Vitamins are a group of compounds that we need in small amounts to remain healthy. Not all of the vitamins are related to one another, they are not all from the same chemical "family", and do not all have similar functions or structures. The primary link between the various vitamins is that they are absolutely essential for growth, health and life, and that we cannot make them, or enough of them, ourselves, inside our bodies. Instead, we must get vitamins from our foods.

The vitamins are divided into two categories: Water-soluble and fat-soluble. The water-soluble vitamins (vitamins B₁, B₂, B₆, B₁₂, biotin, folic acid, niacin, pantothenic acid, and C) are found in the watery portions of food. Since they are only stored in the body in small amounts, we should daily eat foods containing these vitamins. Their fat-soluble counterparts (vitamins A, D, E, and K) are absorbed from the fats in the food from animal source, and are stored in the body. Although they are found in foods, vitamins themselves do not supply calories that we can burn for energy, or fat to store for future use, or protein to build body tissues.

Although the vitamins, are a discovering of the 1900s, for centuries we'd been aware of what happens when these substances are lacking in a diet. Perhaps the most famous case of vitamin deficiency involved scurvy the scourge of explorers, travelers, and warriors who ate no fresh fruits or vegetables for long periods of time. The crusaders marching from Europe to Jerusalem in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, were often defeated not by the enemy, but by the symptoms of scurvy: weakness, shortness of breath, bones that fractured easily, wounds that failed to heal, pain, hysteria, depression, swelling and inflammation of the gums, and other ailments. The same problem later afflicted British sailors aboard ship for long ocean voyages. Often, one-half or more of the poor sailors would die of scurvy.

Scurvy was not cured until the late 1700s, when the Dutch Navy began feeding its sailors citrus fruit, and the British Navy gave their sailing men limes and lemons to eat. An unknown factor in the citrus fruit, which we know now as vitamin C, prevented scurvy. It was that simple. A microscopic amount of vitamin inside a lime was all it took to conquer the killer scurvy, and to give British sailors a nickname that has endured since: "Limeys".

Since the discovery of the first vitamin, twelve more vitamins have been identified, and their tasks explained. Let's take a look at the vitamins and their properties and sources.

Soon, we will take a quick look at the vitamins, their properties and sources.

Para obtener mayor información acerca de cómo las vitaminas contenidas en los alimentos desarrollan y protegen nuestro organismo, y nos ayudan a recuperar, conservar y mejorar la salud, te recomiendo leer mi libro

COMA MEJOR Y AHORRE, de la colección VIVA MÁS Y MEJOR,