The Basics of Nutrition
Vitamins, Minerals, Enzymes, Amino Acids, and Essential Fatty Acids

 

Vitamins
Vitamins are absolutely essential for life.
 
They contribute to good health by regulating the metabolism and assisting the biochemical processes that release energy from digested food. They are considered micronutrients because the body needs in relatively small amounts compared with nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and water.

Water soluble vitamins must be taken into the body daily, as they cannot be stored and are excreted within one to four days.

These include Vitamin C and the B complex vitamins.

Oil/fat soluble vitamins can be stored to some degree for a longer period of time in the body’s fatty tissues and the liver.

These include Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and  Vitamin K.

Synergy is a phenomenon in which two or more vitamins combine to create a stronger vitamin function. An ideal example is bioflavonoids, in order for them to work effectively they must be taken with vitamin C. Studies now indicate that bioflavonoids may be a major factor in preventing cancer and many other diseases.

Minerals
Minerals are naturally occurring elements found in the earth, fragmented by erosion, passed from the soil to plants by microbes and then consumed for proper cell function and structure. Minerals are necessary for proper composition of body fluids, the formation of blood and bone, maintenance of healthy nerve function, and the regulation of muscle tone. They function as coenzymes, enabling energy production, growth, and healing.

All enzyme activities involve minerals and therefore are essential for proper utilization of vitamins and other co-factors that maintain proper chemical balance.

Mineral deficiencies are common because of the depleted soils used for years of harvesting. crops, leaching of the soils by irrigation and erosion, poor dietary habits resulting from the shift toward mineral deficient fast-foods and away from mineral rich raw fruits and vegetables. Minerals are grouped into two categories:

Bulk Minerals (Macrominerals) because they are needed in larger quantities and include calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus.
 
Trace Minerals (Microminerals) which are needed in smaller amounts, but are equally as important for good health and proper body function and include boron, chromium, copper, germanium, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, sulfur, vanadium, and zinc.

Enzymes
Enzymes are essential chemicals that are the foundation of human bodily functions.
They are catalysts (activators) in the chemical reactions that are continually taking place within the body. As coenzymes, vitamins work with the enzymes, thereby allowing all the activities that occur within the body to be carried out just as they should be. Of the major vitamins, some are water soluble and some are oil/fat soluble.

Amino Acids
Amino Acids are the building blocks of proteins and are the end products of protein digestion. The structure of amino acids has 2 conformations, D & L. This has to do with the way the amino acid rotates plane-polarized light. The L (Levo)-conformation rotates light to the left and is the form that is used by the body; the D (Dextro)-conformation rotates light to the right and is indigestible by humans. The environment consists of 80 amino acids; however, the body only utilizes 20 of them. Essential amino acids are those that are not synthesized in the body so they must be taken in through the diet. The body synthesizes the nonessential amino acids yet this does not mean that they are not necessary, they are just as important.

Essential Fatty Acids  
Regardless of what you have heard the body needs fats and oils, but, they must be the right kind, and are called essential fatty acids because they are the building blocks of which fats and oils are composed. Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's) can not be made by the body and must be consumed. They are sometimes referred to as Vitamin F or polyunsaturates. EFA's improve the skin and hair, reduce blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and triglycerides, help prevent arthritis, reduces the risk of blood clot formation, are necessary for nerve transmission, found in very high concentrations in the brain because they are needed for normal brain function and development. Every living cell needs EFA's, they are essential for repairing cells and building new cells. They are used by the body to produce prostaglandin's which are hormone-like chemical messengers that regulate various body processes.

There are now three basic categories: Omega-3 and Omega-6 and Omega-9

OMEGA-3 ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS are found in fresh deep water fish, fish oil, certain vegetable oils, like canola, flaxseed, and walnut.

OMEGA-6 ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS are found primarily in raw nuts, seeds, legumes and in unsaturated vegetable oils, such as primrose oil, sesame oil, soy bean oil, borage oil.

Linoleic is the most essential EFA and is converted into non-beneficial trans-fatty acids by hydrogenation or the making of hard oils like margarine.
 
OMEGA-9  ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS found primarily in Olives

To obtain the daily requirement for EFA's, you must consume them as 10-20% of your total caloric intake.

Recommended Daily allowances RDA’s were instituted over forty years ago, unfortunately the amounts they came up with only give us the bare minimum requirements to ward off deficiency diseases like beriberi, rickets, scurvy, night blindness. In no way do they address what is needed to maintain maximum health, we prefer to use the term optimum daily requirements ODA’s. Scientific studies have shown that larger amounts of vitamins help our bodies operate better.

The Library of Natural Medicine
Learn about all the Vitamins, Herbs, Minerals, Amino acids, Hormones and Glandulars

Read what the FDA says about quality

Vitamin Index of Products

Search your Health Concern for Suggested Dietary supplements

Index of Articles