Chapter 7: Vitamins

Water-soluable and fat-soluable

Water: B Vitamins (several, don't need to know entire list) and Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
Fat: ADEK

Grains, fruits and vegetable lack vitamin B12, while grains, meats and beans are low in vitamin C.

The disease was pellagra and the flour was enriched with niacin. Pellagra caused +3000 deaths anually prior to 1938.

1. store away from heat and light, eat soon after purchase.
2. cut fruits and veggies close to when you will eat.
3/ don't soak veggies b4 you cook them.
4.cook veggies in as little water as possible by baking, roasting, pressure cooking, etc. rather than boiling.
5. if you boil, use the cooking water for soup, etc to gain nutrients.
6. don't rinse rice before cooking (uh, gross... )

Sometimes fresh has been shipped by truck, harvested a week ago, not kept cool enough, etc. Some frozen in frozen in the field or immediately after harvest - may have better vitamin retention.

To enrich is to add more of what is already there. To fortify is to add what was not there at all, or what was there in very very low quantity.

Fat soluable vitamins are absorbed with dietary fat, found in fatty foods and can accumulate in adipose tissue.


Water soluable vitamins are easily absorbed into the blood, but the excess is excreted in the urine.

The extent to which the body can absorb and use a nutrient. About 40-90% of the vitamins if food can be absorbed, primarily in the small intestine.

A compound that can be converted into the active form of a vitamin in the body. Some vitamins are absorbed in this inactive form and then converted once inside the body.

How they are absorbed and transported.

1. Mouth: chewing releases.
2. stomach: digestion releases, some niacin absorbed in stomach.
3. gallbladder releases bile which emulsifies fat and helps fat-sol vitamin absorption.
4. pancreas secretes enzymes that aide in release of vitamins from food.
5. small intestine: fat-sol are incorporated into micelles, absorbed by diffusion then packaged in chylomicrons which enter LYMPH before going to blood.
6. small intestine: water-sol are absorbed directly into blood, but many must bind to specific molecules in the gastro system to be absorbed.
7. large intestine: bacteria synthesizes small amounts of vitamins, some of which are absorbed.

Gram = 1 paper clip

Milligram = 1/1,000 paper clip
Microgram =1/1,000,000 paper clipclip

1. vitamin combines with chem group to form functional conenzyme (active vitamin).
2. functional coenzyme combines with incomplete enzyme to form active enzyme.
3. active enzypme binds to molecule to form new molecule
4. new molecules are released and enzyme and coenzyme (vitamin) can be reused or separated.

Organic nonprotein substances that bind to enzymes to promote their activity. All Vitamin B act as conenzyme.