What Are Vitamins and Minerals and What Do They Do?
Micronutrients, also known as vitamins and minerals, are essential compounds for the proper functioning of our body. Minerals and vitamins play a key role in maintaining good health, energy balance and in managing conditions like osteoporosis, hypothyroidism, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Top Foods High in Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients, meaning we need to consume foods that provide them in adequate amounts for our body to function properly.
There are different food groups that contain various minerals and vitamins.
That’s why a healthy and varied diet is recommended to meet these nutritional requirements. It’s crucial to avoid ultra-processed foods and prioritize vegetables, proteins and high quality fats.
To learn more about this topic, you can download the free Prebiotic and anti-inflammatory foods eBook by Dr. Sari Arponen.
However, due to extensive farming practices, the quality of agricultural soil has deteriorated, causing a decrease in the mineral and vitamin content of vegetables.
In addition, food processing significantly reduces these nutrients.
Many people’s diets are based on bread, pasta and rice, but these foods have lost between 90% and 99% of their original nutritional content.
Because of this substantial reduction in vitamins and minerals, even with a balanced diet, we may still experience deficiencies in essential nutrients, such as vitamin D and magnesium.
Diseases Caused by Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can have significant effects on health, both short-term and long-term.
For example, vitamin D deficiency can lead to an imbalanced response of our immune system in the short term and increase the risk of immune-mediated diseases over time.
A lack of vitamins and minerals can result in various symptoms and signs, including dry eyes and skin, brittle nails, fatigue, gum bleeding, weight gain, muscle weakness, memory issues, higher infection risks, reduced fertility, bone pain, and specially knee pain.
The microbiota can regulate the availability of certain micronutrients and influence their synthesis and absorption.
That’s the case of vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K and minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and phosphorus.
This can also work in the opposite direction: a deficiency of these vitamins and minerals can impact the microbiota, affecting both its composition and functionality.
That’s why maintaining a balanced microbiota may help us in some cases of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
There are multiple supplements which include different vitamins and minerals, so it might be hard to choose the one that is most suitable for us. When using products like these, it’s important know exactly which vitamins and/or minerals you need, if there are any contraindications, the appropriate dosage, and their bioavailability.
Vitamin and mineral supplements can be an effective strategy for correcting deficiencies. However, these treatments are not innocuous, so their use should be supervised or prescribed by a health care professional. It’s recommended to consult with a health care professional when considering vitamin and mineral supplements.