Let's start with the basics, and build on it. At the beginning you may know some of the informations, but after a while will get a bit more complicated, so, today's post is explaining what are the vitamins. 

The vitamins are fat soluble and water soluble organic molecules (containing carbon atoms), needed by the human body in small quantities to grow and maintain health. They are essential components of diet (in a way, as the human body cannot produce them in sufficient amounts to meet normal needs), so we need to have them from an external source. If the daily intake is not high enough, having an insufficient amount ca lead to a specific deficiency syndrome, depending on the severity of the deficiency.

Do you know that not every vitamin is needed in the diet of each animal species (for example without vitamin C humans and guinea pigs develop scurvy, but dogs, cats and rats can create vitamin C in their bodies)?

There are 13 compounds or groups of compounds that are generally called vitamins (sometimes can be a family of chemically related compounds with similar metabolic activities, like vitamin E, which in fact is a group of tocopherols and tocotrienols (named vitaminers). And there is also the provitamin - a compound that can be converted by the body into a vitamin (like carotenoids being converted into vitamin A retinol. 

There are four fat soluble vitamins - A,D,E and K, and nine water soluble vitamins - C and B vitamins (B1 Thiamin, B2 Riboflavin, B3 Niacin, B6, B9 Folate, B12, Biotin and Pantothenic Acid). The fat soluble ones are stable when warmed up and less likely to be lost during processing and cooking foods, absorbed in the intestine (so everything interfering with the fat absorption will interfere with this vitamin class). Also, they are first absorbed in the lymphatic system and after that in blood, as they are not soluble in water and require specific carrier proteins to transport them through the body. They are not excreted via urine and tend to stay in the body for long time. The water soluble vitamins are absorbed directly into the blood and they can move freely, not needing any carrier proteins. They are poorly retained by the human body, and any excess is excreted via urine. The water soluble vitamins need to be provided regularly, while the fat soluble can be taken once in a while in a large amount (having fat soluble vitamins regularly can lead to toxicity, especially for vitamin A and D). B12 is an exception, even if it is water soluble, can be stored in the body for longer. 

So, from all this post, you need to remember only this: 

If you take a lot of fat soluble vitamins, it may cause toxicity and damage the body. 

Next post will be about a short history of how the vitamins where discovered. See you soon!

Yours truly, 

George

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