Natural Energy Supplements are: Vitamins, Minerals and Essential Fatty Acids.

In this post the following questions are asked and answered:

- What are vitamins and what are minerals and what is the difference between vitamins and minerals?

- Is it good to consume lots of vitamins and or minerals?

First some basics regarding nutrition. Proper and sufficient nutrition is required to sustain life, provide energy, and assist with tissue growth and repair. A proper and nutritive diet involves six classes of nutrients:

1) carbohydrates

2) fats

3) proteins

4) vitamins

5) minerals

6) water

Carbohydrate, fat, and protein are essential in huge quantitities for our bodies (grams per day) and they add energy. Hence carbohydrate, fat, and protein are called macrontrients; we need more of them.

Vitamins and minerals are considered micronutrients; required in lesser quantities (milligrams or micrograms/day). They do not provide energy, but they help our bodies carry out essential and vital physiological processes. Around 40 of these nutrients are essential for life because our bodies cannot synthesize enough to meet physiological needs.

The main difference between Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins ("vita" = life and "amine" = comprising of nitrogen) are organic (containing carbon, which is an element present in all living things) supplements, containing atoms of many different elements.

Minerals are clean inorganic elements (containing atoms of the very same element), which means they are much more simple in chemical form than vitamins. All vitamins are essential or needed by our body, while only a few minerals are fundamental nutrients. Vitamins are vulnerable to high temperature, light, and chemical agents, so cooking, food preparation, producing, and storage have to be appropriate to preserve vitamins in food. Minerals, however, are more stable to food preparation, but mineral reduction can occur when they are bound to different substances in foods (such as oxalates present in spinach and tea, and phytates present in legumes and grains), making them unavailable for the body to utilize.

Vitamins are either water-soluble (water is needed for absorption and are excreted in urine) or fat- soluble (necessitates fat for digestion and are stored in fat tissue). There are 9 different water-soluble vitamins: vitamin C and the eight B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins B6 and B12, biotin, folate and pantothenic acid); and, 4 different fat-soluble vitamins: vitamins A, D, E, and K. All these vitamins have different roles and functions in our bodies.

Minerals are categorized as major or macro- (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfur), and trace or micro- (iron, iodine, zinc, chromium, selenium, fluoride, molybdenum, copper, and manganese) minerals, the former required in quantities of 100mg/day or more, and the latter needed in much smaller, or "trace," amounts. These 16 essential minerals also play important roles in the body.

Rather than depending on dietary supplements, unless necessary because of a deficiency, work to satisfy your body's nutritional requirements by acquiring these nutrients from a varied and diverse diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that humans and animals must consume for healthy body as the body requires them but can't make them from other food components. The term refers to fatty acids needed for biological processes, and not those that only act as fuel.

To be able to function properly, the body requires optimal quantities of all of the fundamental nutrients 60 minerals, 16 vitamins, 12 amino acids and 2 to 3 essential fatty acids. If we lack any of them in our eating routine then we might create health issues and diseases.

The Sole Negative Aspect Of Natural Organic Foods Is Their Rate More Expensive Than Non-Organic Foods
The word is spreading about the advantages of natural organic foods, and since not all geographic areas benefit from the direct access to organic retailers.

Take Liquid Vitamin Minerals For Health
Several years ago, liquid vitamin mineral supplements were never heard of. In the past, tablets and pills were the ideal way to take supplements.

Thinking About Which Source Of Omega 3 For Your Diet? Take Into Account Healthy Flax Seeds!
Many people have been learning about the benefits of adding a source of omega three to their diet. Of the many sources available you might want to consider flax seed because they have numerous benefits and are very easy to add to any meal!

Usana Vitamins, A Famous Multivitamin Supplying Corporation With A Few Controversy!
If your looking for some multivitamin supplements you might have come across usana vitamins. If you look around for reviews you would see that many people say they are great quality products while others do not. This article is meant to give some back story on usana vitamins.

The Several Flax Seed Advantages That You Need To Discover To Help Yourself Live A Healthy Life!
When searching how you can add a source of omega 3 to your diet you probably previously believed you needed fish. Certain seeds like those from flax are actually a good source of omega 3 and they have other benefits that you can learn in this article!

Make Sure To Add Some Vit. B12 To Your Diet Plan To Stay Away From The Very Harmful Deficiency Disorders!
Do you know about B12 vitamin? Most people have heard about it but do not really know what Vitamin B12 is for when it is actually one of the most important nutrients needed by the body and showing signs of b12 deficiency symptoms can be very harmful.

A Very Essential Nutritional Vitamin For The Body To Be Able To Stay In Good Health!
There are many important vitamins that you should take if you want to stay healthy and one of these is vitamin C which can help your body in many ways. This article will focus on the benefits and sources of vitamin C.

Few Reasons Why Cranberry Juice Is Really Famous Today As A Result Of The Benefits It Has
When you go to the grocery or supermarket, you can see a lot of brands selling their own versions of Cranberry juices. They all claim that they are healthy because Cranberries can actually give a lot of benefits to your health.

Other Readings

Useful Resources


 
 
 
 
 
Login