KIN275 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Vitamin A Deficiency, Bioavailability, B Vitamins
11 Feb 2020
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Document Summary
Kin 275: unit 7: water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Vitamins are essential, organic, non-caloric nutrients needed in the diet in small amounts. They help promote and regulate body processes necessary for growth, reproduction, and general maintenance of health (see figure below). Almost all foods we consume contain more than one vitamin. In the modern diet, we get vitamins from food, beverages, supplements, and enriched and fortified foods. Fortification: the process of adding nutrients to foods where they are not naturally found. For example, the addition of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, iron and folic acid to white rice. Despite the variety of options for obtaining vitamins, it is still possible, and common to consume too little or too much. When a vitamin in our diet is consistently lacking, deficiency symptoms will occur. The small intestine is the primary site for vitamin absorption. A term you will see come up again in unit 9, is bioavailability.
