You learnt about the sources, functions and utilization of macronutrients. We will now begin our discuision on micronutrients with the study of vitamins in this unit.
The "vita" part of the word "vitamin" means "life". Vitamins are, in fact, vital and essential for life and health. They regulate metabolism, help in the growth and maintenance of our body and protect against disease. You will learn a great deal about these functions in the unit.
Vitamins (like carbohydrates, fats and proteins) are organic compounds. Unlike these nutrients, however, vitamins are present in minute quantities in food. This does not mean we need vitamin pills to meet our needs! We can meet our requirements for vitamins quite easily by consuming the right types of foods.
Some of the vitamins are soluble in water while others are soluble in fat. They are hence classified into two categories: water-soluble vitamins and fat-saluble vitamins. This unit will introduce you to the different vitamins included in each of these categories. You will learn about the food sources, functions and absorption of these vitamins.
Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
- differentiate between fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins
- identify the food sources of each vitamin
- describe the mechanism of absorption of each vitamin
- describe the storage of fat-soluble vitamins and
- state the important functions of each vitamin in the body
No comments:
Post a Comment