When it comes to enjoying a healthy lifestyle, what you eat matters a lot. You need to eat a balanced diet that contains all foods, but today we are going to take a specific interest in vitamins. Daily consumption of vitamins from natural sources or food supplements enables your body to stay functional.
While looking for a simple yet comprehensive way to explain vitamins, we ended up on MedAlertHelp, a site that reviews medical alert systems. They produced a fantastic infographic below that will guide you through the most important facts concerning vitamins and balanced diets. Read on to learn about the basic features and roles vitamins play in our body.
Types of Vitamins
Vitamins come in two types. There are water-soluble vitamins where vitamins B and C belong, and the fat-soluble ones which include vitamin A, D, E, and K.
Water-Soluble Vitamins
There are eight types of B vitamin which humans need: B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12. All of them play a vital role in keeping our body healthy.
For instance, vitamin B3 (Niacin) can help get rid of bad cholesterol in your bloodstream as well as help the body metabolize glucose, fat, and alcohol.
On the other hand, vitamin B7 (Biotin) contributes to healthy skin and hair, along with playing a role in the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.
The rest of the B vitamins seem to share roles by either helping in the production of the red blood cells or enabling the proper function of the nervous system.
To avoid suffering from some of the deficiency signs of B vitamins like hair loss, fatigue, indigestion, sensitivity to light, and anemia, you need to consume every day between 75g-100g of eggs, broccoli, kale, mushrooms, liver, trout, asparagus, bananas, and strawberries.
Vitamin C is commonly known for preventing colds, but it also improves healing. Eating 100g of foods like bell pepper, guavas, and broccoli every day is sufficient to prevent you from suffering from splitting hairs, bleeding gums, and hard to heal wounds.
Since our body cannot store the water-soluble vitamins in body tissues like the fat-soluble ones, and always excretes through urine the excess that it fails to use, it’s possible you may need to take vitamin B complex supplements and vitamin C products.
Fat-Soluble Vitamins
You can attain fat-soluble vitamins from natural foods like liver, carrots, sweet potatoes, eggs, salmon, wheat germ oil, and kale. This will help to keep your teeth healthy, keep your bones strong, and fight free radicals which cause diseases. Eating just 100g of these foods daily can provide the required nutrients.
Seeing as both the water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins have similar nutrient providing foods, you can find it easier and cheaper to buy foods that provide various vitamins for the body.
Taking Supplements
If you’re wondering whether you need to take the supplements, it can depend on whether you can eat the required quantities on a daily basis or not.
However, even if you’re able to enjoy a proper diet, you need to keep in mind that today’s soils have been depleted of most nutrients. On top of that, food usually has to travel long distances before it reaches the markets where you buy it with even less nutrients.
Consequently, by the time you eat it, it might be devoid of all the necessary nutrients. However, before you decide to take the supplements, you should consult with your doctor in order to get the right quantity.
For a more detailed explanation about the quantity of vitamins that your body needs, the foods you need to eat, and their benefits, read the infographic below:
