Micronutrients and Phytochemicals

Functional Roles of Micronutrients

• Enzymes, coenzymes, and cofactors
• Fluid and electrolyte balance
• Antioxidant systems
• Building bones
• Energy metabolism
• Blood health

Can Food Be Medicine?

Examples:

Scurvy: fatigue, bleeding gums, bruising

• a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by swollen bleeding gums and the opening of previously healed wounds, which mainly affected poorly nourished sailors until the end of the 18th century.
• 1753, James Lind, a British Navy physician found citrus fruit prevents disease

Rickets: bone disease in children

• 1922, cod liver oil an effective treatment

Vitamin D: promotes the body’s absorption of calcium and phosphorus

• Extreme or prolonged lack of vitamin D makes it difficult to maintain proper calcium and phosphorus levels in bones, which can cause rickets.
• Vitamins and minerals work together to perform various physiological functions

Chlorosis: green skin color, weakness

• 1700’s Physician Sydenham prescribed, “mineral water with the Iron”

Vitamins

Vitamins: carbon-containing substances needed in small amounts by the body

• Vitamin content is most significant when a fruit or vegetable is ripe
• Essential: can’t be synthesized by the body
• Absence leads to a deficiency that can be cured if the vitamin is resupplied in time
• Avoid intakes over the Upper Level (Megadose)

Fat Soluble Vitamins:

• Vitamin A: Vision, Reproduction, Bone Health, Immune System
• Vitamin D: Strengthens Bones, Calcium Absorption
• Vitamin E: Immune System
• Vitamin K: Blood Clotting, Bone Health
• Absorbed with dietary fat
• Anything interfering with fat absorption will impair fat soluble absorption

Fat Soluble Vitamins: Deficiencies

Vitamin-A: Night blindness, Dry eyes, Rough skin, Slower bone growth & Improper tooth development

Vitamin-D: Cancer, Rickets & Softening of the bones

Vitamin-E: Muscular weakness and Neurological Issues

Vitamin-K: Blood clotting and Reduces the bone density

Water Soluble Vitamins & Choline:

• Thiamin (B1)

• Riboflavin (B2)

• Niacin (B3, PP)

• Pantothenic acid (B5)

• Biotin (B7, H)

• Pyridoxine (B6)

• Folate (folic acid, B9)

• Cobalamin (B12)

• Vitamin C

• Absorbed primarily in the small intestine

• Relatively high bioavailability

• Transported to the liver via portal vein & distributed to body tissues

• Water-soluble vitamins are particularly susceptible to destruction by heat, light, air exposure, cooking in water, and alkalinity

  

Vitamin Toxicity

• Vitamin toxicity is most frequently from supplemental sources, not foods.
• Toxicity by vitamin A most frequently observed.

Symptoms of Vitamin A toxicity:

• Dry, itchy skin
• Headache
• Nausea
• Blurred vision
• Can cause severe birth defects

Minerals

Minerals: Individual chemical elements that can’t be broken down further

• Majority of minerals absorbed in the small intestine
• Higher fiber diets can lower the absorption of iron and zinc
• Vitamin C intake increases iron absorption
• Stored in various tissues
• Some minerals remain in the bloodstream
• Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and fluoride stored in bone
• Iron, copper, and zinc are stored in the liver
• Others are stored in muscle tissue, organs, glands

Essential when:

• Dietary inadequacy causes physiological or structural abnormality
• An addition to our diet reinstates health

Major minerals:

• Sodium
• Potassium
• Chloride
• Calcium
• Phosphorus
• Magnesium
• Sulfur

Trace minerals:

• Iron
• Zinc
• Selenium
• Iodide
• Copper
• Fluoride
• Chromium
• Manganese
• Molybdenum

Ultratrace minerals:

• Arsenic
• Boron
• Nickel
• Silicon
• Vanadium

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