hormones – important substances of the body use to make all the many chemical reaction for the body to live.
Vitamins are important for proper growth and maintenance of good health, but they appeared to possess no greater properties beyond their basic chemical function.
Vitamins do indeed participate in the chemical reactions that release energy from carbohydrates, and proteins, and fats, but contain no inherent energy themselves.
A vitamin deficiency occurs when human body do not get enough of a certain vitamin. Vitamin deficiency can cause health problems.
Not eating enough fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, whole grains and fortified dairy foods may increase the risk for health problems, including heart disease, cancer, and poor bone health.
Vitamins are generally categorized into the following types: fat soluble and water soluble. Solubility confers on vitamins many of their characteristics. It determines how they are absorbed and transported around by the bloodstream, whether they can be stores in the body, and how easily they are lost from the body.
What are vitamins?
