Some will be surprised to learn that a vitamin is not a food. Nor is it so called “food supplement.” If you ate nothing but vitamins, you would soon starve! Vitamins do not provide energy, nor do they build up worn out tissues. Yet without vitamins you could not live.

Certain important chemical reaction inside the body is carried on through enzymes, each enzyme being responsible for some chemical reaction of its own. Enzymes
Are made up of a combination of vitamins and minerals, all joined together in a highly complex fashion. If only one vitamin happens to be missing, that enzyme cannot be carried out. This is why vitamins are so essential to health.

Where do vitamins come from? They are built up in plants and are found in all fresh foods. However, some vitamins especially vitamin C can be destroyed by prolonged cooking. Drying or exposure to sun and wind may also do this. Other vitamins are not so easily destroyed. They will stand cooking and boiling without being changed. But many vitamins as well as minerals are thrown away after food has been cooked. These are things every house wife should understand. Instead of pouring these valuable nutrients down the kitchen sink, she should use the vegetable water in making soups, broth, gravies, and in other ways. Then the family will get the full benefit from the meals prepared for them.

Vitamins work in various ways, and are often closely related to each other in there reactions within the body. Most vitamins do not occur alone. They are often found in pairs or groups, so that if one is absent, others may also be missing. We can only briefly sketch their actual functions within the body. Here is a list of the major vitamins and what they do.