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VITAMINS
Understanding Vitamins
• Complex organic substances.
• Found in very small amounts in your foods.
• Crucial to normal health, growth, and
development.
• Classified as water soluble or fat soluble.
• Your body cannot produce most vitamins,
so they must come from your diet.
Water Soluble Vitamins
• Eight B vitamins and vitamin C (9 total)
– B vitamins include: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin,
vitamin B6, folate (folic acid or folacin), vitamin B12,
pantothenic acid, and biotin.
• Found in the watery parts of foods.
• Excesses are excreted through urine (not
stored long term).
• Fragile and can be destroyed during
storage or cooking.
Thiamin (B1)
• Daily Intake —1.0-1.2 mg/day
• Function: Helps your body release energy
from carbohydrates.
• Food Sources: meat, fish, whole grains,
enriched grain products.
• Deficiency: Beriberi
• Toxicity: causes headache, insomnia, and
irritability.
Thiamin Deficiency--Beriberi
•Gastrointestinal
• ↓appetite, indigestion, severe
constipation
•Nervous system
•Fatigue, numbness, poor
memory
•Cardiovascular
•Rapid heartbeat, edema
•Musculoskeletal
•Severe pain
Riboflavin (B2)
• Daily Intake —1.0-1.3 mg/day
• Function: Helps body get energy from
carbohydrates, fats, and protein; promotes
healthy skin and eyes.
• Food Sources: milk products, dark green
leafy vegetables, whole grain or enriched
grain products.
• Deficiency: Too little causes eye, skin, and
nose problems
• Toxicity: no reports
Niacin (B3)
• Daily Intake —14-16 mg/day
• Function: release energy from food; Promotes
healthy skin and digestive system.
• Food Sources: meats, poultry, whole grain and
enriched grain products, nuts, beans
• Deficiency: Pellagra
• Toxicity: low blood pressure and abdominal
problems.
Pellagra
Vitamin B6
• Daily Intake —1.2-1.3 mg/day
• Function: Helps antibodies form; helps
body use fat and protein.
• Food Sources: meats, beans, whole grain
products, green leafy vegetables, bananas.
• Deficiency: nervous system disorders.
• Toxicity: fatigue, irritability, and nerve
damage.
Folate/Folic Acid
• Daily Intake —400 μg/day (microgram)
• Function: red blood cell formation and new
cell division.
• Food Sources: green leafy vegetables,
beans, strawberries, tomatoes, seeds,
citrus and tropical fruits.
• Deficiency: anemia, neural tube defects
(newborn)
• Toxicity: irritability and insomnia.
Folate and Pregnancy
– Essential for growth of the fetus's spinal cord
and brain
– Deficiency of folate can lead to neural tube
defects in babies (happens in 1st trimester)
– Pregnant women—folate supplementation
prior to pregnancy.
Vitamin B12
• Daily Intake: 2.4 μg/day
• Function: Helps maintain nerve cells and
red blood cells.
• Food Sources: animal products (meat/dairy)
• Deficiency: causes nervous disorder
problems.
• Toxicity: none reported
Pantothenic Acid and Biotin
• Daily Intake: 5 mg/day (P.A.), 25 μg/day
• Functions: Coenzyme in energy
metabolism.
• Food Sources: Found in most foods.
• Deficiency: rare but may cause diarrhea,
trouble sleeping, and fatigue.
• Toxicity: none reported
Vitamin C
• Daily Intake: 65-75 mg/day
• Functions: Helps wounds heal. Helps bones
maintain strength, antioxidant, strengthens immune
system, and helps body absorb iron.
• Food Sources: citrus fruits, cabbage family, dark
green vegetables, cantaloupe, strawberries,
tomatoes.
• Deficiency: Scurvy
• Toxicity: abdominal discomfort.
Scurvy
Fat Soluble Vitamins
• Four fat soluble vitamins: vitamin A, vitamin D,
vitamin E, and vitamin K.
• Generally found in the fats of foods.
• Absorbed in the digestive track with the aid of
fats.
• Move around the body via proteins in the blood.
• Excess is stored in the liver and do not need to
be consumed every day.
Vitamin A
• Daily intake: 700-900 μg
• Functions: eye health, repairs and builds
body tissues, helps bones form.
• Food Sources: milk products, dark green
leafy vegetables, deep orange fruits and
vegetables.
• Deficiency: night blindness, susceptibility
to infection.
• Toxicity: nose bleeds, abdominal
problems, and liver disease.
Prevalence of Vitamin A
Deficiency
Vitamin D
• Daily Intake: 5 μg/day
• Functions: absorbing and using calcium
and phosphorous for strong teeth and
bones.
• Food Sources: Fortified milk, eggs, fish;
made by body when exposed to sunlight.
• Deficiency: Rickets
• Toxicity: abdominal discomfort.
Rickets
Vitamin E
• Daily Intake: 15 mg/day
• Functions: Protects red blood cells.
• Food Sources: Found in vegetables oils,
green leafy vegetables, wheat germ, egg
yolks and nuts.
• Deficiency: muscle wasting, anemia, and
hemorrhaging.
• Toxicity: general discomfort.
Vitamin K
• Daily Intake: 75 μg/day
• Function: Helps blood clot.
• Food Sources: liver, green leafy
vegetables, cabbage family; made by the
digestive track.
• Deficiency: Blood hemorrhaging.
– Vitamin K shot for newborns
• Toxicity: rare (jaundice)
Antioxidants
• Chemical reactions lead to the release of
oxygen.
• Loose oxygen molecules are called “free
radicals”; build up in the body leads to
chronic diseases and cancer.
• Antioxidant vitamins flush out the excess
oxygen molecules.
• Vitamin C, vitamin, E, and beta-carotene
(a form of vitamin A) are antioxidants.