The Skinny on Vitamins
The Skinny on Vitamins
The body, itself, produces many substances which may, ultimately, form a vitamin. However, generally, vitamins cannot be made inside the body. Instead they must come from the foods we eat.
Unsolved Mysteries…
These substances, although tiny in amounts, are quite potent and essential for several bodily functions and processes. Some vitamins are soluble in water and others in oils.
Many mysteries still exist about vitamins. Research to identify and isolate vitamins continues in laboratories all over the world. Sometimes they are “discovered” when a human or animal is steadily deprived of certain kinds of foods. The resulting conditions help researchers decide that a specific substance is causing the undesired effect. In other cases, a given malfunction or disorder in the body corrects itself when sufficient amounts of a specific substance is supplied.
“Do Vitamins Supply Energy?” Vitamins are not “true foods.” That is, they don’t supply energy, nor do they turn into tissue as do proteins. They do not work like fats or carbohydrates. They have been compared to a catalyst or spark plug. They are necessary to make the process work properly or optimally. As nutritional research moves forward, it is gradually being discovered that a certain vitamin, or combination of vitamins, is essential for health. This is because vitamins combine with enzymes. Vitamins are often termed “co-enzymes.” Simply stated, vitamins are substances that regulate a variety of everyday biological functions in your body. The quantity of each that is needed varies with each vitamin. Vitamins are essential for normal growth, good health and general day-to-day maintenance.