Vitamins: classification of vitamins, characteristics and characteristics

The culprits of most diseases are stress, poor nutrition and a polluted environment. Everyone is able to minimize the harm of these factors with the help of vitamins. So, knowledge about vitamins is especially necessary for a modern person.

How vitamins were discovered

Useful properties of vitamins were known even in ancient Egypt. People have noticed that the use of certain herbs and fruits can significantly improve health and even speed up recovery from illnesses.

For example, those who had difficulty seeing, the healers of antiquity advised eating liver. However, they had no idea that its useful properties in this case are due to the high content of vitamin A.

Herbalists and healers enjoyed great respect from all peoples. But, although mankind throughout its history had guessed about the important function that certain substances have for the body, the purposeful study of vitamins began only a hundred years ago. Back in the late XIX century. It was believed that the main role of food - to supply the body with proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Actually, the first discoverer of vitamins was the Russian doctor Lunin Nikolai Ivanovich. He experimented on mice and noticed an interesting fact. Mice, who received whole milk for food, remained healthy, while those fed with artificially isolated components of milk began to fall ill and eventually die. So were discovered vitamins.

The concept, classification of open substances, in spite of this, did not become an achievement of a specific scientist. And although they were found to be a Russian doctor, the name "vitamins" was offered by a chemist from Poland Kazimier Funk, and the Nobel Prize for studying their influence on the body was obtained by different researchers from a number of countries.

What is the role of vitamins in metabolism

When the body loses certain substances, it is fraught with specific health problems. Especially acute consequences can be, when a small proportion in the diet is food containing vitamins. The classification of vitamins therefore usually contains an enumeration of their natural sources.

If you find the consequences of a shortage of certain elements, you should contact a nutritionist. But you can try to fill the deficit yourself. To do this, modern people, especially the inhabitants of large cities, should pay close attention to their diet and the presence of food in it, which contains various vitamins.

The classification of vitamins, depending on the participation in internal physiological processes, divides these substances into three categories:

• Antioxidants;
• Prohormones;
• Enzymovitamins (those that participate in the metabolism).

Further, these subcategories will be examined in more detail.

Antioxidants

This is ascorbic acid, vitamins A, K and E. Antioxidants are able to prevent serious diseases such as cancer or heart disease.

In the body, in the process of vital activity, free radicals are formed-oxygen molecules, which have very high activity. They lack one electron, and they tend to fill this place with electrons from other molecules. Antioxidants, however, neutralize free radicals, protecting them from cell damage. And if the body does not receive them in sufficient quantities, then free radicals continue to look for an electron for replenishment. When this happens, they become safe, but the cell in which the electron is removed continues the process described.

Prohormones

These are substances from which hormones are subsequently formed. These include vitamin D and vitamin A in the form of retinoic acid. The decay product of vitamin D takes an active part in the processes associated with the exchange of calcium in the body. A retinoic acid is needed to restore the epithelium.

Enzymovitamins

This category includes vitamin K, vitamin A, as well as B vitamins, nicotinic acid and folic acid. The exchange of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the body occurs with their active participation. For example, vitamin B1 in high amounts is required in case of increased physical exertion, as well as a high amount of carbohydrates in the diet. With its lack, the decomposition products of carbohydrates accumulate in the body.

How to measure the need for vitamins

It is also necessary to distinguish between the concept of daily requirements for vitamins and daily intake. The first concept is the amount that is necessary for the healthy functioning of the organism, and it does not always coincide with the second. Daily intake is often less than the demand, since in the process of absorption, vitamins are only partially absorbed.

The pharmacological and physiological doses of each vitamin for humans are established. Physiological represent the amount that a person needs for a full life. Pharmacological dosages can exceed them many times, because they are aimed at solving specific problems of the functioning of certain organs and systems.

Sex, age, physical activity, the conditions in which a person lives are all factors that determine what vitamins a person needs. The classification of vitamins in accordance with the needs is developed by nutritionists of each country. For full-fledged physical and psycho-emotional health, one should be guided by those recommendations that are proposed by specialists for a certain group of people.

When buying products you need to consider not only their energy value, but also pay attention to whether they contain vitamins. For adolescents, pregnant women and athletes, there is always wide access to information on what nutrients and vitamins are required for these categories.

The classification, characteristics and needs of each group are individual. For example, women who plan pregnancy, especially important folic acid intake. On the other hand, when preparing to become a mother, it is necessary to balance the intake of calcium and fill the vitamin D deficiency. The same applies to athletes, students, workers who work in three shifts: a representative of any of these categories should in time think about full nutrition or the intake of synthetic Additives.

Fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins: classification, functions by subgroups

As it was considered, vitamins are divided into three important subcategories. It is the specific functions of each substance that explains the fact that certain diets can not be observed by a person for a long time. After all, each element is necessary for certain processes in the body, without which life can be violated.

But apart from the division by the criterion of participation in physiological processes, there are two more categories, into which vitamins divide. Classification of vitamins for water-soluble and fat-soluble is no less important. Fat-soluble vitamins are deposited in fatty tissues, so their overdose is more dangerous than an overdose of water-soluble.

The latter are rapidly excreted from the body with the liquid. The liver of animals and fish, eggs, butter, spinach, baked potatoes is far from a complete list of foods that contain fat-soluble vitamins. The classification of their sources will be fully listed in the table below. Products containing water-soluble vitamins are a variety of fruits and vegetables, greens, cereals, eggs, seeds and nuts.

Classification of vitamins: table of the content of nutrients in food

The list of products with the content of water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins looks like this:

By the way, the chemical classification of vitamins corresponds not only to their ability to dissolve in water. It should also be noted that vitamins of different groups behave differently in the process of cooking. Thus, fat-soluble vitamins can be preserved during heat treatment, while most water-soluble vitamins quickly decay.

Signs of vitamin deficiency

Not always an adult has enough time to pay attention to the composition of food consumed. Therefore, the lack of vitamins is often a phenomenon. But most often among the population there is not a complete absence in the body of any of the vitamins (beriberi), but its other species. This or hypovitaminosis (reduced content), or subnormal supply, which occurs when consumption of vitamins in an amount less than normal.

The lack of the described substances is expressed in different ways, but with hypovitaminosis and subnormal consumption the symptoms are common:

• weakness;
• Increased fatigue;
• irritability.

With subnormal consumption and hypovitaminosis, it is not always necessary to take synthetic vitamins, sometimes it is enough to adjust the diet. With avitaminosis, the symptoms are more severe. It is necessary to consult a doctor.

Vegetables and fruits - the only source of vitamins?

The information that most types of fruits and vegetables are a real storehouse of vitamins is a slightly one-sided view. Indeed, the classification of water-soluble vitamins and their sources shows that most of them can be replenished by consuming fruits and vegetables. But, for example, vitamin D is not found in vegetable products at all. Therefore, vegetarianism, for which so many have recently rallied, is not the most healthy way of eating.

The diet should contain as many different products as possible, since almost every kind of food contains a special composition necessary for the organism. There are very few products that would not contain the described substances at all (for example, sugar). All other foods include certain vitamins.

The meaning, classification and content of useful elements in a certain type of food is available in the public domain. Therefore, when there is a shortage of vitamins, it is worth determining what foods are not enough in the diet. Timely introduction of diversity will help prevent beriberi and many diseases.

Should I take vitamins?

An ancient man, who lived in the jungle, consumed a large number of vitamins. Therefore, the mechanism of evolution ordered that in our body they are not synthesized (the exception is vitamin D). In addition, it is necessary to take into account the sedentary lifestyle of modern man. After all, if a peasant in the XVIII century. Could satisfy his need for vitamins of group B, having eaten a bread ration for a day, then a modern urban resident hardly uses so much flour.

To ensure that the diet is full, you need to remember the value of various foods and what is the classification of vitamins. Briefly, the solution to the problem looks like this: you need or have a varied diet, or take synthetic multivitamins bought at a pharmacy.