As the holidays loom closer and you find yourself worn down thanks to social commitments and holiday-related stress, it's more important than ever to take a good multivitamin. But what makes a multivitamin effective? Here are some fun facts about multivitamins.
About 40 vitamins and minerals essential to life must be obtained from diet or supplementation— the human body cannot synthesize enough to meet its needs.
Vitamins are essential, organic, (non-mineral) molecules required by the body as nutrients. Minerals are single elements, 16 of which are essential to the human body.
There are water-soluble vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins, requiring water or fat respectively for absorption into body tissues. Water-soluble vitamins include Vitamin C and all B vitamins, each of which acts in aiding specific chemical reactions in the body. Fat-soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D, E, and K, which play very specific roles in the maintenance and repair of the body cells and tissues.
Excess water-soluble vitamins are excreted in urine. Excess fat-soluble vitamins are not, so over-saturation could be toxic.
The body needs 100mg or more per day of major or macro-minerals, such as calcium, potassium, sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfur. The body needs only "trace" amounts of micro-minerals such as iron, zinc, fluoride, copper, and manganese.
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