Welcome, here you will find vitamin and mineral nutritional health questions and answers.
So who does research for vitamins and minerals? Prestigious research centers such as the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Centers and the American Institute for Cancer Research as well as dozens of well-known universities such as Harvard, Tufts, the University of Alabama, the University of Texas and campuses of the University of California at Berkeley, San Diego and San Francisco. Plus many scientists from all around the world.
What has research looked at?
Researchers have been exploring many different aspects of nutrition the benefits and hazards of different kinds of fats, such as saturated fats, fish oils and hydrogenated fats (the hardened vegetable oils found in margarine, for example) the role of different types of fibers in reducing cholesterol and cutting the risks of colon and breast cancers and the reasons behind the fact that people who eat large quantities of fruits and vegetables seem to have reduced risk for many kinds of disease.
What do vitamins and minerals have to do with this?
As researchers isolate food components that seem to protect against say heart disease and cancer they are discovering that vitamins and minerals play an important role in providing that protection a role beyond what was previously thought. Vitamins and minerals are certainly not the only components of food that offer health benefits but they are proving to be an essential part.
What kinds of benefits?
Scientists who thought that the major benefits of nutrients were to prevent deficiency-related diseases, such as rickets, beriberi and scurvy, are learning that vitamins and minerals play far more fundamental and long-term roles in the body than anybody had previously suspected.
Specifically, they are gathering evidence that vitamins and minerals influence the health of nearly every organ and may slow or even reverse many diseases previously thought an inevitable part of aging, such as cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, impaired immunity, nerve degeneration and other chronic health problems.
High intakes of vitamins C and E and beta-carotene (the orange pigment found in carrots and other vegetables and fruits) are linked with reduced deaths from cancer and heart disease. High intakes of potassium, magnesium and calcium are all associated with lower blood pressure. High intake of folic acid decreases a woman's chances of having a baby with serious birth defects and also reduces her risk of developing cervical abnormalities that can lead to cancer.
High intake?
In general, high intake means intake that is above average relative to the general population. If most of the people in a group are getting about 70 milligrams of vitamin C a day for instance people getting more than that amount would be considered a high-intake group.
Low intake?
In general, it means below-average intake of a particular nutrient relative to the general population. You see, in population studies, scientists usually divide the people they are studying into low medium high and very-high nutrient-intake groups. The high and very high intake groups are then compared with the low intake group for differences in disease risk. From such studies scientists come up with amounts of nutrients that seem to offer protective benefits.
Research has been worldwide and has included hundreds of population studies that examine and compare the eating habits and patterns of illness among large numbers of people. These studies are designed to reveal associations between certain eating habits, nutrient intakes and disease risks. For instance, dozens of studies now show that people who eat a lot of fruits and vegetables suffer fewer of certain types of cancer than people whose intake of fruits and vegetables is low.
How many servings a day of fruits and vegetables do these studies consider "a lot"?
In most of these studies, four or more servings a day of fruits or vegetables qualifies as "a lot."
And how many servings a day of fruits or vegetables is considered a low intake?
One or no servings a day is considered low intake.
What's a serving?
This may vary from study to study, but, in general, a serving is one medium fruit, 6 ounces of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, 1/2 cup cooked or raw vegetables or fruit, one cup of raw leafy vegetables or 1/4 cup dried fruit.
How do researchers test such findings?
In addition to years of animal research, researchers have recently moved into what are called "human clinical intervention trials." Some of these studies add a nutrient to the diets of people at risk for a certain disorder to see if it helps prevent development of the disorder. Others add a nutrient to the diets of generally healthy people to see if it improves certain aspects of their health such as immune function.
Any noteworthy results yet from these human clinical intervention trials?
Researchers at several cancer centers have found that the same synthetic vitamin A-like substance used to treat severe acne, isotretinoin (brand name Accutane) helps to prevent a recurrence of leukoplakia, a pre-cancerous condition of the mouth that often afflicts smokers. And as we touched upon earlier researchers now know that supplemental folic acid a B vitamin, reduces a woman's risk of having a baby with neural-tube defects, serious birth defects that result in spinal-cord and brain abnormalities.
Anything else?
Researchers have found that vitamin Be supplements can boost immunity in older people, who apparently may need more than currently recommended amounts of this nutrient to maintain adequate body stores.
Many other studies, now ongoing, should produce results in several more years. One particular study, by researchers at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, in Tyler, Texas, is testing whether high doses of supplemental beta-carotene help prevent lung cancer in smokers who have been exposed to asbestos.
Another, by researchers in the United States and China, is looking to see if supplementing people's diets with selenium, a trace mineral, reduces the high rates of cancer in people living in certain areas of China where soil levels of selenium are low. And several researchers are investigating whether giving people at risk for colon cancer up to five grams a day of calcium reduces their risk of developing potentially pre-malignant intestinal polyps.
What happens once the results of these studies are in?
The results can help guide researchers in further studies and provide information that helps people make decisions regarding diet and supplementation. But more such studies are probably needed to clarify the roles of vitamins and minerals in disease prevention.
VITAMINS - What exactly are vitamins?
Vitamins are nutrient food components obtained from our diets that have been found to be essential in small quantities for human life. This means that if even one vitamin is missing from your diet, your body does not function normally.
Vitamins are a group of chemically unrelated organic substances. Organic substances are compounds containing the chemical element carbon and they come only from living materials plants or animals, or from substances that were once living materials such as petroleum oil or coal.
What do vitamins do?
Vitamins perform countless different functions in the body, and individual vitamins have special functions. As a group, however, most of them share in certain functions, such as the promotion of growth the promotion of the ability to produce healthy offspring and the maintenance of health. They must be present for the body to be able to utilize other essential nutrients, such as minerals, fatty acids, ammo acids and energy sources (for example, carbohydrates and sugar). Vitamins are also important to a normal appetite and digestive tract, to mental alertness, to health of tissues and to resistance to bacterial infections.
How do vitamins do all those things?
Our bodies use vitamins to make substances called coenzymes. Coenzymes are vital participants in many of the ongoing chemical reactions in our bodies that, in fact, are the very essence of life. These chemical reactions provide our body's cells with energy from food a process called metabolism. These chemical reactions allow cells to grow and divide, promoting growth in children and tissue repair in adults. They also allow our bodies to quickly build up a supply of infection-fighting immune cells when necessary. If you lack even one vitamin, you may fail to thrive as a child or be smaller than normal and may fail to develop sexually. As an adult, if you lack a vitamin, you eventually develop a deficiency-related disease such as scurvy (from lack of
All animals need some vitamins but not every vitamin that has been discovered to be essential for humans is also needed by every animal. There are however, more similarities than differences. Here's one interesting difference: Unlike humans, most animals can make vitamin C in their bodies, so they do not need to get this vitamin from food. Guinea pigs are the exception, which is why they were used as animal models for studies where humans could not be used (for proving the ability of vitamin C to prevent scurvy). Humans, however, can make vitamin D in their bodies. And some of the vitamin needs of animals and humans can be supplied from microorganisms living in the digestive tract.
What? We have things living in our bodies that make vitamins for us?
Yes. But while that fact may be startling it's not as bad as you think. Indeed, this is a healthy state of affairs. All humans have bacteria, also called micro flora or micro-organisms living in their intestines and these bacteria can synthesize, or produce, certain amounts of vitamins K, B12 and biotin, which are absorbed through the intestines. In most cases, however we also rely on food sources of these vitamins to stay healthy.
Do plants they need vitamins, too?
Most plants do not require vitamins. Some of what scientists call "lower plant forms" bacteria and yeast do need an outside source for some vitamins. Minerals are an entirely different story.
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