Vitamins
Vitamins
What Are Vitamins?
Vitamins are organic substances which have an important role in regulating processes of the human body. Vitamins are organic, meaning that they contain the element carbon. Vitamins are essential macronutrients, supporting the body’s growth, vitality, health, digestion, and elimination systems, and helping resist disease.
In most cases, the human body cannot manufacture its own vitamins, so we must obtain them through the foods we eat. Vitamins are found in small amounts in plants and animals, so a well-balanced and holistic diet is important in ensuring we get the different types of vitamins our bodies need to function properly.
Vitamins are not part of the body’s tissues. Rather, vitamins support the metabolic processes used to build, repair and replace bones, muscles, ligaments and other body tissue.
Different Types of Vitamins
There are two main classifications of vitamins, and then a total of 13 essential vitamins.
Water-Soluble & Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water and are absorbed into the bloodstream with water. They are typically not stored in the body, so it is very important to include them in your diet frequently as they are eliminated from the body quickly through urine and feces.
Fat-soluble vitamins dissolve in fats and can be stored by your body for future use. This is both an advantage in that you don’t need an on-going supply of fat-soluble vitamins as your body can use what it needs from it’s reserves. However, the disadvantage is that if you overconsume fat-soluble vitamins your body can build up too much of a reserve, the amount of vitamin can actually become toxic.
13 Types of Essential Vitamins
The following tables list the 13 essential vitamins, which body systems they support, and the most common types of food in which they can be found.
Fat Soluable Vitamins
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Water Soluable Vitamins
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Vitamin Deficiency & Choosing the Right Vitamin Supplements
Why are so many people vitamin deficient? There are many reasons, but here are three of the most common:
Our Lifestyles Are Too Busy
With both parents working in so many families or parents with multiple jobs, it is often hard for people to find the time to buy wholesome foods and prepare nourishing meals. Too often fast food on the way home from work or something that can be quickly microwaved is the choice over a healthy and nutritious meal.
Highly Processed Foods
Highly processed foods lose most of their nutrients during manufacturing. This happens both through the pasteurization process they use to kill off any bacteria present (which also destroys some vitamins), and by stripping many of the nutrients out during mass production (for example, using heat to break apart the fiber in whole grain breads). This leaves many of these foods devoid of most essential vitamins.
Poor Growing Conditions
Much of our fruit and vegetable supply comes from barren soil that simply cannot produce healthy, nutrient-rich food anymore. The widespread use of pesticides has depleted our soils and makes it difficult to grow anything naturally. Farmers have to replace all this lost ground with fertilizer made up of heavy doses of minerals meant specifically for plant growth, not sustaining human bodies.
Consult Your Holistic Nutrition Specialist
If you are unsure of which vitamins to supplement into your diet, consult your local holistic nutritionist. They will help you understand where your vitamin deficiencies are and which vitamins you could add to help give your body the support it needs.
