Essential Nutrients: Vitamins, Minerals, and More

Essential nutrients are compounds we can’t produce, or produce in low enough quantities, that must come from the diet in order to avoid clinical deficit diseases. Without them, you can’t grow any bigger, and you’ll get sick.

Vitamins:

 OVERVIEW AND CLASSIFICATION Vitamins are organic compounds and are divided into: • water-soluble (vitamin C and B-complex)• fat-soluble (vitamin A, D, E, K)

 Functions”Vitamin C is vital for immune function and skin health, and vitamin D for bone health.””Stores”Found in fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fortified foods and so on.

Minerals:

 Types and functions: Calcium, potassium and iron are minerals – inorganic elements critical to functions ranging from bone structure to nerve transmission to muscle function.

 Dietary Sources: Minerals can be obtained from a wide range of foods including diary products (calcium), green vegetables (iron) and bananas (potassium).

Amino Acids and Fatty Acids:

 Essential: this means a compound is not made in the body and so must be obtained from the diet. Everything we eat is made of grams of either carbon, hydrogen or oxygen. Since water is made of H (hydrogen) and O (oxygen) and was present on Earth we can conclude that carbon and hydrogen, like water, were also present and could have reacted to form ever bigger chicken-sized molecules made up of these elements. All protein we eat is made up of amino acids. Essential amino acids, unlike non-essential amino acids, cannot be synthesised in the body and so must be obtained from the diet. Amino acids are crucial for the building and maintenance of proteins such as haemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells. Fatty acids are other carbon compounds important for brain health and energy. One fatty acid essential to health is omega-3: you don’t make it but you need it for many life processes.

 Food sources: Meat, eggs and legumes are sources of amino acids, and fatty fish, flaxseeds and walnuts provide essential sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

Conclusion:

 All the nutrients that are required for a healthy person can be supplied if the person takes a balanced diet in the form of a variety of foods. A knowledge about the function and the source of nutrients help people taking the right diet.