What are vitamins?
A Vitamin is an organic molecule required by a living organism in minute amounts for proper health. An organism deprived of all sources of a particular vitamin will eventually suffer from disease symptoms specific to that vitamin.
Vitamins can be classified as either water soluble, which means they dissolve easily in water, or fat soluble, which means they are absorbed through the intestinal tract with the help of lipids.
In general, an organism must obtain vitamins or their metabolic precursors from outside the body, most often from the organism's diet. Examples of vitamins that the human body can derive from precursors include vitamin A, which can be produced from beta carotene; niacin from the amino acid tryptophan; and vitamin D through exposure of skin to ultraviolet light.
The term vitamin does not encompass other essential nutrients such as dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, or essential amino acids, nor is it used for the large number of other nutrients that merely promote health, but are not strictly essential.
The word vitamin was coined by the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk in 1912. Vita in Latin is life and the -amin suffix is short for amine; at the time it was thought that all vitamins were amines. Though this is now known to be incorrect, the name has stuck.
|
|
Real Vitamin and Mineral Book: A Definitive Guide to Designing Your Personal Supplement Program
Shari Lieberman, Nancy Bruning
Avery Publishing Group, 2003-06
Price: $15.95
Keywords: Alternative Medicine, Authors, Diets Weight Loss, Diets, Exercise Fitness, Food Counters, Health, Mind Body, Heart Disease, Hypnosis for Diets, Nutrition, Parenting Families, Special Conditions, Supplements, Vitamins Supplements, Vitamins
Reviews:
Excellent Reference, may be a bench mark
Did you take your Multivitamin today?
Definitive reference, concise information, great organizatio
Excellent Guide for Supplements!
Superb. A must for anyone interested in supplements.
|
|
Please Explore Our Online Bookstore |
|
|
Good points:
1. The author is herself a nutritionist and she backs all her claims with scientific claims, and she is very honest at times when there is not enough research in the field.
2. Very good read and quite interesting flow of text.
3. Ample Information especially on each vitamins.
Bad Points:
1. Can get boring sometimes, I agree that mentioning about a certain doctor saying a certain thing makes the text in book more reliable, but too much bla-bla gets boring for people not from the medical background.
2. Design your own Optimum nutrient intake is the weakest chapter and that is the one which should have been strongest. This is what the book is all about, the information on all the vitamins is widely available and is the fact that we all need to increase the vitamin intake.