WHAT ARE VITAMINS AND MINERALS –

Vitamins are organic substances (made by plants or animals), minerals are inorganic elements that come from the soil and water and are absorbed by plants or eaten by animals.

A vitamin is a small molecule that your body needs to carry out a certain reaction. Your body has no way to create vitamin molecules itself, so the vitamin molecules must come in through food that you eat. The human body is known to need at least 13 different vitamins:

• Vitamin A (fat soluble) – Retinol; comes from beta-carotene in plants (When you eat beta-carotene, an enzyme in the stomach turns it into Vitamin A.)

• Vitamin B (water soluble)
  B1-Thiamine; B2- Riboflavin; B3- Niacin; B6- Pyridoxine; B12- Cyanocobalamin;

• Folic acid

• Vitamin C (water soluble) – Ascorbic acid

• Vitamin D (fat soluble) – Calciferol

• Vitamin E (fat soluble) – Tocopherol

• Vitamin K (fat soluble) – Menaquinone

• Pantothenic acid (water soluble)

• Biotin (water soluble)