Vitamins are generally classified as either fat-soluble or water-soluble

Fat-soluble vitamins

Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble. The body stores fat-soluble vitamins in fatty tissue and the liver, and reserves of these vitamins can stay in the body for days and sometimes months.

Dietary fats help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins through the intestinal tract.

Water-soluble vitamins

Water-soluble vitamins do not stay in the body for long and cannot be stored. They leave the body via the urine. Because of this, people need a more regular supply of water-soluble vitamins than fat-soluble ones.

Vitamin C and all the B vitamins are water-soluble

Vitamin A

Essential for vision keeps tissues and skin healthy. Plays an important role in bone growth and in the immune system.

Sources: beef liver, eggs, shrimp, fish, fortified milk, butter, cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese

THIAMIN (vitamin B1)

Helps convert food into energy. Needed for healthy skin, hair, muscles, and brain and is critical for nerve function.

Sources: Pork chops, brown rice, ham, soymilk, watermelons, acorn squash

RIBOFLAVIN (vitamin B2)

Helps convert food into energy. Needed for healthy skin, hair, blood, and brain

Sources: Milk, eggs, yoghurt, cheese, meats, green leafy vegetables, whole and enriched grains and cereals.

NIACIN (vitamin B3, nicotinic acid)

Helps convert food into energy. Essential for healthy skin, blood cells, brain, and nervous system

Sources: Meat, poultry, fish, fortified and whole grains, mushrooms, potatoes, peanut butter

PANTOTHENIC ACID (vitamin B5)

Helps convert food into energy. Helps make lipids (fats), neurotransmitters, steroid hormones, and hemoglobin

Sources: Chicken, egg yolk, whole grains, broccoli, mushrooms, avocados, tomato products

PYRIDOXINE (vitamin B6)

Is needed for the proper function of sugars, fats, and proteins in the body. It’s also necessary for the development of the brain, nerves, skin, and many other parts of the body.

Sources: Meat, fish, poultry, legumes, tofu and other soy products, potatoes, noncitrus fruits such as bananas and watermelons

BIOTIN B7

Supports many of your body’s systems, including your nervous system, liver, eyes, hair, and skin. It helps the enzymes in your body carry out their jobs and keeps cells working as they should.

Sources: Whole grains, organ meats, egg yolks, soybeans, and fish

FOLIC ACID (vitamin B9)

Maintains a healthy nervous system.

Works with vitamin B12 to form healthy red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body.

Helps break down, use and create proteins.

Sources: Fortified grains and cereals, asparagus, okra, spinach, turnip greens, broccoli, legumes like black-eyed peas and chickpeas, orange juice, tomato juice

COBALAMIN (vitamin B12)

Helps keep your body’s blood and nerve cells healthy and helps make DNA, the genetic material in all of your cells.

Sources: Meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese, eggs, fortified cereals, fortified soymilk

ASCORBIC ACID (vitamin C)

Vitamin C has many important functions in the body, including keeping your skin, bones and connective tissue healthy as well as helping your body absorb iron.

Sources: Fruits and fruit juices (especially citrus), potatoes, broccoli, bell peppers, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts

CALCIFEROL (vitamin D)

Helps maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus, which strengthen bones. Helps form teeth and bones.

Sources: Fortified milk or margarine, fortified cereals, fatty fish

ALPHA-TOCOPHEROL (vitamin E) 

Is important to vision, reproduction, and the health of your blood, brain and skin. Vitamin E also has antioxidant properties.

Sources: Vegetable oils, salad dressings and margarines made with vegetable oils, wheat germ, leafy green vegetables, whole grains, nuts

PHYLLOQUINONE, MENADIONE (vitamin K).

Helps to make various proteins that are needed for blood clotting and the building of bones.

Sources: Cabbage, liver, eggs, milk, spinach, broccoli, sprouts, kale, collards, and other green vegetables

CHOLINE

Your brain and nervous system need it to regulate memory, mood, muscle control, and other functions. You also need choline to form the membranes that surround your body’s cells.

Sources: milk, eggs, liver, salmon, and peanuts

Calcium

Builds and protects bones and teeth. Helps with muscle contractions and relaxation, blood clotting, and nerve impulse transmission. Plays a role in hormone secretion and enzyme activation. Helps maintain healthy blood pressure

Sources: Yogurt, cheese, milk, tofu, sardines, salmon, fortified juices, leafy green vegetables, such as broccoli and kale (but not spinach or Swiss chard, which have binders that lessen absorption)

Chloride

Balances fluids in the body. A component of stomach acid, essential to digestion

Sources: Salt (sodium chloride), soy sauce, processed foods

Magnesium

Magnesium functions include helping with muscle and nerve function, regulating blood pressure, and supporting the immune system.

Sources: Nuts, legumes, dark green vegetables, seafood, whole grains, chocolate and cocoa.

Chromium

Chromium is an essential mineral that plays a role in how insulin helps the body regulate blood sugar levels. Insulin is a hormone your body uses to change sugar, starches, and other food into the energy you need for daily activities.

Sources: Liver, brewer’s yeast, whole grains, nuts, cheeses.

Copper

Our body uses copper to carry out many important functions, including making energy, connective tissues, and blood vessels. Copper also helps maintain the nervous and immune systems and activates genes. Your body also needs copper for brain development.

Sources: Legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grains, organ meats, drinking water.

Fluoride

Involved in the formation of bones and teeth; helps prevent tooth decay.

Sources: Drinking water (either fluoridated or naturally containing fluoride), fish, and most teas.

Iodine

The body needs iodine to make thyroid hormones. These hormones control the body’s metabolism and many other important functions. The body also needs thyroid hormones for proper bone and brain development during pregnancy and infancy.

Sources: Seafood, foods grown in iodine-rich soil, iodized salt, bread, dairy products.

Iron

Your body uses iron to make haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body, and myoglobin, a protein that provides oxygen to muscles.

Sources: Organ meats, red meats, fish, poultry, shellfish (especially clams), egg yolks, legumes, dried fruits, dark leafy greens, iron-enriched bread and cereals, and fortified cereals.

Manganese

Manganese helps the body form connective tissue, bones, blood clotting factors, and sex hormones.

Sources: Widespread in foods, especially plant foods.

Molybdenum

Our body uses molybdenum to process proteins and genetic material like DNA. Molybdenum also helps break down drugs and toxic substances that enter the body.

Sources: Legumes, bread and grains, leafy greens, leafy green vegetables, milk, liver.

Phosphorus

Important for healthy bones and teeth; found in every cell; part of the system that maintains acid-base balance.

Sources: Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk.

Potassium

It helps your nerves, muscles, and heart to function well, and also helps move nutrients and waste around your body’s cells. It also helps lower blood pressure.

Sources: bananas and apricots, mushrooms and spinach, nuts and seeds.

Sodium

Used to maintain proper fluid balance, muscle contraction, and nerve function.

Sources: Salt

Sulphur

Used to build and fix your DNA and protect your cells from damage. Sulfur also assists your body to metabolize food and contributes to the health of your skin, tendons, and ligaments.

Sources: meats, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, legumes, nuts.

Selenium

Is a constituent of more than two dozen selenoproteins that play critical roles in reproduction, thyroid hormone metabolism, DNA synthesis, and protection from oxidative damage and infection

Sources: Meats, seafood, grains.

Zinc

It is a major player in the creation of DNA, the growth of cells, building proteins, the healing of damaged tissue, and supporting a healthy immune system.

Sources: Meats, fish, poultry, leavened whole grains, vegetables.