Vitamins And Minerals Flashcards
What food source is Retinol found?
Animal products such as meat and dairy : butter, liver, red meat, whole milk.
What food sources are carotenoids found?
Colour pigments of plant foods found in carrots, sweet potatoes, green leafy veg, red peppers and mangoes.
What are vitamins?
Organic compounds required by the body in small amounts for normal metabolic function. They cannot be manufactured by the body so they are essential.
What must the body do to use the vitamins?
Convert them to their cofactors or coenzymes. E.g Niacin (B3) is converted to NADH and Riboflavin (B2) is converted to FMN or FAD.
Which B vitamins affect the release of energy?
B1, B2, B3, B5, Biotin and B6.
Which B vitamins affect the formation of blood?
B5, B6, B9, B12.
Vitamin insufficiency can be a multi- stage process, describe this.
– Preliminary reduction of nutrient stores- no symptoms
– Reduction in enzyme activity through lack of vitamin coenzymes
– Physiological impairment that manifests
- Classical deficiency syndromes
– Terminal Tissue Pathology
Which mineral is required for Retinol binding protein (RBP) and what does it do?
Zinc
RPB moves vitamin A from liver storage to tissues for utilisation.
What are the metabolic functions of vitamin A.
R -reproduction
E - eyes
D - differentiation of cells
Carotenoids act as antioxidants.
How is Retinol and carotenoids absorbed?
Dissolved in lipid in the small intestine
What are the specific therapeutic benefit of vitamin A?
xerophthalmia ( irreversible damage to the eye causing blindness)
and night blindness
Breast cancer
What are the early signs of vitamin A deficiency?
Blindness
– Initially there is a loss of sensitivity to green light, followed by impairment
of the ability to adapt to dim light, and then inability to see in dim light:
night blindness
Vitamin A come in which two main forms?
Preformed - Retinol, Retinaldehyde, Retinoic Acid
Provitamin - A variety of Carotenoids
