Posts Tagged ‘vitamins’

Physiology of nutrition: vitamins

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Another important part of the diet are the vitamins, biologically complex structures that don’t provide any calories. Together with micronutrients minerals are defined, because the every day requirement of an organism is low, in the order of milligrams or even micrograms.
The role of vitamins is essential because they help in every way that limitless chemical reactions, each of which may spontaneously occur only to a limited extent and in a long timeframe, in lieu you play and repetition in the space of a millisecond. This is made feasible only by the presence of particular proteins, enzymes that act as biological catalysts, molecules are the guide of all the chemical reactions that underlie life.

These enzymes, however, require to run a non-protein called “coenzyme”, which in most cases consists of the active type of vitamin. Vitamins are divided according to the mode of absorption in overweight soluble (Vitamin (A – D – E – K) and water-soluble (Comp B – Biotin – Pantothenic Acid – C).

In conclusion, the vitamins, although very useful for a giant range of biological processes, are needed in minute amounts. Normally present in a balanced and varied diet, however. The hypervitaminosis due to excessive intake of fat-soluble vitamins may cause poisoning. I won’t deal in detail and analytically the vitamins, the subject is giant, for those interested / or topic suggestion: the whole book of vitamins.