List of Vitamins - The Real Skinny on Vitamins
The links lower on the page give a fairly comprehensive List of Vitamins. If you don't want to read the introductory information, scroll down and click on the appropriate one to get specific information on each vitamin's:
•value to your body;
•daily dosage;
•toxicity.
Food Sources
These are found on a separate page. A look at any set of facts about vitamins will tell you that it is very difficult to get all the vitamins and minerals you need from today’s food sources – even if you eat properly, something that most of us do not do.
See the page on Food Supply
for more information (opens in new window).
You’ll find there that we need to take vitamins and minerals in supplement form to maintain health and prevent degenerative diseases.
Which Vitamins Do I Need?
It is very difficult to determine which vitamins and minerals should be included in your daily vitamin supplements unless you are a trained naturopath or equivalent. Vitamin D facts, for example, will be quite interesting. Poor choices can do more harm than good.
The list of vitamins is quite long and the interactions with each other and with cofactor minerals and antioxidants is complicated. For example, single or even several antioxidants cannot neutralize free radicals – CoQ10 produces super anion free radicals that require Vitamin E to quench them – but in doing this E produces tocopheroxyl free radicals that require C to quench them and so on and so on and so on…
If you just can't wait until later to learn more about free radicals
click here now (opens in new window).
So for most people it is important to choose high quality multivitamin and multi-mineral supplements. WE NEED a complete list of vitamins that includes a cascade or symphony of antioxidants to scavenge free radicals, to prevent cell damage and thus forestall degenerative diseases.
To combat the ever increasing oxidation burden that cannot be avoided in today’s world we need an antioxidant TEAM that includes all the established list of vitamin antioxidants, mineral antioxidants and cofactors, flavanoids and other polyphenol antioxidants along with special antioxidants including melatonin (which decreases dramatically as we age), N-acetyl cysteine, L-glutathione , and alpha-lipoic acid.
Water-Soluble Vitamins
•cannot be stored in body – normally excreted within 1-4 days
•include C, B complex, Folic Acid and Biotin
Fat-Soluble Vitamins
•fat or oil-soluble vitamins stored for longer time in fatty tissue and liver
•include E, A, D3, and K
How Much do I Need?
This is an area of some confusion. At present three different terms are in use and eventually one should become common.
The RDA, Recommended Dietary (Daily) Allowance were established initially during WWII, and periodically revised by the Food and Nutrition Board. They tend to the low and conservative side and below the level needed for good health and to prevent today’s degenerative diseases. Initially developed for diseases like scurvy, pellagra and rickets they are woefully out of date. They are being upgraded but this only means that, because of our eating choices and problems with the food supply, an even smaller percentage of our population would meet the RDA levels.
The RDI, Reference Daily Intake, is the value established by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA for use in nutrition labelling. It was based initially on the highest 1968 RDA for each nutrient, to assure that needs were met for all age groups.
The DRI, Dietary Reference Intakes, are the most recent set of dietary recommendations established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine,1997-2001. They will replace previous RDAs, and may be the basis for eventually updating the RDIs.
For simplicity, and because it is best known, the RDA is used for each vitamin in this website. Where none is available then the AI or Adequate Intake is used
You will find lots more information in my book It’s About Health. But you can also continue to surf the 200 free pages of this website for lots of valuable information.
It's About Health
List of Vitamins
Facts About Vitamin A
Biotin - a B-complex Vitamin
Vitamin B 1 Thiamine
Vitamin B 2 - Riboflavin
Vitamin B 3 - Niacin
Vitamin B 5 - Pantothenic Acid
B6 Vitamin - Pyridoxine
Vitamin B 12
Facts on Vitamin C
Ascorbic Acid - Less Effective Vitamin C
Vitamin C Graduation Song
Choline
Vitamin D Facts
Facts About Vitamin E
Folic Acid Supplements
Inositol
Vitamin K
CoQ10 - Not a Vitamin BUT very important
Glutathione
N-acetyl L-cysteine
Go from List of Vitamins to Home Page of Secrets About Vitamins