What are vitamins, and why do you need them in your healthy diet?
These organic compounds exist in minuscule amounts in food. Although the quantities are small, each different type is vitally important for good health. Every one has a different and essential role to play in keeping your body healthy, from preventing to disease, to promoting healthy blood, skin and eyes.
But what exactly does each type do, and what foods should you eat to make sure you’re getting the whole range? The best approach is make sure you eat a wide range of different foods, choosing fresh produce whenever you can.
Here’s healthy eating made easy’s at-a-glance guide to vitamins.
Vitamin A (Retinol)
Why you need it: For vision, healthy eyes and skin, and the body’s growth. Avoid high intake in pregnancy, as excess is linked to birth defects.
Deficiency leads to: eye problems, poor night vision, lowered resistance to infections.
What foods contain it: liver, dairy products, eggs, oily fish. The body can convert carotenes, contained in red, orange, yellow and dark green fruit and veg, into Vitamin A.
Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)
Why you need it: ensures good supply of energy in the form of glucose to brain and nervous system.
Deficiency leads to: the disease beri beri.
What foods contain it: nuts, pork, bacon.
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Why you need it: helps body convert foods to produce energy. Good for skin and mucous membranes.
Deficiency leads to: problems with eyes and mouth.
What foods contain it: dairy products, liver and kidney, also added to some breakfast cereals.
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
Why you need it: helps release energy from food.
Deficiency leads to: a rare skin complaint called pellagra.
What foods contain it: meat, liver, fish, yeast extract.
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
Why you need it: for healthy blood.
Deficiency leads to: imbalance of chemicals in blood, linked to heart disease.
What foods contain it: Some vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, whole grains.
Vitamin B12
Why you need it: formation of blood cells and nerve tissue.
Deficiency leads to: nerve damage, pernicious anaemia.
What foods contain it: Seaweed, meat, fish.
All about vitamins: Folate
Why you need it: Essential for foetal development. Healthy blood.
Folate deficiency leads to: birth defects like spina bifida.
What foods contain it: Liver, kidneys, leafy green veg, nuts, pulses, whole grains. Added to some breakfast cereals and other foods.
Vitamin C
Why you need it: boosts immunity, builds healthy bones and teeth, important for healing, helps body absorb iron.
Deficiency leads to: Delayed healing, lowered resistance to infections, bleeding gums.
What foods contain it: fruit and veg.
Vitamin D
Why you need it: healthy bones.
Deficiency leads to: rickets, disease of children.
What foods contain it: Oily fish, eggs, added to some cereals. Body can manufacture it when exposed to sunlight.
Vitamin E
Why you need it: Protects against heart disease and cancers. Good for skin, wound healing and fertility.
Deficiency leads to: problems with blood and nerves in children.
What foods contain it: Seafood, poultry, egg yolk, nuts, seeds, leafy green veg, whole grains, butter.
Vitamin K
Why you need it: for blood clotting.
Deficiency leads to: can cause bleeding disorders at birth.
What foods contain it: Green leafy veg.
There are 11 vitamins in total, but if you are eating a balanced and varied diet you should be getting enough of each one. That’s why it’s important to eat a good range of different foods, including lots of different coloured fruit and veg, and to choose fresh, unprocessed foods, where the nutrients have not been destroyed by processing.
