LEVEL 3 - MICRONUTRIENTS & WATER (Part 1) Intro to Micronutrients Flashcards
What does Micro and Macro mean?
Micro means small, Macro means big.
What types of micronutrients are there?
We have our minerals, which are inorganic, and then we have our vitamins, which are organic.
What are minerals?
Minerals are those inorganic things that are on the periodic table.
What are macro and trace minerals?
Macrominerals, meaning those that our body needs in greater abundance, and trace minerals which we need in smaller amounts.
List the macro and trace minerals in their corresponding section?
The Macrominerals include calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine and magnesium. Those of you with a nutrition or chemistry background might notice that a lot of those are the electrolytes, which tie into our uid intake and balance.
The trace minerals, which serve important functions in human physiology even though they are not required in large abundance, are elements such as iron, copper, cobalt, zinc, molybdenum, iodine, and selenium. There are others, but those are some of the more prominent ones.
What are vitamins?
Organic micronutrients.
What are the different categories of vitamins vitamins and how can they be absorbed?
fat soluble and water soluble. These category names refer to the way that these di erent vitamins can be absorbed into the body.
Fat soluble vitamins are absorbed with the assistance of fat via the small intestines and tend to stick around in our bodies much longer than their water soluble counterparts. Water soluble vitamins are quickly excreted through our sweat and urine, which is why we typically need to consume them more often.
What are the fat soluble vitamins?
The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K, easily remembered with the acronym “ADEK”� Once you have memorized ADEK, then you just need to remember that all the rest of the vitamins are water soluble�
What are the water soluble vitamins?
The water soluble vitamins consist of the 8 different forms of vitamin B and also vitamin C.
How often do water soluble vitamins need to be replenished?
Because we drink and urinate all day long, we have a large amount of water processing through our body constantly. Thus, water soluble vitamins need to be replenished on a regular day-to-day basis. So it is harder to overdose on a water soluble vitamin because you can urinate and get rid of the excess. However, it is easier to be de cient in a water soluble vitamin since we have such a high turnover rate.
How often do fat soluble vitamins need to be replenished?
It is easier to overdose because they stay in our body longer, and thus they are also harder to get rid of. And likewise, it is more unlikely that you will be defficient unless it’s just a consistency issue. It takes longer for a defficiency to manifest in the fat soluble vitamins.
