Truths of Nutrition: Vitamins, Minerals Digging Into Scientific Evidence
This is the over-view audio of this article. Make sure to play it and read it Chapter 1: The Essential Foundation: What Are Vitamins and Minerals? The discussion of nutrition often centers on the macronutrients—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—but the foundational building blocks of human health are the micronutrients. These are the vitamins and minerals that, despite being required in only tiny quantities, orchestrate the vast network of biochemical processes essential for life. Vitamins are a heterogeneous group of organic substances, while minerals are inorganic elements that exist freely or bound in salts. 1 A critical distinction between the two is their response to environmental factors like heat: vitamins, being organic compounds, can be altered or destroyed by cooking or heating, whereas minerals, as inorganic elements, are not susceptible to this degradation. 1 This inherent difference underscores the importance of a varied and balanced diet that...