Vital Vitamins And Minerals
Vital Vitamins And MineralsVitamins are a relatively recent discovery, although their value has been guessed at for thousands of years. Over two thousand years ago, Hippocrates -- The Father Of Medicine -- recommended eating liver for night blindness. We now know it is the vitamin A present in the liver which makes this age-old remedy effective. More recently, in the 17th Century, a British naval medical officer came up with the idea of feeding sailors limes, as a remedy for the disease of scurvy, which he correctly supposed was due to the very limited diet of sailors, who ate little more than dry biscuits during long sea voyages. We now know that it is the vitamin C in the limes that combat the scurvy. At the time, the use of limes by the British Navy gave rise to the nickname for the British as "Limeys". Four hundred years on from the limes, in 1906, the British biochemist Frederick Hopkins discovered and showed that in addition to the protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and water that make up the foods, it also contained "accessory factors". Five years later, the first vitamin specifically discovered -- vitamin B1 -- was named as such by Polish chemist Casimir Funk. In 1911 he discovered the husk on unpolished rice -- helpful in combating the tropical disease of beriberi was an amine. As this was essential for maintaining vital functions in the body, it gave rise to the name "vitamin", short for "vital amine". In 1912 Hopkins and Funk joined forces to create their hypothesis of vitamin deficiency, Since that first discovery, back in the early part of the 20th century, medical science now has an impressive list of vitamins: ** Vitamin A: retinol -- from meat Some vitamins, particularly vitamins B and D, can be produced "in house", in your body. Some of the B vitamins are produced by healthy intestinal flora in the small intestine. Vitamin D is produced by the action of sunlight on the surface of the skin. But beyond those, you must obtain these essential nutrients from the food you eat on a regular basis. You can seriously undermine your health, if you don't. As the name suggests -- vitamins are vital! If you smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol or eat large quantities of sugar, you should be aware that much of the good that vitamins do will be cancelled out by your activities. For example, smoking just one cigarette, loses the equivalent of the vitamin C from a whole orange. Therefore your uptake of vitamins should be well above average to compensate. Also, if you are elderly -- even if you don't indulge in the previous activities you should increase your uptake of vitamins. The way to ensure you get the full range of vitamins is to eat a wide range of food.
Cooking to preserve vitamins and mineralsAll cooking reduces the vitamin and mineral content of food. So, to minimize vitamin loss you should cook food either by steaming or stir frying, which is done very quickly. Either method preserves the most vitamins and minerals, compared with other methods of cooking. If you've never had steamed vegetables, such as carrots, you won't believe how good they taste! Some vitamins such as A, D, E and F, are soluble in oil (liposoluble), whilst others (B complex and C) are soluble in water. This means they can easily be excreted in the urine and you need to make sure you get more on a daily basis. As the B complex vitamins are replenished by the intestine flora, you need to concentrate on getting sufficient vitamin C daily. So make it a habit to start your breakfast with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (ideally not from concentrate or pasteurized) and you will get a head start on your vitamin C intake. |