Understanding Micro-Nutrients

As already discussed, now we know that micro-nutrients were named so owing to their requirement in our diet in really small quantities as compared to macro-nutrients. 

When you ask why is it necessary to learn about them ,

• Primarily it is because , deficiency of micro-nutrients may leave the body vulnerable to several diseases some of which are known and many yet to be studied
• Secondly , an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

In this post we will not talk about the ailments and diseases caused by the lack of  micro-nutrients. We will cover that in a different post considering the brevity of this post.

 Let us look at the below  depiction which classifies micro-nutrients.

Both Vitamins and Minerals are required by our body to sustain the imperative process of growth and development.Let us cast an eye over each one of them in succession. I will try to keep it lucid and illustrative.

Vitamins

Vitamins are the organic micro-nutrients which are replenished in our body through intake of food and supplements. Most of them are not produced in our body in sufficient amounts.

I would expect a little knowledge of rudimentary chemistry to make this more clear-cut.Organic compounds are those which have a Carbon-Hydrogen bond ordinarily (chemistry is all about exceptions).In opposition to this, Inorganic compounds are believed to not contain any Carbon-Hydrogen bond.

Let us now get an idea about the classification of Vitamins.

There are 13 Vitamins in all. A,D,E,K,B(8) and C.

The fat soluble Vitamins are stored with fat in our body and do not need to be replenished daily.

On the contrary water soluble Vitamins are excreted with water and need to be supplied on a daily basis to ensure proper nourishment.

Even though I reckon upon the self explanatory nature of this diagram , you can always use the comment section regarding any doubt on the same or if something stays unclear and I will be glad to help.

Minerals

Minerals are the inorganic micro-nutrients that basically originate from the earth.

Again, inorganic compounds are ordinarily single element compounds and do  not possess a C-H bond.

According to a post on wikipedia over 5000 minerals are known as of now.

Conclusively , we are not going to discuss each or even one tenth of them in this post. :D

Going forward Minerals can be sub categorized as :

• Macro-Minerals (bulk elements)
• Micro-Minerals (trace elements)

The terms macro and micro here, are totally relative in the sense that micro-minerals are needed in a far less quantity as compared to macro-minerals.

Have a look at some important macro and micro minerals and make sure you get a proper intake of each based on RDA which we will be discussing in upcoming posts.

Macro-Minerals

Micro-Minerals

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