Vitamins - Mineral Salts - Nutrients

Most of our food consists of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. But other nutrients are essential to the body, in smaller quantities: vitamins and minerals. A vitamin is an organic substance, necessary in small quantities for the metabolism of a living organism, which cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by this organism. A functional food, also called a health food or a medical food, is a food that contains "a multitude of components, classified or not as nutrients, recognized as being capable of influencing a wide variety of functions involved in the state of well-being and health or the reduction of the risk of disease". Vitamin C is eliminated by the kidneys once it exceeds a certain threshold, and an overdose was therefore considered harmless. However, it is now believed that this elimination, if prolonged over several months, can lead to kidney stones in some individuals. This book is intended to give an overview of vitamins, minerals, alicaments, carbohydrates, lipids and proteins.