Nutrition: vitamins and minerals

Both vitamins and minerals are essential in the diet in small quantities. Learn about the two main vitamin groups and the major mineral elements. This ebook, Nutrition: vitamins and minerals, looks at the two main groups of vitamins: the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K; and the water-soluble vitamins, the B group and vitamin C. It also examines the major mineral elements, and the importance of fluid balance in the body.

After reading this ebook, you should be able to: understand certain minerals are required in the body and that some minerals form essential structural components of tissues; understand that sodium, potassium, calcium and chloride ions are important in maintaining the correct composition of cells and of the tissue fluids around them (homeostasis); understand that some minerals are essential components of important molecules such as hormones and enzymes; understand that the correct fluid balance is essential for normal functioning of the body; and understand that tap water, and not just mineral water, contains minerals.