Different types of vitamins are a mandatory part of a well-balanced diet. They are essential micronutrients that the human body needs in small quantities.
The main role of vitamins is to serve as coenzymes in a variety of metabolic reactions, and an inadequate intake can lead to specific deficiencies.
All food sources have some amount of water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. By now developed dietary reference intakes of vitamins help to plan diets.
Two types of vitamins are fat soluble (A, D, E, and K) and water soluble (B and C).
The main difference between fat soluble and water soluble vitamins are in an ability of the body to store them. Fat soluble vitamins eliminate from the body at a much more slow pace than water soluble.
The knowledge of such reference value as tolerable upper intake level can help to assess vitamin intakes and prevent their toxic effects.
Another name for vitamin C is ascorbic acid.
The ascorbic acid name is a derivative of a- (meaning "no") and scorbutus (scurvy).
The human being is one of the few members of the animal kingdom that can not synthesize vitamin C.
Vitamin B1 is also known as thiamine belongs to water-soluble vitamins of B complex.
In the human body about 80% of thiamin are presented in the form of thiamin diphosphate (TDP).
Vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, refers to water-soluble B vitamins.
Depending on the source, from which it was derived, another names for vitamin B2 are:
