Vitamins: Why We Need Them

[Please note that this page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.]

A, B, C, D, E, and K are not just random letters in an unorganized alphabet. These are vitamins. Like how notes create words, they are the building blocks that keep the body in motion.

They are compounds that our bodies need in tiny amounts to function properly. They are the body defenders, builders, and maintenance workers who help build bone and muscle, capture and use energy, heal wounds, and put nutrients.

Sailors would end up getting scurvy from lack of vitamin C. To cure scurvy, you must eat fruits and vegetables like oranges and potatoes.

Fungi, bacteria, and plants all produce their vitamins where the human body cannot make them, so people have to find them from other sources.

How Do We Get Vitamins?

It depends on the form in which they take. They come in two different types water-soluble and lipid-soluble. Their difference is determined by how the body stores and transports them.

The water-soluble vitamin b's, where each of the eight b's does something different, and c. These are dissolved in the watery parts of fruits and vegetables.

Once inside the system, these foods are digested, and the vitamins are separated and taken up through the bloodstream. Because blood plasma is water-based, water-soluble c and b's have transporters that can move freely around the body.

Lipid-soluble ones dissolve in fat and are found in oils, butter, and dairy. However, the trip into the blood is a bit more complicated.

Absorbing Vitamins 

They go through the digestive system, where bile from the liver breaks down the fat and makes it available for absorption through the intestinal wall. Because fat-soluble ones cannot be used through the blood, they need something else to move them throughout the body.

Proteins attach to these and act like carriers transporting them into the body and blood.

The difference between fat- and water-soluble ones is determined by how they make it into the blood. Also, how the vitamins are stored or ejected from the body.

The body's system's ability to circulate the water-soluble ones throughout the bloodstream means most of them can be quickly passed through the kidneys. Because of this, most water-soluble ones need replenishing daily through the food we eat.

Fat-soluble ones can stick around as they can be stored in fat cells and the liver. The body keeps the vitamins there and uses them as needed. Meaning people should not take too many of these vitamins as the body is usually well-stocked.

Vitamins Benefits

B vitamins make up coenzymes that help you release the energy in food. Other B vitamins then help the body use that energy.

Vitamin C helps you fight off infections, and it helps you produce collagen, a type of tissue that heals wounds and builds teeth and bones.

Vitamin A helps your body produce white blood cells, which help defend the body against disease, and it helps shape bones and improves vision by supporting your eye cells.

Vitamin D helps your body collect calcium and phosphorous to make and replace bone tissues.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that kills elements in the body that damage cells.

Vitamin K helps the blood from clotting by building the proteins that do that job.