Vitamins (Pocket Healing Books Book 3)

The word vitamin comes from the Latin word vita, meaning “life,” and the word amine, which is a derivative of ammonia. The name was coined by the biochemist, Casimir Funk, in 1911.
The dictionary definition of the word vitamin is: “any of a group of organic substances essential in small quantities to normal metabolism, found in minute amounts in natural foodstuffs and also produced synthetically.”
One of the strangest things about vitamins is that until almost 90 years ago, no one even knew that they existed. You may ask, “If man survived for millennia without knowing about vitamins, what is all the fuss about today?”
Well, I’ll give you three reasons.
Wherever people lived in the world, they suffered from diseases such as beriberi, pellagra, scurvy, rickets, and so on. Scientists understood that the cause of these diseases was a missing factor in their diets.
As the global population grew, and agricultural land decreased, chemical fertilizers were used to augment food production (as well as the profits of farmers and manufacturers of processed foods). Processed foods and foods that are grown on chemically fertilized land do not contain the amount of vitamins and minerals necessary for the ongoing, normal functioning of the body.
Healing by means of vitamins has become accepted practice. However, the optimal conditions for enjoying a healthy life – proper nutrition containing all the required nutrients, pure water, fresh air, sufficient exercise, and sufficient rest – are almost impossible to achieve in our rushed, tense, polluted lifestyles.
In this book, I will try to explain what the lack of these factors causes, and why there is a lack – basing my arguments on the school of thought that claims that the lacks that are caused by our lifestyle and the tensions surrounding us must be supplemented with natural food supplements.
Some people think that if we eat correctly – vegetables, fruit, dairy products, grains, legumes and meats – there can be no shortage of vitamins and minerals. Research has shown that this is simply not true – that entire segments of the population suffer from a lack of vitamins and minerals. This is a major cause of the diseases that are prevalent in this day and age. It’s impossible, for example, to escape cigarette smoke, exhaust or industrial fumes, and pesticides (even if we eat organically grown fruit and vegetables). These are major factors in insufficient vitamin consumption. The way to get around this problem is by natural food supplements.
This book presents the foodstuffs that contain the components or the supplements that we need, but it is not a substitute for consulting naturopaths, homeopaths, physicians, or dieticians who specialize in natural food supplements and components. Of course, there are differences between groups of people – men and women, children and adults, adolescent girls and pregnant women – as well as between individuals. However, there are some basic rules of correct nutrition.
Certain misconceptions exist. For example, some people think that vitamins are energy pills, or food substitutes. They think that by taking vitamins, they don’t have to eat “real food.” This is absolutely incorrect. In fact, vitamins cannot be absorbed or assimilated by the digestive system without food. I hope to clarify these erroneous beliefs in this book.
Vitamins per se do not contain calories, and they are certainly not substitutes for protein or any other nutrient, such as starches, minerals, fats, and so on. Vitamins themselves are not part of the components of our bodies, and there is no way at all, even in theory, that we can take vitamins instead of eating food, and be healthy.