The ultimate guide to understanding micronutrients: vitamins and minerals
A good place to kick off the Health & Nutrition section of the blog is understanding micronutrients, i.e. vitamins and minerals.
I was eating peanut butter toast this morning and found myself wondering: what micronutrients am I ingesting here?
Many people opt for peanut butter toast for breakfast. And word on the street is that it’s not the healthiest breakfast choice.
But I’m determined to defend its nutritional value.
Not all peanut butter is processed or drowned in additives. I can’t digest most things on a shelf. So my jar of gold is nothing but hi-oleic peanuts and a pinch of sea salt. I’m a big fan of a New Zealand brand, Fix and Fogg.
Peanuts are rich in micronutrients, like Vitamin E, niacin, and potassium.
But why are these micronutrients important? We sure get excited about them.
Upon peeling an orange, we get excited about vitamin C.
Sunbathing at the beach, we get excited about vitamin D.
Maybe it’s just me that gets excited, I don’t know.
WARNING: long post ahead. But this labor of love is the ultimate guide to understanding micronutrients, the difference between vitamins and minerals, and why they’re absolutely crucial to good health.
Macronutrients vs Micronutrients
When we eat, our bodies receive two categories of nutrients: macronutrients and micronutrients.
Science loves to discern terms by one letter.
Macronutrients are larger molecules and take up the bulk of our diet: carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. These will have a post of their own.
Micronutrients are where nutrition is fine-tuned. A key to understanding micronutrients is learning the difference between vitamins and minerals, and their role in good health.
Understanding Micronutrients: Minerals
Minerals constitute 5% of the human diet and are essential to good health. They’re inorganic compounds that don’t often get broken down in the body.
For example, when you ingest calcium, it doesn’t get converted into anything else. It stays calcium, carrying out its calcium duties.
There are 14-16 essential minerals, depending on who you ask, split into three categories:
- Macro-minerals, you need the most of, but this is still less than 1% of your body weight. These are sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus.
- Trace minerals, you need less of (<0.01% of your body weight). These include copper, iron, fluoride, manganese, and zinc.
- Ultra-trace minerals, you need the least of. These include borron, nickel, molybdenum, and other less common elements.
Let’s break them down.
Sodium
Otherwise known as salt, sodium is essential for life and helps regulate your body fluids. It plays a key role in muscle contraction and transmitting electrical impulses in the body.
It’s well known that too much sodium is a bad thing. Ever heard of water retention? Excess salt makes your body hold on to more water than it needs, causing bloating and swelling. Untreated, this can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure). And that leads to cardiovascular and renal diseases.
High salt levels can also damage the inner lining of your stomach, leading to stomach cancer. Back in the day, we used salt to preserve our foods, such as salted fish, cured meats, and pickled vegetables. The good news is, the rate of stomach cancer is decreasing worldwide, as this study portrays. When the fridge was invented, we didn’t need salt-based preservation for our food anymore. But it’s still a good idea to watch your salt intake.
Potassium
Potassium is the yin to Sodium’s yang. Their effects are counteractive and with good reason. If you have fluid retention because of high sodium, potassium will swoop in like batman to save the day. Its function is similar to that of sodium’s–regulation of fluids, muscle contraction, and transmission of electrical impulses–and the two work together to ensure the body stays in homeostasis (a fancy term for balance).
Potassium can be found mainly in spinach, beans, sweet potatoes, and avocados (bananas aren’t as high in potassium as people think).
Calcium
The day I learned I had the most severe case of lactose intolerance possible, my nutritionist handed me a bottle of calcium supplements. The last thing I wanted was to add more pills to my pharm-arsenal and I sure wasn’t keen on broccoli every day, so I did my own research. Thankfully, dairy isn’t the only source of calcium. Personally, I incorporate lots of lentils and chia seeds into my diet, but you can also find calcium in beans, almonds, spinach, kale, and soy.
Calcium is extremely important. Not only is it the building block for your bones and teeth but it ensures our muscles and nerves are communicating properly.
Calcium deficiency (or hypocalcemia) can result in brittle bones, nervous abnormalities like muscle spasms and cramps, and depression. Getting loads of vitamin D is another good way to ensure calcium intake, which I explain in the Vitamins section below.
Phosphorus
Ah, phosphorus. The most underrated mineral with one of the most essential functions in the human body. You might’ve heard of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) otherwise known as energy! This molecule is in every single cell in your body. When needed, it breaks one of its three phosphates, releasing energy.
Phosphorus helps in bone formation, cell growth and repair, protein synthesis, muscle contraction, nerve communication, the list goes on. You can find it in anything that contains protein; red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, whole grains, beans, tofu, etc.
Trace minerals
Although needed in smaller amounts, trace minerals are important too. Below, I cover a short list briefly, in case your thirst for knowledge is yet to be satiated.
Copper
Foods: beans, peas, lentils, meat, fish, poultry.
Copper comes in high concentration in the brain. It helps in making neurotransmitters, which are hormones essential for nerve signaling. Copper is also prevalent in the liver (as an antioxidant), and in bone (for bone formation), and in skin (for melanin production).
Fluoride
Foods: mostly in water, but also in tea and seafood with edible bones (like sardines).
Fluoride is common in the earth’s crust and ground water, and is essential for tooth health. So it’s no surprise that fluoride deficiency will lead to dental caries.
Iron
Foods: meat, poultry, fish, leafy greens, dried fruit.
This is a big one. Other than in the blood, iron plays a powerful role in DNA and RNA synthesis. Iron deficiency (or anemia) is rather common. Iron enables blood cells to carry oxygen so anemia leads to less oxygen in the blood, which causes fatigue, dizziness, and weakness.
Manganese
Foods: grains, dried fruit, vegetables, nuts, tea.
Manganese deficiency is rare. But low levels have been found to cause poor growth, decrease in fertility, and abnormal bone formation.
Zinc
Foods: meat, poultry, nuts, lentils, cereal.
Zinc contributes to stable proteins, which have a million and one roles in the human body. Deficiency in zinc may result in dwarfism, alopecia, night blindness, impaired wound healing, and loss of taste.
Understanding Micronutrients: Vitamins
Now for the fun part (if none of the above got you excited).
Unlike minerals, vitamins are organic compounds which are broken down inside the body. Our bodies can’t synthesize their own vitamins, except for vitamin D, which is why it’s important to ingest them through the right foods.
Fun fact: vitamins are assigned letters (A, B, C…) because they were named in the order they were discovered.
Our knowledge of vitamins enabled us to cure some serious, once-common diseases, like scurvy, beriberi, and pellagra. Thanks, science!
Antioxidant vitamins
Let’s start with the antioxidants, vitamins A, C, and E. It’s well-known that antioxidants lower the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease (see my “What is a detox?” post for how this works). A rule of thumb is to follow a diet high in fruits and vegetables.
While you can get vitamins from animal products and supplements, they come in a different, less healthy form. To be safe, stick with the plants.
Vitamin A
In children, vitamin A is extremely important for immunity and eye development. In adults, vitamin A promotes healthy bones, vision, and phototransduction (light converted into electric impulses for your nervous system). Be careful how you ingest it. If you get your Vitamin A mostly from animal sources or supplements, you may increase the risk of toxicity and bone fractures. Vitamin A is also good for reproductive health but opting for supplements rather than the natural stuff during pregnancy has been shown to cause birth defects.
Vitamin C
Otherwise known as ascorbic acid, vitamin C is found mainly in citric fruits and tomatoes. It helps in the formation of collagen, which is an essential building block for bones, tendons, cartilage, and skin. Vitamin C will make your skin glow by improving its elasticity and fighting wrinkles and blemishes. Beware that taking too many vitamin C supplements can cause kidney stones. Instead, have an orange.
Vitamin E
Found in sunflowers, wheat germ oil, corn, and nuts, vitamin E is important for fertility. There are ongoing trials on whether vitamin E plays a role in fighting certain cancers (particularly for smokers) and improving the immune response to fight infections but we have yet to find definite proof.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is the only vitamin that our bodies can produce naturally, thanks to sunlight. This is why it’s important to get some sun every once in a while. Vitamin D helps our bodies absorb calcium, an important mineral for our bones, as discussed above. Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. Examples are tuna or beef liver, if you’re into that, but they don’t contain enough for our requirements. So put on some sunscreen and go outside.
B-VITAMINS
Vitamin B1
Also known as thiamine, Vitamin B1 was named for its ability to cure beriberi. This important vitamin can be found in yeast, legumes, pork, and brown rice.
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B2 (or riboflavin) is found in many common foods, such as milk, meat, eggs, cereal, leafy greens. So the likelihood of a deficiency is slim-to-none in developed countries.
Vitamin B3
You may have heard of niacin, prescribed with statins to lower cholesterol (read about it here). Otherwise known as vitamin B3, niacin has been linked to numerous functions. These include cell respiration, metabolism, and energy release. Niacin also promotes healthy skin and nerve cells. Our discovery of vitamin B3 led to the cure of pellagra.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is found in nuts, bananas, cauliflower, and carrots, among other things. Studies suggest vitamin B6 might help with cancer and cardiovascular diseases but it’s proving difficult to isolate its function from other compounds.
Vitamin B9 (Folate)
You may have heard of folate, the natural form of vitamin found in spinach and kale. You can also get it from fruits, grains, and nuts. Folate is crazy good for you and has been found to reduce the risk of hypertension and cancer. Folate’s ability to lower homocysteine in the blood make scientists wonder if it can also help with cardiovascular diseases, the focus of many clinical trials today.
Vitamin B12
As we get older, it’s important to keep an eye on our vitamin B12 intake, as our bodies might lose the ability to absorb it. Good sources are fish and milk. Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is important in cell metabolism, DNA synthesis, and production of blood and nerve cells.
Vitamin K
Found in green vegetables (spinach, kale, broccoli, chard), vitamin K has the important role of blood coagulation. It promotes the synthesis of a protein called prothrombin, which coagulates the blood after a wound so you don’t bleed excessively or for a long time. Vitamin K also plays a role in strong bones and some studies (like this one) found it promotes good memory and cognitive function, especially among elder adults.
Conclusion
And there you have it, folks. An in-depth guide to understanding micronutrients, and the role of vitamins and minerals.
Although significantly smaller, micronutrients are just as essential to health as macronutrients. Not only do they keep us looking young and fresh but they fight pathogens riddled in our environment today, staving off some serious diseases.
But be careful where you get them. Buying a bottle of vitamin supplements might not be as beneficial as biting into an apple. Or as delicious.
Hit the produce isle at the store and stock up.
Today’s Tunes: Harvest by Nightwish
