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Vitamins and Minerals – Introduction

Vitamins and Minerals are the most basic of our bodies needs. Some are more important than others, some are vital and some vitamins and minerals are just complimentary. However there is no doubt that leading a poor diet with poor nutrition can cause trouble. Sometimes it is the lack of a certain mineral in your diet, or even too much of a vitamin that is causing you trouble. Either way it is very important that you balance out what you eat to fulfill your dietary requirements. Minerals can be found in several different food types and perform a host of vital things to keep your body functioning correctly, these include major minerals such as,

• Calcium – Helps to build and repair bones and teeth, also important for the health of your muscles, heart and digestive system. It also neutralizes acidity, supports synthesis and operation of your blood cells
• Chloride – Used int he production of things such as stomach acid within your body!
• Magnesium is required for processing Adenosine triphosphate (ATP – the chemical that transfers energy within your body) and related reactions.
• Phosphorus – Required with calcium to help build and strengthen bones and helps with other boodily functions such as energy processing
• Potassium – a systemic electrolyte and is essential in ATP regulation which also requires sodium
• Sodium – another systemic electrolyte that works with, and is required for  coregulating ATP with potassium

There are also a large amount of trace minerals your body needs, these include,

• Cobalt – required for biosynthesis of vitamin B12
• Copper – required component of many redox enzymes.
• Fluorine – Usedin the creation of tooth enamel
• Iodine – Needed for the biosynthesis of thyroxin
• Iron – required for a large number of proteins and enzymes, most commonly associated with blood, specifically hemoglobin
• Manganese – a used in the functioning of antioxidant enzymes
• Molybdenum – Used by xanthine oxidase and related oxidases
• Selenium – required for peroxidase, commonly known as antioxidant proteins
• Sulfur- a component of cysteine and methionine amino acids and participates as an enzyme cofactor
• Zinc – required for several enzymes such as carboxypeptidase, liver alcohol dehydrogenase, carbonic anhydrase. It is also required by your body to process vitamin C

Of course I dont expect you to understand what half of this means straight off, but in upcoming articles I will go over the details of what they do, why they do it and how you should get these into your diet.

Vitamins tend to be much easier, everyone knows that Vitamin C is good for your immune system, cod liver oil helps your joints and so forth, but here is a quick run down of what you find in what!

Vitamin	Found in
Vitamin A (Retinol)	Cod Liver Oil
Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)	Rice Bran
Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)	Lemons or Oranges
Vitamin D (Calciferol)	Cod Liver Oil
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)	Eggs
Vitamin E (Tocopherol)	Wheat Germ Oil
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamine)	Liver
Vitamin K (Phyllochinone)	Luzerne
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid)	Liver
Vitamin B7 (Biotin)	Liver
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)	Rice Bran
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)	Liver
Vitamin B9 (Folic acid)	Liver

As with the Minerals in the near future I will go through each one and highlight the Pro’s and Cons’ of each vitamin!

Lack of vitamins can lead to a host of illnesses, it is highly recommended that you provide your body with an intake of some sort of each of these regularly.

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