Vitamins: Water-Soluble and Fat-Soluble Overview

Vitamins

• Vitamins are a diverse group of essential nutrients that regulate most body processes involved in supporting growth and maintaining life.
• Vitamins Differ from Carbs, Proteins, and Fats in the Following Ways:
• Structure: Vitamins are individual units; they are not linked together.
• Function: They do not yield energy when metabolized. They assist in the release of energy from carbs, fats, and proteins.
• Food Contents: Come from food in smaller values. Although small they accomplish bug tasks.
• Two Types:
• Water Soluble and Fat Soluble
• Solubility affects absorption, transport, storage, and excretion by the body.

Water Soluble Vitamins

• -Hydrophilic (water soluble)
• Vitamins: B Vitamins (Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, folate, and vitamin B12) and Vitamin C
• Absorption: Directly into the blood
• Transport: Travel Freely
• Storage: Circulate freely in water-filled parts of the body
• Excretion: Kidneys detect and remove excess in urine
• Toxicity: Possible to reach toxic levels when consumed from supplements
• Requirements: Needed in frequent doses (1-3 days)

Water Soluble Deficiencies & Symptoms

• Deficiencies
• B1 (Thiamin): Disease beriberi (wet, with edema; or dry, with muscle wasting).
• B3 (Niacin): Pellagra (diarrhea, dermatitis, and dementia)
• B6: Scaly Dermatitis; Microcytic anemia; depression, confusion; convulsions
• B12: Pernicious Anemia
• Folate: Anemia (macrocytic or megaloblastic) and GI tract deterioration
• Vitamin C: Scorbutic Gums and Pinpoint Hemorrhages
• Symptoms:
• B1 (Thiamin): Heart enlargement and failure; muscular weakness; neurological disturbances (apathy, poor short-term memory, confusion, irritability); anoraxia, weight loss.
• B3 (Niacin): Diarrhea, constipation, vomiting; inflamed, bright red tongue (glossitis); depression, apathy, fatigue, loss of memory, headache; bilateral symmetrical rash on areas exposed to sunlight.
• B12: Anemia (macrocytic); fatigue, degenerationof peripheral nerves progressing to paralysis; sore tongue, loss of appetite, constipation.
• Folate: Mental confusion, weakness, fatigue, irritability
• Vitamin C: Gums bleed easily around the teeth, and capillaries under the skin break.

Functions of Water Soluble Vitamins

• Pantothenic Acid: Part of coenzyme A, used in energy metabolism
• Folate: Part of coenzymes THF (tetrahydrofolate) and DHF (dihydrofolate) used in DNA synthesis and important in new cell formation. Activates B12 vitamin.
• Vitamin C: Collagen synthesis, strengthens blood vessel walls, forms scar tissue, provides matrix for bone growth, antioxidant, thyroxine synthesis, amino acid metabolism, strengthens resistance to infection, helps in absorption of iron.
• B2 (Riboflavin): Part of coenzymes FMN (flavin mononucleotide) and FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) used in energy metabolism
• B3 (Niacin): Part of coenzymes NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and NAPD (its phosphate form) used in energy metabolism
• B12: Part of coenzymes methylcobalamin and deoxyadenosylcobalamin used in new cell synthesis, helps to maintain nerve cells, reforms folate coenzyme, helps to breakdown some fatty acids and amino acids

Vitamins associated with energy production

• Vitamin B's: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, B6, biotin, folate, and B12 and Vitamin C

Sources of Vitamins

• B2: Milk products (yogurt, cheese), enriched or whole grains, and liver
• B3: Milk, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, whole grain and enriched breads and cereals, nuts, and all protein containing foods
• Folate: Fortified grains, leafy green vegetables, legumes, seeds, and liver
• B12: Animal Products (meat, fish, poultry, shellfish, milk, cheese, and eggs

RDA for Vitamins

• Vitamin C:
• Women- 75 mg
• Men- 90 mg
• Smoker- add 35 mg
• Folate: 100 micrograms from food + 100 micrograms from a supplement (multiplied by 1.7) = 270

Fat Soluble Vitamins

• Vitamins: A, D, E, and K
• Absorption: First into lymph, then the blood
• Transport: Many require transport proteins
• Excretion: Less readily excreted; tend to remain in fat storage sites
• Toxicity: Likely to reach toxic levels when consumed from supplements
• Requirements: Needed in periodic does (weeks or months)

Vitamin A (Fat Soluble)

• Functions: Promotes vision; Helps to maintain the cornea. Conversion of light energy into nerve impulses at the retina. Rhodopsin is a light sensitive pigment of the retina that contains opsin.
• Sources: Dark green and deep orange vegetables and purple fruits. Fortified foods like milk and cereal
• Deficiency: Infectious diseases, night blindness, blindness, keratinization

Vitamin D (fat soluble)

• Functions: Bone growth, helps to maintain blood levels of calcium and phosphorus, works in combination with other nutrients and hormones (parathormone and calcitonin), calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and floride
• Sources: Sunlight, fortified milk, margarinem butter, cerealsm and chocolate mixes. Veal, beef, egg yolks, liver, fatty fish,, and their oils
• Deficency: Rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Soft brittle deformed bones, progressive weakness, pain in pelvis lower back, and legs.

Vitamin K

• Functions: Components of essential body compounds, synthesis of blood- clotting proteins and bone proteins that regulate blood calcium
• Sources: Bacterial sources in the digestive tract, liver, leafy green vegetables, cabbage, milk
• Deficiency: Hemorrhagic disease in newborns or infants and prolonged coagulation time in adults

Vitamin E

• Function: Antioxidant; stabilization of cell membranes, regulation of oxidation reactions, protection of polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin A
• Deficiency: Red blood cell breakage and nerve damage

Iron