Vitamins and Fruits: Types, Benefits, and Deficiencies
Vitamins and Fruits: A Nutritional Overview
The term “vitamins” was coined in 1912 by Casimir Funk to describe essential food accessory factors necessary for life.
Fat-Soluble Vitamins
A, D, E, K
Water-Soluble Vitamins
B1, B2, B6, B12, C, niacin, biotin, folic acid, pantothenic acid.
Fruits: An Edible Delight
Fruits are edible products obtained from cultivated or wild plants.
Types of Fruits
- Stone Fruit: Peach
- Pome Fruit: Pear and apple
- Grains: Fig and strawberry
- Fresh Fruit: Consumed immediately or within a few days
- Dried Fruit: Raisins or dried apricots
- Citrus: Lime, orange
- Tropical Fruit: Banana, coconut, kiwi, pineapple
- Forest Fruit: Raspberry, blackberries, and sloes
- Nut: Almond, walnut, and chestnut
Based on the ripening process, fruits are classified into:
- Climacteric: Exhibit a sharp climacteric rise. Examples: apple, pear, banana, peach, cherimoya.
- Non-Climacteric: Show a slow and attenuated climacteric rise. Examples: orange, lemon, mandarin, pineapple, grape, melon, strawberry.
Vitamin Content in Fruits
- Rich in Vitamin C: (50 mg/100g) Citrus fruits, melon, strawberries, and kiwi.
- Rich in Vitamin A: Rich in carotenoids: apricot, peach, and plum.
Ethylene is a chemical compound that triggers fruit maturation. Controlling its production is key to preservation. Maturation can be influenced by adjusting levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, ethylene, and temperature.
Onion contains disulfide dipropyl, a substance that causes tearing.
Dietary fiber includes cellulose and pectin.
Key Vitamins and Their Functions
Vitamin A
- Function: Maintains and repairs body tissues, involved in bone growth, produces visual purple for night vision.
- Deficiency: Night blindness, conjunctival xerosis, dry, flaky skin.
- Sources: Liver, milk, eggs, meat, cod liver oil.
Vitamin D
- Function: Involved in the absorption and utilization of calcium and phosphorus for bone and teeth mineralization, regulates blood calcium levels.
- Deficiency: Rickets in children, osteomalacia in adults, pink rib, thoracic deformity.
- Source: Found in animals as cholecalciferol. Also found in egg yolk, fish liver oil, cheese, butter, fortified milk. Activated by sun exposure.
Vitamin K
- Function: Essential cofactor for carboxylase, necessary for prothrombin synthesis and other coagulation factors.
- Deficiency: Related to poor lipid absorption or destruction of intestinal flora by antibiotic therapy.
- Sources: Spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts.
Vitamin E
- Function: Prevents hemolysis, maintains sexual fertility, protects cell membranes with its antioxidant action.
- Deficiency: Malabsorption and abnormal lipid transport, anemia, dermatitis in children.
- Source: Vegetable oils (sunflower, corn, cotton).
Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)
- Function: Vital coenzyme for tissue respiration, required for oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetyl CoA.
- Deficiency: Dry beriberi (mental dysfunction, muscle wasting), wet beriberi (edema), abolished reflexes.
- Sources: Whole grains (wheat, oats, barley), pulses (beans, lentils), pork, veal liver.
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
- Function: Formation of antibodies and red blood cells, necessary for normal eye function.
- Deficiency: Headaches and mucosal disturbances, red tongue.
- Source: Milk, eggs, fish, green vegetables.
Niacin (Nicotinic Acid and Nicotinamide)
- Function: Reduces cholesterol, glycogen synthesis, reduction of sexual hormones.
- Deficiency: Pellagroid dermatosis, grooves in the tongue, papillary atrophy.
- Source: Beef, fish, eggs, poultry.
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine, Pyridoxal, and Pyridoxamine)
- Function: Formation of antibodies and hemoglobin, involved in DNA and RNA synthesis.
- Deficiency: Dermatitis, acne, arthritis.
- Source: Beef, pork, wheat, oats, milk.
Folate (Folic Acid)
- Function: Formation and maturation of red and white blood cells, formation of DNA and RNA.
- Deficiency: Megaloblastic anemia, glossitis, gastrointestinal disturbances.
- Source: Meat, liver, spinach, lettuce, wheat, peanuts.