More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance for vitamins
Importance for vitamins
Importance of vitamins, macro and micronutrients in the body
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
VITAMINS Vitamins, a group of organic substances required in our diets in small amounts for growth and nutrition, are usually found in foodstuffs or taken as supplements. Yet vitamins probably present a wider gap between myth and reality in the layman's understanding than almost any other area of our diet. Surveys have found that while a majority of Americans do take vitamin supplements on a regular or occasional basis for reason of health concerns, there exists enormous confusion about the actual purpose and benefits of this practice ("Use of Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the United States," 1990:161). Most people have a recognition that Vitamin C prevents scurvy, that Vitamin A is found in fish-liver oils, or that Vitamin D is found in dairy products; many people believe that Vitamin E preserves youth and prevents sterility, or that Vitamin C can present colds and cancer. Beyond this, however, there is still considerable ignorance and widespread myth. The reality behind the common practice of taking vitamin supplements is less dramatic, although vitamins do represent an important component of the necessary human diet. The word vitamin was formed from the Latin word for life, "vita," and the Greek word "amine", because 19th century scientists believed that they were formed only from amino acids. Amino acids are the twenty essential code elements which arrange themselves in varied sequences or chains to form complex proteins, the basic foodstuff of life. These organic acids (containing the essential ingredient NH2), in conjunction with the nucleic acids (DNA material being composed of the four bases adenine, guanine thymine and cytosine), "translate" the genetic instructions from the DNA of the chromosome to the RNA transcript, and in turn transfer these instructions from the transcript to proteins. If proteins are the building blocks of life, then amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Plant cells form amino acids from the compounds which the plant draws up from the ground, such as the nitrates and ammonia salts. Animals, however, cannot perform this conversion of simple inorganic substances to amino acids, so they must ingest them in the form of food-- with herbivorous animals consuming plant proteins in vegetables and carnivorous animals consuming animal proteins in the bodies of their prey. Vitamins are essential aids in many body processes, converting food the energy, building and maintaining cells, and other functions. Vitamins can thus be looked at as a crucial ingredient in a the long-term maintenance of health.
Still, I thought, surveying my comatose family, there must be something to this turkey thing. And I'd eaten the ham, so I was still awake enough to dig up the truth. As my family slept and my dog stared down at the leftovers, I learned the truth about tryptophan. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein. It is termed essential because the body cannot manufacture it on its own.
Brownstein, Joseph. “Some common vitamin supplements could increase death risk, study finds.” 10 October 2011. Vitals on mnsbc.com. Web. 11 January 2012. http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news
With all the unregulated dietary supplements being sold and recommended, our health insurance costs will continue to rise. If the product causes severe side effects, it should no longer be permitted to be sold in stores. The only way to touch the minds of many people is to inform them of the dangers of consuming dietary supplements. Disposing of all incorrect information in product labeling and ingredient lists is important. People need to recognize the faults that plague many advertisements. In addition businesses should promote safe products instead of the harmful ones that they advocate for. The United States Congress should consider regulating dietary supplements to maintain safety. If people are aware of the many lies companies present, then dietary supplements will be one less problem to worry about.
"Discard the Vitamins and Eat More Fruit and Vegetables," which was made by Morley. Although, this doc. was biased to one side I was still able to find evidence for my side on this. Now in this doc. they talked about how they were researching people as said in this quote, "A recent study followed women from Iowa who were between 55 to 69 for 22 years." In this quote they said they followed women from 55-69 for 22 years that took vitamins but, the thing is that they watched them for 22 years they will start dieing due to other circumstances other than multivitamin. They also say that in this doc. we should be eating foods instead of vitamins as said from, "These studies suggest we waste a large amount of money on vitamins and other supplements…" But, my question to that is what about people who have allergies they need to get vitamins somewhere and if they can't get them from the foods they should get it from vitamins or, even better, multivitamins which can help on multiple levels of
According to Advances in Nutrition (Vitamin/Trace mineral supplements), “The fraction of population that is elderly has been increasing, as has the consumption of vitamin/trace mineral supplements, which is now a Multibillion dollar industry. Yet the rationale for such supplement intake by the majority may be questioned.” () Questions like, are vitamin and mineral supplements necessary for life, or is our body capable of generating enough micro-nutrients from everyday nutrition and the environment?; and are vitamin supplements supposed to be used as substitutes for the natural intake of vitamins from whole foods, for people who do not have deficiencies? These are the questions most people need to ask themselves every day. Vitamin supplements are used widely throughout the world. Vitamin supplements were never supposed to be used as a substitute for a healthy whole foods diet, yet advertisements and social media have portrayed supplements to be the norm for Americans today. Most people buy into the whole vitamin supplement craze. Today, vitamin supplements are found in many forms like pills, liquid, chews, and even powdered formats. Instead of maintaining a balanced diet, most Americans would rather ingest a few pills. The prices, however, can range from affordable to thousands of dollars. Overall, Americans spend more than 10 billion dollars each year on vitamin supplements that they don’t even need, hoping that it would act like a barrier against some of the major chronic diseases.
Vitamin D is one of the essential nutrients that we need in our bodies and what makes us healthy. Vitamin D's functions in the body by digesting calcium, which both calcium and vitamin D can keep bones and strong and healthy, and constrain the release of parathyroid hormone. This hormone consumes bone tissue, which provides the bones thin and fragile. Also, vitamin D can enact as a role in muscle formation and the immune system, which the immune system can prevent illnesses and fight off infections. Therefore, adding vitamin D to a diet can reduce the risk of falling in among the elderly. There are three sources where you can acquire vitamin D: sun exposure, diet, and supplements. Skin exposure to ultraviolet (UV) sunlight is one of the common sources that you can obtain vitamin D, but it varies in different factors of the season including less sunshine in winter months, the time of the day, the amount of cloud cover and air pollution, and where you live. There are a variety of foods that also contain
When eaten, protein is broken down into amino acids. Proteins and amino acids are used for almost every metabolic process in the body, and are the building blocks for every tissue in your body.
Vitamin A helps a lot in the maintenance of a healthy skin, mucus membrane, teeth and other soft tissues of the body.
Vitamin C also known as ascorbic acid is needed for growth and maintenance of healthy tissues, especially skin, blood vessels, bones, gums, teeth. Vitamin C aids in resistance against infection and healing of wounds. It also helps the body absorb iron from food. Vitamin C can be found in green vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes and citrus fruits such as oranges and lemon. A lack of vitamin C can cause scurvy, iron deficiency and poor wound healing. A healthy diet should include a high amount of vitamin C because the human body cannot produce its own vitamin C.
Having a good health is a very important, but most people do not realize about it. Even if they do, they may still disregard it. We need good health in order to do any activity. To have a good health we need to eat a healthy food. Our body needs a sufficient water and healthy food that covered five classes of food which consist of carbohydrates, protein, fruit and vegetable, and fats. However, people nowadays always put their career as their priority and do not take care about their health. Sales of product such as vitamin supplements to get a healthy body and skin becomes more popular and trending. Some people are willing to buy it because they want to get a faster result of their body and there are also people who feels it is a must to take vitamin supplements in their life. Nevertheless, some people consume and relying too much vitamin supplement each day and there are various effects from it which are laziness and toxicity.
Multivitamins are meant to help individuals achieve a normal level of nutrition as defined by doctors and scientists. Through proper application of vitamins and minerals from their various sources, better health can be achieved.
Most animals can make Vitamin C from scratch. We must get it from food, fresh fruits, and vegetables. Vitamin C main functions is helping the body manufacture collagen a key protein in our connective tissue, cartilage, and tendons. When you deprived of fresh fruit and vegetables you developed a disease called scurvy. Scurvy involves so called scorbutic symptoms its spots on the skin and bleeding gums and the breakdown of collagen. The toxicities is kidney stones and interferes with actions of Vitamin E. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that neutralizes damaging natural substance called free radicals. Vitamin C is the single most popular vitamin supplement in the United States, and the food sources is citrus fruits, orange juice, and strawberries.
Vitamin C is essentially for both humans and animals to remain being healthy. In fact, when people get colds, they consume large amounts of vitamin C to try to fight off the cold. Vitamin C can be found in many fruits and veggies, buts it’s most common in oranges. A deficiency in vitamin C can cause a condition known as scurvy. Scurvy plagued sailors through the 19th century from the time of Columbus. Scurvy is characterized by blood coming out of a ruptured blood vessel, or hemorrhages, throughout the body, most especially noticeable on the gums and around the mouth and other areas of the skin that has abundant blood vessels. The only way to stop scurvy was a diet consisting of citrus fruits.
In this experiment, I discovered whether cooking food destroys potential vitamin levels. In this case, I focused on vitamin C in citrus fruits(oranges). You can, however, extend the experiment by testing other vitamins and foods as well! Vitamin C is a vitamin that is needed for normal growth and development throughout your body. It helps your body heal also. Vitamin C was first used to combat a sickness called Scurvy. Scurvy was common among those with poor access to fresh fruit and vegetables, such as remote, isolated sailors and soldiers, which means no access to vital vitamins and nutrients needed for the body to stay healthy. Scientists are now researching on how high doses of vitamin C can cure cancer cells and other deadly diseases, such as lymphoma. All in all, Vitamin C is vital to our health as well as life.
When all necessary nutrients are regularly consumed for the healthy growth and function of our bodies, is when a balanced diet has been achieved (Biology online, 2005). A healthy diet has 7 key food types which all contribute to a balanced diet, these components are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water (GCSE bitesize, 2013). A lack of any or one of these nutrients may lead to what is known as a nutrient deficiency, which may be followed by a deficiency disease. Scurvy is a deficiency disease caused by the lack of or minimalistic intake of vitamin C with our diets. This essay sets out to explain the symptoms, risks and preventive options available to do with scurvy.