“Take Your Vitamins”!  How many times in your life have you heard those three words?  Thousands I’ll bet.  If you don’t hear it from a loved one, you will hear it on the TV or Radio.  A multibillion industry has been built around those three words.  The real question should seem to be:  Do you need to take your vitamins?  The correct answer will be ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or anything in-between!   

Vitamins are defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as: “Any of various fat soluble or water-soluble organic substances essential in minute amounts for normal growth and activity of the body and obtained naturally from plant and animal foods”.  

“Water-soluble” means that the vitamin is dissolved and carried away by water.  Water-soluble vitamins are easily destroyed by normal food storage and preparation.  Washing fruits and vegetables may wash away some vitamins on the surface of the vegetable, but cooking the food item will destroy substantially more of the vitamins.  This is partially due to the food being exposed to water for a longer period of time and the temperature of the water which increases the speed of the vitamin destruction.  When foods are boiled, the food is normally cut into small pieces for more rapid cooking, but this increases the surface area of the food that is exposed to the water.  More vitamins are washed into the water.  For maximum vitamin intake, fruits and vegetables should be eaten raw, but other factors such as digestibility and flavor enhancement have mandated cooking of some vegetables.   

Water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body.  This fact makes it important that you eat the recommended amounts daily.  Luckily, the recommended amounts are very small.  Eating a normal well balanced diet will supply more than enough water-soluble vitamins on a daily basis.  Since these vitamins are not stored, where do they go?  The excess vitamins are processed into urine by your kidneys and excreted.  Kidney fatigue is the big concern for those people taking mega doses of the water-soluble vitamins. The water-soluble vitamins are: Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Biotin, Vitamin B12, Folate and Vitamin C.      

The Fat Soluble vitamins are Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K.  These vitamins are dissolved by fat and carried throughout the body.  When the various chemical reactions in your body have enough of the fat soluble vitamins for the present time, the vitamins are stored in the liver for future needs.  This storage ability can lead to problems with too much of the vitamin causing toxicity except for Vitamin K which has no known reactions.  Science has established upper levels of the daily safe amounts.  Toxicity can lead to many symptoms including nausea, irritability, blurred vision, and at extremes, kidney damage. 

There are many factors that make up the individual’s daily vitamin requirements.  One recommendation does not fit all people.  Age, pregnancy, lactation, general health and disease states all affect the individual’s requirement.  To learn more about vitamins click on www.ext.colostate.edu or ask your physician or the licensed dietitians at Hill Nutrition Associates, Inc. 772-220-8058 or www.EatRightHNA.com