How Important are Vitamins!!
Vitamins are organic compounds found in food, necessary for certain essential functions of the human body. These are not produced inside the human body and so are required from diet although in smaller quantities.
Vitamins are essential for some very important body functions such as proper digestion and metabolism, maintaining the integrity of skin, bones, proper vision and the functioning ofthe immune system.
Essentially there are two groups of vitamins:
- water soluble and
- fat soluble
Water soluble vitamins are Vitamin B complex (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin,B6 and B12) and C and fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K
Water soluble vitamins are mainly found in fresh fruits and vegetables, in the whole grains and pulses(mainly in the outer covering of grains and pulses) and nuts.
Fat soluble vitamins as the name suggests are found in foods that have some amount of fat in them such as milk, nuts, oil seeds and also in red, yellow, green vegetables; they are also found in non vegetarian foods especially fish and poultry mainly due to their fat content.