Vitamins

Two posts back-to-back??  Whoa!  No, I'm not made of free time - that's hardly the case.  Yesterday's post was written several weeks ago, I just finally had the courage to post it yesterday... and I wrote today's post about a week or so ago to get a head-start.  I haven't had much free time since!  Before I dive into this post, though, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who read yesterday's post for not pouring sympathy on me - that's not what I want and not why I wrote it, so I really appreciate that everyone picked up on that.  I was aiming for shining some light for others in similar experiences, and it sounds like I may have accomplished that for some, and I'm really glad.

Today we're getting back to the theme of this blog - natural health choices - and this is a popular question!

This has been the topic of the year so far when it comes to questions people ask me.  Granted the year is only a few weeks old, but still.  It’s come up quite a bit!  More and more people are wanting to make healthier lifestyle choices, but not many know where to start.  Except for vitamins – that’s something we all have been told we need to take, and something everyone is fairly familiar with.  So I’ve been asked about them a lot – what to take, how much to take, etc.

But what are vitamins, anyway?  If someone asked you that right now, how would you respond?

Hmm… well, I think all I would have been able to come up with is, “They’re something our bodies need to stay healthy.”  But why?  How?  Where do they come from?  Are we getting enough?  Are some more important than others?

So I delved into this topic a bit deeper.  There are a lot of branches to follow on it, too!  So I’ve decided to write a series.  Today I’ll tell you about what vitamins are in general, and then each post after that will target a specific one.  Then later, when you’re thinking, “Man, sure would be nice to take something that would lift this mental fog, what was it that Jami’s blog said is good for that?” you can simply go back and look up Vitamin B!  If you’re getting enough vitamin B to remember that, anyway… ;-)

But I’ll get there in future posts.  Right now, let’s focus on what vitamins are in the first place.

To quote Wikipedia:

A vitamin is an organic compound required by an organism as a vital nutrient in limited amounts.  An organic chemical compound (or related set of compounds) is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet.

So basically we all require vitamins as important parts of healthy and complete nutrition, and we get them through our diet because our bodies can’t produce it on their own.  Did you know most animals can create their own vitamin C in their bodies, without having to consume it through their diet?  Too bad we can’t, since it’s so beneficial to a healthy immune system!

So where do we get vitamins?  Well, each vitamin is different, and currently there are thirteen different vitamins that are recognized.

Vitamins are classified by their biological and chemical activity, not their structure.  Thus, each “vitamin” refers to a number of vitamer compounds that all show the biological activity associated with a particular vitamin.

Say what??  So “vitamin” is kind of an umbrella term, and there are a lot of different chemical compounds that behave differently (or offer us different kinds of benefits) and are each grouped under a generic alphabetic category: Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, and so on.  Some act like hormones, some regulate cell or tissue growth, some act as antioxidants, and most of them help enzymes catalyze metabolism.

These all sound pretty important!  So where do they come from, and how much do we need to be healthy?

Well, that’s where this series is going to come in handy.  I’ve decided to address each one individually and you can decide for yourself if you think you’re lacking in certain ones or not.

Stay tuned!