A well balanced diet helps you maintain optimal health. Here are a few important vitamins you should consume regularly in right quantity.
Eating a well balanced diet can help you maintain a healthy diet
Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, people have been looking at healthier eating practices. Eating a well balanced diet is, perhaps, the answer that you are looking for. However, keeping first things first, let's begin with exploring the basic, i.e., important vitamins that you should add to your daily diet.
You require several essential vitamins -A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, C, D, E, K, -and different vitamins play different roles in your body. A person requires a different amount of each. Furthermore, these are either soluble in fat or water. While vitamins A, D, E, and K are absorbed in the presence of dietary fat, vitamins B and C are water-soluble. Your body stores the former ones for days and months, whereas the latter ones are flushed out via urine.
Vitamin A: It is also known as Retinol. It is important for vision (eye health), immune system, and reproduction. It helps your heart, lungs, kidneys, and other organs to function properly. The amount that you need in your diet completely depends on your age and sex.
Vitamin B1: It is also known as Thiamin. It helps the cells to change carbohydrates into energy. The main function of carbohydrates is to provide energy for the body, especially the brain. It also plays a significant role in muscle contraction and the conduction of nerve signals.
Vitamin B2: It is also known as Riboflavin. It is essential for the growth of your body. It also helps in the production of red blood cells.
Vitamin B3: It is also known as Niacin/Niacinamide. Almost every part of your body needs it to function rightly. It helps to lower the cholesterol levels in your body, ease arthritis, and boost brain function.
Vitamin B5: It is also known as Pantothenic acid. It is vital for energy metabolism.
Vitamin B6: It is also known as Pyridoxine. It is necessary for proper cell function, the creation of blood cells, and keeping the cells healthy.
Vitamin B7: It is also known as Biotin. It enables the body to contribute to keratin, which is a structural protein in the skin, hair, and nails.
Vitamin B9: It is also known as Folic acid. It is the synthesis of RNA and DNA and is crucial in helping rapid cell division and growth.
Vitamin B12: It is also known as Cyanocobalamin. It is very important for a healthy nervous system as it helps in the making of DNA and the genetic material in all of your cells.
Vitamin C: It is also known as Ascorbic acid. It repairs all the body tissues and is involved in the formation of collagen, absorption of iron, healing of wounds, and bone formation.
Vitamin D: It is also known as Ergocalciferol. It regulates the amount of calcium and phosphate in your body for the healthy mineralization of bones.
Vitamin E: It is also known as Tocopherol. It keeps the immune system strong against all the viruses and bacterias, and also helps the body to use vitamin K.
Vitamin K: It is also known as Phylloquinone. Your body needs it for the clotting of blood so that your wounds can heal.
Summing up
Right from shoring up bones, healing injury, and bolstering your immune system to converting food into energy, and repair cellular damage, each vitamin has many different roles to perform in the body.
To anyone who still needs a reminder today: Take your vitamins!
(Rubaina Adhikari is a Dietitian)
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