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High school biology
Course: High school biology > Unit 1
Lesson 2: Important molecules for biology- Elements and atoms
- Introduction to carbohydrates
- Introduction to proteins and amino acids
- Introduction to lipids
- Introduction to nucleic acids and nucleotides
- Introduction to vitamins and minerals
- Biological macromolecules review
- Biological macromolecules
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Introduction to vitamins and minerals
Overview of common vitamins and minerals that are important to human health.
Want to join the conversation?
- what are the monomers for vitamins and minerals?(10 votes)
- There are no monomers for vitamins and minerals. Vitamins and minerals function as single molecules interacting with macromolecules (DNA, RNA, enzymes, cholesterols, hormones, etc). Vitamin and mineral molecules do not form macromolecules. Macromolecules are made up of many monomers. Monomers are by definition, like molecules (sub-units) that are able to bind in long chains through the process of polymerization. Vitamins do not polymerize to form macromolecules, and neither do minerals.(21 votes)
- is vitamin C better for you then vitamin A(0 votes)
- Yes and no.
They are used for different things, so for some things, yes absolutely, but for others, no.
For example, if you lack collagen, vitamin C is better, but if you want to strengthen your immune system, vitamin A is better.
(I'm no expert, so please correct me if I am wrong, but this is my conclusion :))(4 votes)
- Why wasn’t vitamin B mentioned?(4 votes)
- Probably because there are too many of them to list, but would've been helpful for someone who is unfamiliar w/ small facts about them. Such as they are also water soluble.(6 votes)
- If beta-carotene gives carrots their orange color, then does that mean that purple and white carrots are not as good for you?(6 votes)
- @- 3:52, How can minerals be inorganic? 4:00(4 votes)
- Vitamins come from living things. Vita means life in Latin. Minerals do not come from living things (Sal had mentioned that minerals are also part of geology at). 4:00(3 votes)
- What did you mean by overdose?2:05(1 vote)
- If an organism get too much of a vitamin (or just about anything) the build up can reach toxic levels and have negative effects. For example vitamin D is an essential nutrient for humans, and if a human gets too much vitamin D they can have short-term problems like nausea and vomiting or long-term problems like bone paint and kidney stones. Read more from the Mayo clinic website: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/vitamin-d-toxicity/faq-20058108(7 votes)
- At, Sal say that vitamin are also called co-enzymes. Are they exactly the same or are co-enzymes a different form of vitamin? 5:51(2 votes)
- Most vitamins are co-enzymes, which means they assist enzymes in performing their function. There are other types of co-enzymes that are not vitamins.(3 votes)
- whats scurvy? I know its a disease but what does it effect(1 vote)
- Scurvy is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C. Sailors in ye olden days used to contract it regularly before everyone figured out you can't go on two year voyages and never eat any fruit.
It's symptoms are anemia, exhaustion, spontaneous bleeding, limb pain, swelling, and bleeding gums and loss of teeth and hair. No wonder pirates always look a bit rough! Vitamin C is necessary to make collagen, an important part of connective tissues. Connective tissues are essential for structure and support in the body, like in blood vessels.
A lack of vitamin C will also harm immune system, iron absorption, cholesterol metabolism, and causes all sorts of mood swings and depression. It was a truly scary time back when we didn't understand vitamins and minerals. There are lots of great articles that go deeper only a google search away if you want to explore. Hope I helped!(5 votes)
- What about phytonutrients? How are these different than vitamin and mineral?(2 votes)
- Phytonutrients (aka phytochemicals) are molecules produced by plants. They are vital for optimal health and disease prevention, but not essential. (The biological definition of essential is very strict. Without it the organism will die soon.) To me, the definition seems a bit fuzzy as to how they are different than vitamins and minerals. I think a different classification system is being used. I found this to be the most helpful webpage. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/phytochemical
There are many categories of phytochemicals including certain carbohydrates, certain lipids, terpenoids, phenolic acids, alkaloids and other nitrogen containing metabolites. Each of these six groups include other categories.(2 votes)
- so we get our vitamins from fruits, vegetables, and organic things, but where do we get minerals in our body from ? since sal said that minerals are not organic.(1 vote)
- Fruits and vegetables still have minerals in them because only means made mostly of carbon not eatable. Also, meat, fish and nuts have minerals in them.(4 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] We've been
told throughout out lives to eat certain foods because
they contain vitamins or sometimes people might
say they also contain some minerals that you need, and so the obvious question
is, well what are vitamins? And what are these minerals
that folks are talking about? Well the big picture idea is,
that there's certain things that your body needs and
we'll talk in a second about why your body needs these things, but also, there are things
that your body needs and your body does not produce them. Body does not produce. There's a lot of things
your body needs that your body is capable of producing
but there's certain things that it needs that it
cannot produce itself. Now if these things that they need, that the body needs and it cannot produce, if they are organic, and organic is just a very fancy way of saying if there are compounds that involve carbons in them, and most molecules in life
involve a lot of carbons, that's why they're
called organic molecules. There's a whole field of chemistry, of organic chemistry which
is studying the chemistry of life for the most part. If these molecules, if these
things that the body needs that it does not produce,
itself are organic, we call these things vitamins. And some of the common vitamins
that you'll hear people talk about are things
like Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Vitamin
C, and you can further divide these vitamins based on
whether they are soluble in fat or not. So, for example, Vitamins A, D, E and K, and this is by no means an
exhaustive list of vitamins, these are fat soluble. What does that mean? Well, to be soluble means you could be dissolved in that thing. So it can be dissolved in fat. And Vitamin C is water soluble. Now the reason why this
might be relevant for you, living as an individual,
trying to keep your health in good shape, is that you do
need all of these vitamins, and we'll talk in a little
bit about why you need them, but fat soluble vitamins,
they're actually easier to overdose on, because
they're soluble in fat, they can stay in your system a lot longer, while water soluble vitamins are easier to flush out of your system. Now, with that out of the
way, let's think about some of these common foods you might see, and some of the vitamins
that they are known for. For example, right over
here you have carrots, and you might have had people tell you, "Hey, eat carrots. "It's good for your eyes." And that is true, but the reason why it's good for your eyes, is that carrots contain
something known as betacarotene, and the carotene part of
betacarotene is not a coincidence. It literally comes from Latin for carrot, and carotenes are these pigment molecules. It gives the carrot this
orange color right over here, and betacarotene, once
it's consumed by your body, it's a precursor for Vitamin A, which is essential for your eyes and many, many other things in your body. And a precursor's just a
very fancy way of saying that if you consume
betacarotene, you're body can turn it into the Vitamin A that it needs. Oranges, famous for
Vitamin C, and this isn't an exhaustive list of things
that these foods contain, but this is some of the things
that they're most famous for, and Vitamin C as we talked about
is a water soluble vitamin. It's very valuable for immune system, and in a situation where
you have a severe deficiency of Vitamin C, you could get
a disease known as scurvy. And scurvy is not too common
anymore, but several hundred years ago, sailors would
often get scurvy because they had very limited diets. They did not get fruits and vegetables, and because of that Vitamin C deficiency, their collagen, their connective
tissue would break down. So it was a very horrible
and painful disease. But what if there's
something your body needs that it does not produce
that is not organic? Well those are the things
that we call minerals. And, of course, the term
minerals, it's also used in a geological sense, but
if were talking in terms of biology, that's what we mean. And most of the typical
minerals are really elements that you will see on the periodic table. They will be things like phosphorous, and I'm just gonna write
their element symbol. Phosphorous, calcium,
potassium, magnesium, iron, and again, this is not an exhaustive list, but these are all essential for your body. As we go further in our study of biology, you will see how phosphorous is useful in molecules like ATP, the energy store. It's even in the backbone of DNA and RNA. We'll see how calcium is
useful, not just for your bones, but even for things like
muscle contractions. To send signals down
neurons, you're going to need your potassium and also sodium. Magnesium, also important
for muscle contraction. Iron, this is in your
hemoglobin, bonds to the oxygen, allows you to transport
oxygen in your bloodstream and red blood cells. So these are all very valuable. And a lot of those foods
that we just talked about that contain vitamins,
they'll also contain minerals. For example, not only do
carrots contain betacarotene, they also contain potassium,
which we mentioned is essential for things
like nerve function. Things like milk, it has
vitamins, like Vitamin D, but it also has minerals like calcium, which we talked about as
essential for your bones and for muscle function. And so the big picture here is, is that vitamins and
minerals are both things that your body needs, that
it does not produce itself, and we're going to see them
over and over again in biology. So keep a lookout for them. The vitamins as we go further
in our study of biology, we're going to see them as co-enzymes, things that help facilitate
functions of the cell, help facilitate reactions and the minerals you're going to see in
everything from the powerhouse of the cell, the backbone of DNA, you're going to see it
in muscle contraction and how bones are formed. You're gonna see it in hemoglobin. You're gonna see it in nerve function.