Vitamins and Minerals
(Author, Department, University,
Abstract
Vitamins and minerals are among the most essential nutrients as they help in performing many important functions of the body. They are of different kinds as, for example, vitamins are either water-soluble, which cannot be stored in the body, or fat-soluble, which can be stored in the body. Similarly, minerals can include those, which are required in sufficiently larger amount such as calcium and iron, and those, which are required in tiny amounts such as trace minerals including copper and selenium. These essential nutrients are present in sufficient quantities in our foods including vegetables and fruits. Moreover, vitamin and mineral supplements can also be used to fulfill the deficiency that can be caused by decreased intake of required foods. During consumption of vitamins and minerals, it is important to consider that they are required in small quantities and a slight increase in their amount in the body can result in harmful effects. This paper deals with the importance of vitamins and minerals for the body, their presence in foods, and the problems caused by their deficiency.
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins along with minerals are referred to as essential nutrients (also known as micronutrients as they are required in small quantities), and they help in proper functioning of the body. They can be found in everyday food but some foods have relatively more vitamins and minerals than others.
Vitamins
Vitamins constitute a group of organic substances that are important in small quantities for normal metabolism. They are helpful in supporting normal growth and development of the body as they help cells, tissues, and organs to perform their functions more efficiently. Vitamins are of two types: water-soluble vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins.
Water-soluble vitamins
These are vitamins that are not accumulated in the body, and people have to consume more water-soluble vitamins in order to maintain their bodily need. Water-soluble vitamins include vitamin C, B vitamins (as, for example, vitamins B6, B12, riboflavin, and niacin), and folic acid. If a person gets more than the required amount of water-soluble vitamin, his or her body excretes extra vitamins with urine. These vitamins are not harmful for the body as the body is not able to store them. However, it is important to consider that these vitamins can be harmful in large quantities (NHS, 2015).
Water-soluble vitamins are present in many kinds of foods including grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, and dairy foods. These vitamins can also be destroyed by exposing them to air or heating them, and in this regard, they are different from fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins can also be lost in water, which is used for cooking purposes. This is showing that some of the water-soluble vitamins are lost after cooking the food. In order to keep the maximum amount of water-soluble vitamins, steamed or grilled foods can be used rather than boiled foods. On a further note, using the cooking water in stews or soups rather than pouring it away can also help in keeping the vitamins (NHS, 2015).
Water-soluble vitamins have many important functions in the body (Dudek, 2010). For example,
vitamin C helps in the prevention of scurvy,
vitamin B6 is important for the metabolism of amino acids and starch,
riboflavin is important to prevent skin lesions and weight loss,
niacin is important for normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and nervous system, and
vitamin B12 is used for the treatment of pernicious anemia, which is characterized by a deficiency of blood cells.
Fat-soluble vitamins
These vitamins include vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. They are commonly found in fatty foods as well as animal products. Therefore, common sources of fat-soluble vitamins include milk and dairy products, vegetable oils, liver, egg, butter, and oily fish. Although the body requires them daily, it is not important to eat those foods having fat-soluble vitamins, as these vitamins can be stored by the body in liver and fatty tissues from where they can be used by the body, whenever required (NHS, 2015).
Fat-soluble vitamins have many important functions in the body. For example, vitamin A helps in preventing eye problems; vitamin D helps in prevention of rickets that result in disturbed metabolism of calcium and phosphorus; vitamin E is important for normal reproductive system, and vitamin K helps in stopping the blood loss by forming blood clots (Cooper & Gosnell, 2014).
Minerals
Minerals are composed of solid homogenous inorganic substances that can be obtained from sources other than plants or animals. However, for the body, they are obtained from commonly used foods. Usually, minerals are present in the soil and water, and are taken up by plants and/or consumed by animals. Minerals are found in a wide variety of foods such as meat, fish, cereals and cereal products including bread, milk and dairy products, fruits particularly dried fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
Calcium and iron are among the most essential minerals for the body, but many other kinds of minerals are also there that are important for the body (NHS, 2015). Those minerals include copper, iodine, zinc, selenium, and chromium; which are also known as trace minerals as minute quantities of those minerals are required by the body every day.
Minerals are necessary for the body due to three important reasons (NHS, 2015):
They help in the development of stronger bones as well as teeth.
They help in regulating the bodily fluids inside and outside of cells.
They are helpful in converting the food into energy in the body.
Precautions before consuming vitamins and minerals
In spite of their essence for the body, it is important to consider that too much of them can result in harmful effects. Moreover, people have to know that if they are taking vitamin and mineral supplements, they have to take them after proper consultation with their physician as those supplements may contain certain chemicals or substances that could cause harm to the body. For example, if it is important for a person to stop the intake of salt, he or she has also to stop the use of vitamin and mineral supplements that are available in the form of fizzy or effervescent tablets as they may have up to 1 gm of salt in a tablet (NHS, 2015).
Concluding Remarks
Micronutrients constitute the most important components of our food, and their deficiency can result in numerous problems. Vitamins and minerals are different from each other in that vitamins are organic in nature that can be destroyed by air, heat, or cold, whereas minerals are inorganic in nature that are able to retain their chemical structure. These micronutrients have hundreds of functions in the body. They can help in the production of various parts of the body, carrying nutrients and oxygen with the help of red blood cells to various parts of the body, improving immune system, sending nerve signals, and formulating chemical messengers having instructions to maintain various aspects of life. These are essential for the body in small amount, but due to inability of the body to produce these essential nutrients in sufficient amounts, they are taken from outside sources such as plants and animals. However, it is important to consider that they can also cause harm to the body in large amounts. Sometimes, trace minerals can interact with each other resulting in their imbalances in the body. For example, huge amount of a trace mineral can result in the deficiency of the other compound or mineral. Therefore, people have to consider the amount of micronutrients while taking supplements as food is often sufficient to give those nutrients, and in the form of supplements, their amount can be increased in the body leading to harmful results.
References
Cooper, K., & Gosnell, K. (2014). Foundations and Adult Health Nursing: Elsevier - Health Sciences Division.
Dudek, S. G. (2010). Nutrition Essentials for Nursing Practice: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
NHS. (2015). Vitamins and minerals. Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-minerals/pages/vitamins-minerals.aspx
