What Does vitamins Mean
Vitamin is a compound term formed by the Latin word vita ( "life" ) and by the chemical concept amine (coined by the Polish biochemist C. Funk ). Vitamins are organic substances that are present in food and that are necessary for the balance of vital functions .
Vitamins must be ingested in fair doses and in a balanced way to improve physiological functioning. The human organism can synthesize only a small great part of the essential vitamins; that is why it is essential to obtain them from food .
It is important to bear in mind that both a deficiency and an excess of vitamins in the body can lead to serious diseases . That is why nutrition must be balanced and based on natural foods. A lack of vitamins is known as avitaminosis , while an excess of vitamins is called hypervitaminosis .
The main sources of vitamins are raw vegetables and fresh fruits . It should be taken into account that overcooking food or preparing it a long time in advance generates a significant loss of vitamins in the products, which is why it is recommended to eat raw vegetables whenever possible.
There are different types of vitamins, which are identified according to a capital letter: vitamin A , for example, is present in carrots and broccoli, among other foods, and is very beneficial for the development of vision ; the vitamin B on the bread, while vitamin C is found in citrus fruits. Other types of known vitamins are E , the K and P .
As mentioned in previous paragraphs, vitamin deficiency represents a very worrying situation for our body. For this reason, it is essential to consume fresh fruits and raw vegetables, the most important vitamin source, in a dose of five or more servings per day. Let's look at some of the recommendations regarding cooking food to avoid loss of nutrients:
* avoid cooking at high temperatures;
* When you want to boil a food, the best practice is to immerse it in natural water and then bring it to a boil;
* Any process that you want to carry out on the food (cooking, chopping, squeezing it) is recommended to carry out a short time before ingesting it;
* It is not beneficial to remove the peel of the cereal or the skin of the fruit , since they are great sources of vitamins;
* the better the quality of a fruit or vegetable, the higher its nutritional value, so it is advisable to pay special attention to its appearance before making a purchase;
*Freezing food causes a decrease in the molecular quality of certain vitamins, leaving them, for the most part, inactive. Therefore, it is advisable to always keep them fresh.
It is interesting to note that, although a large part of industrial processes has a negative impact on the vitamin content of food, some practices can increase it, such as:
* the fermentation of certain foods, such as bread;
* seeds that are germinated for use in salads.
On the other hand, there are certain industrial processes that collaborate to reduce the level of vitamin losses caused in food; let's see some examples:
* One of the benefits of steaming rice is that the minerals and vitamins present in its husk adhere to the heart, so the loss is not so significant when peeling it. It is important to note that paddy rice has an average of 5 times more vitamin B1, among others, than peeled varieties.
* The sterilization process known as ultra-pasteurization or uperization (UHT) has the purpose of reducing the amount of microorganisms found in products such as fruit juices, preserving their vitamin content to the maximum, and eliminating those enzymes that are responsible for destroying the nutrients.