Diets-Metabolism   [back to the Category]

Vitamins, generalities   [read the french version]

Author :   Dr Paule Nathan

Vitamins, generalities

Vitamins are essential to the good working of our organism. There is "vita", Latin meaning life, in the word vitamin. There would be no life without vitamins (some more than others). The current fashion of filling ourselves with vitamins for whatever reason without changing bad eating habits is completely absurd. And ask yourself this question; why take vitamins in such large quantities when such small amounts exist within our organism? Taking so many is certainly not harmless. Seek advice.

Energy metabolism is considerably increased due to the demand linked to the intense, repetitive exertion of ballet dancing. Nutrition must be adequate and balanced so that the nutrient intake levels (carbohydrates, fats, protein) are optimal and give the best body performance.

Vitamin availability controls the releasing and using of energy produced by cells from food constituent nutrients. If vitamins are not available, reactions are blocked because of their specific actions on carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolisms.

Vitamin requirements amongst sportsmen and women are up to ten times higher than the amounts needed by a person in a sedentary occupation.
Vitamin deficiency can change strength and performance. Moreover, vitamins can help to prevent illness. Certain vitamins are constitutive to the anti-oxidant system which reduces inflammatory incidents linked to stress injuries such as tendinitis and oedema.
Care must, then, be taken to ensure that nutrition provides vitamins in the right quantities so that requirements are covered in the best way possible.

1 What are vitamins?
Vita means life in Latin. It is, in actual fact, a result of the discovery of vitamin B1 or thiamine that this life giving amine was named, vitamin, because it made the previously incurable beriberi curable.
Vitamins are substances that the body can not manufacture and which nutrition provides as they are essential for keeping our organism healthy. They are available in very small, even infinitesimal, amounts in our bodies and they do not provide any calories
Most vitamins provided by nutrition can be used directly, others take the form of provitamins which are transformed into active vitamins in a second phase. For example, the action of the sun through the skin activates vitamin D, it becomes an active vitamin.

2 There are 13 listed vitamins;
- water-soluble vitamins are soluble in the water or the liquids contained in our organism. Nine in number, these are the vitamins that can be lost from the foods that contain them if they are cooked in water. Consequently, we recommend steam cooking as this preserves vitamins. Vitamins are reasonably sensitive to light. They cannot be stored and any surplus to requirements is eliminated daily in urine. There is, therefore, no risk of intoxication. But a deficiency is felt more quickly as there is no store. The status of water-soluble vitamins depends, therefore, essentially on daily food intake levels.
The water-soluble vitamins are vitamin C and the 8 vitamins that make up the vitamin B complex (B1, B2, B3 or PP, B5, B6, B8 or H, B9, B12). These vitamins play an important role in the metabolism of sportsmen and women.


- Fat-soluble vitamins are insoluble in water but soluble in fats. They can be stored in adipose tissue (fatty) which acts as a store. They are not particularly dependent on regular daily intake levels and are available as and when required. But this storage capacity means that oversized intake levels can be harmful if taken in large quantities over a long period of time.
The fat-soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E and K. Their role amongst sportsmen and women is predominantly structural.

3 What do vitamins do? Vitamins do not provide energy but they play a part in most chemical reactions which could not take place without them. They are involved in numerous enzymatic systems which control the biochemical actions of the main systems within our body.
Each one has its own specific role, for example, vitamin A is involved in sight, vitamin D in bone mineralization and vitamin B1 in the transmission of nerve impulses but their actions can be complementary.
They are also essential for the transformation of nutrients (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) contained in foods.
Certain vitamins, vitamins C and E and the provitamin A, belong to the anti-oxidant system. They have an essential role in the fight against free radicals (oxidation) which induce our organism to age and encourage the appearance of certain illnesses such as cardio-vascular illnesses and some cancers. They also help in the fight against pollutants (toxic products from the environment such as heavy metals, lead, cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes) and the reconditioning of cellular membranes to maintain a harmonious exchange with the exterior. For example, vitamin E reduces muscles and tendon inflammation processes.
The vitaminic system is, therefore, a complete system which takes part in the main functions of our organism, its self-maintenance and its protection.