Vitamins and Minerals

In addition to our need for proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and lipids in our diets, we also need some other molecules. Some of these molecules are also organic molecules, and therefore contain carbon and hydrogen atoms within them. These additional organic molecules that we need are called vitamins. Other molecules that we need in our diets are not organic, and are called minerals.

There are many types of vitamins. Some vitamins are water-soluble, while others are not. Some are needed to make other molecules in our cells (like vitamin A is needed to make the rhodopsin pigment in our retinas), others are needed to promote absorption of materials in our digestive system (like vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption), others can be used as coenzymes (interacting with enzymes to increase their functionality), and there are even more functions that we do not need to worry about in this course. Some our bodies can synthesize (like vitamin D if exposed to sunlight), and others we can only obtain by ingesting them (like vitamin C). If we must ingest them in our diets, as is more typical with vitamins, they are called essential vitamins.

Minerals tend to be those elements that we need in small amounts, and we obtain them as atoms rather than in large molecules. For example, you know that iron atoms are needed in every hemoglobin molecule for it to work properly. Well, we lose some iron atoms every day and need to replace them in order to keep our hemoglobin working well. Therefore, we must get iron in our diets. That is pretty simple if you eat meat, because meat contains some blood within it, and that blood has hemoglobin with iron in it. It is also pretty easy because if the meat you eat is liver, where iron is stored for recycling, you'll get tons of it. But, you can see, you have to eat the right foods to get the needed minerals. Or, you can take a vitamin and mineral pill to get them. Any way you go about it, though, you will need to ingest minerals.

That's all you need to study on minerals and vitamins. I just want you to know what they are. If you need more information for whatever program you enter, you will be able to get that from a nutrition course.