Our diet is composed of macro and micronutrients. Macronutrients are needed in higher volumes and consist of fats, proteins, and carbs. Though micronutrients aren't needed in as high of quantities, they are still important to the health and function of our bodies.
Micronutrients are made up of vitamins and minerals. Utah State University Extension assistant professor Jenna Dyckman in USU's home and community department tells us about these micronutrients and what they do for our bodies
Wynter Varner
So, professor, what is the difference between vitamins and minerals?
Jenna Dyckman
We often don't really think about what the difference is, since we just eat them in our food. But, to dive into the science, a little bit: vitamins are organic compounds.
If you Google any type of vitamin and their structure, you'll see just a molecule made up of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and maybe some other different compounds. Examples of different vitamins are vitamin C, A, K, D, and many others.
Minerals, if we think about those, are things like calcium, potassium, and iron. All of those are elements on the periodic table. If you look for them, you can find them there.
That's how I like to think about the difference between the two.
Wynter Varner
How do these vitamins and minerals affect our body's functioning? What are some examples of them?
Jenna Dyckman
Vitamins and minerals really do play very important roles in our body. Like you said earlier, we really don't need to eat a lot of micronutrients, but if we aren't getting enough, then there can be some severe deficiency symptoms.
These days, we don't see very many people in the US with severe nutrient deficiencies. Unless you're pretty malnourished or you have some absorption issues. For example, some medications may interfere with absorption of certain micronutrients.
But in the past, that's been different. Over the years, we've discovered the association between either minerals or vitamins and not getting enough of those foods.
One really interesting case is niacin. Niacin is a B vitamin, and it has an important role. It helps with cell functioning and in the process of producing energy.
The deficiency for niacin is called pellagra, and there's three main symptoms. They call them the three D's, which stands for diarrhea, dermatitis, and dementia. It can lead to death if you're severely deficient in niacin. So the symptoms are pretty severe.
Dr. Goldberger, he was looking at jails. There was a lot of people suffering from that dermatitis, which is kind of a skin rash, dementia, and diarrhea. This was back in the 1900s I think, I can't remember this specific year. They were trying to figure out what was going on.
They realized symptoms weren't contagious, and they found out the foods that were being served were not a good source of niacin.
So, just because we're not getting to the point of contracting pellagra or other severe symptoms, doesn't mean we won't face any effects.
I like to think of it as a bicycle. If we're riding a bicycle, our macronutrients, like our carbs, proteins, and fat, might be like the wheels or the handle bars. If we don't have the wheels, we're not going to ride the bike.
The micronutrients, or vitamins and minerals, are like the chain on the bike. If we have a rusty chain, we can still ride it, but it's not going to be as smooth of a ride.
We really want to make sure we're getting enough of those micronutrients throughout the day in order to have that nice, smooth ride and good health.
Wynter Varner
How can we make sure that we are getting all of those vitamins in daily? What are some general rules of thumb to diversify our nutrient intake?
Jenna Dyckman
The best advice I could give is probably just to eat the rainbow. Throughout the day and throughout the week, really try to eat a variety of different food groups at your meals and snacks. And then within those food groups, try to eat a variety of food.
So with our fruits and veggies, don't just eat bananas and cucumbers, but try to have different foods that you're eating throughout the week.
Try different fruits, veggies, whole grains, and even animal and plant protein foods. They are all good sources of different micronutrients.
