We asked Irina Manina, Candidate of Medical Sciences, an allergist-immunologist at the Institute of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, to talk about vitamins.

To begin with, let us recall the common truth: in order for a harmonious metabolism to occur in our body, vitamins are absolutely necessary for us. One of their names speaks for itself: vita means "life".

Some vitamins are synthesized in our body, but most of them we get from outside - from food or drugs. But what are the rules for obtaining them - we'll talk about this in detail. We will debunk the most enduring myths about vitamin preparations, and you yourself will draw a conclusion: what to eat, what to accept and how to adjust as much as possible healthy lifestyle life within your own family.

Belief number 1. A vitamin complex is better than a monopreparation

If you have been diagnosed with this or that disease and for its treatment it is necessary to compensate for the deficiency of some vitamin or microelement, then it is better to take a monopreparation - that is, a single especially necessary vitamin. Monopreparations are absorbed better than vitamin complexes. Paired preparations are possible - for example, calcium with: one is necessary for the construction of bones, the second helps the first to be absorbed.

Well, if you are healthy and vitamins are necessary for the prevention of diseases, then a balanced vitamin complex. The body will take from it what it needs, and simply will not include unnecessary substances in metabolic processes.

Belief number 2. It is impossible to get the required amount of vitamins from food.

Nothing is impossible. If you eat a varied and nutritious diet, then you get the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals. The question is, what does a balanced diet look like? This is food 5 times a day with the most diverse products, among which a significant percentage are seasonal vegetables and fruits. In the 70s and 80s, such a universal diet was formed for children attending kindergarten: during the week they were given vegetables and fruits, and cereals, and seaweed, and eggs, etc. Now nutritionists are developing a nutrition program for children, only calculating the required number of calories.

Maximum healthy diet, having the strength and time, you can develop it yourself or (which certainly guarantees a positive result) with the help of a nutritionist. He will tell you which seasonal foods rich in vitamins you can get the most benefit from. For example, in the summer it is better to get vitamin C not from overseas oranges, but from spinach, cabbage, sorrel and fresh berries.

Belief number 3. If you eat fruits and vegetables and drink supplements, an overdose of vitamins is possible

It is possible if you have almost completely switched to chemically synthesized food. This is mainly what bodybuilders do: in their diet there can be a protein shake (with vitamins), and vitamins for the prevention of diseases, and a little more vitamins - because it reduces the legs. In this case, liver damage (up to toxic hepatitis), skin reactions is possible.

Taking vitamin supplements and eating fruits and vegetables, on the contrary, is highly recommended. And here's why: the body absorbs vitamins obtained biologically (that is, from vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc.) much better than those obtained with the participation of chemical reactions. Thus, fruits and vegetables, as it were, open the gate for the absorption of vitamin supplements. For example, vitamin C is much better absorbed if you eat it with a slice of orange (lime, lemon), vitamin A will have the best effect along with vegetable oils.

Belief number 4. You need to travel to warm countries for vitamins

The metabolism of a person depends on the natural and climatic conditions in which this person was born and raised. For example, the first food that we give to our children is apple or pumpkin puree, chicken meat, etc. In southern countries, the first food for children may include avocado, banana and other “exotics”.

Since childhood, we get used to one product, residents of other latitudes - to others. Therefore, an extensive vitamin strike from other latitudes can turn into a “hit in the liver” or cause allergic reaction. Of course, this does not mean that every first tourist risks health. But when changing the diet, allergy sufferers and people who have certain problems with the digestive system should be especially careful.

Belief #5 You can only get vitamin D from lying on the beach

As you know, vitamin Dz is necessary for calcium obtained from food or supplements to be absorbed as efficiently as possible.

Vitamin D enters the body with food (it is found in the liver, eggs, fish, etc.), and is also synthesized in the skin under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. Vitamin D, supplied with food and formed in the skin, is converted to its active form in the liver and kidneys.

With age, the ability to produce vitamin D3 in the skin decreases significantly, which is why the need for it increases.

Get it right or not?

Vitamins received chemically, the body is more difficult to absorb than natural ones. And if it is written on the packaging of vitamins that each tablet contains the daily norm of a particular substance, be prepared that they will be absorbed by an average of half.

How vitamins are absorbed by the body depends both on the quality of the supplement itself and on the state of the body. If there are problems with the stomach, intestines or endocrine system, vitamins can simply “pass through” without being absorbed. In this case, the intake of vitamin preparations must be agreed with the doctor.

Fat-soluble vitamins (A, E, D) should preferably be taken with food containing vegetable oils, or 20–30 minutes after a meal, when digestion is active. Water-soluble vitamins (C, B, folic acid), which are quickly excreted from the body, are recommended to be consumed between meals.

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Medications

Prolonged or uncontrolled use of antibiotics destroys the intestinal microflora, thereby reducing the chances of absorption of vitamins from food. After a course of antibiotics, you should use probiotics, balance the diet (include all types of food in it a little). With severe weakness, fog in the head, bloating, pain in the joints, you should consult a doctor. Often a simple blood test will reveal the lack of elements that will help you make up. Heartburn medications can have similar effects, and in women, they can be caused by contraceptives (pills or stickers). In all of these cases, you may need vitamin supplements.

Physical exercise

Sports for health, strength, sports for glory, the grave. Regular exercise will help you restore muscle tone, which helps you properly metabolize carbohydrates and fats. But if you go in for sports e constantly, but impudently, in order to correct your figure by the summer or by the wedding, you can harm not only appearance but also fundamentally disrupt the processes and balance of substances in the body. Going in for sports, a person breathes more intensively, which leads to accelerated oxidation of blood sugar and fat burning. reverse side such a joyous result is an excess free radicals. They are neutralized by antioxidant vitamins, especially vitamin E. Therefore, with intensive physical activity their number should be significantly increased. Research has shown that when running long distances vitamin B6 is destroyed, which is involved in the formation of red blood cells. It is no coincidence that runners are prone to anemia. Cycling leads to a deficiency of vitamins B6 and B9. To prevent this from happening, try to do it programmatically and in a balanced way, do not exaggerate with loads. Properly brewed green tea will help increase the amount of antioxidants available to the body.

Smoking

Cigarette smoke saturates the body with carcinogens. To combat them, it is precisely antioxidant vitamins that block the effects of harmful substances on cells. The vitamin diet of a smoker should be doubled compared to the norm, vitamin C is especially needed. However, studies conducted on groups of smokers different ages and sex show that they take vitamins from food and supplements equally poorly. Nicotine, in combination with other substances contained in cigarettes, is a real recidivist in terms of metabolism. Initial studies on the effects of blue-green algae intake (the natural prototype of chlorella and spirulina) have shown that after a few months of use, the metabolism of smokers becomes more adequate in relation to substances, such as vitamins and minerals involved in digestion. But, to be honest, why fix something that can not be broken?

Elderly age

Over the years human body produces less and less gastric juice, which means that even vitamins that have been received in sufficient quantities are not fully absorbed. To cover the deficit, their amount in the diet must be increased. In addition, in order to save energy and money, older people prepare food for the future for several days, and hours are enough to destroy vitamins. In addition, older people take a large number of drugs to help cope with the symptoms of old age. See "Medicines".

Vegetarianism

By switching to a plant-based diet, many believe that they have provided themselves with vitamins from greens, vegetables and fruits. However, this only applies to water soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble - A, E and B12, for example, are found just in animal products. This means that fans of plant foods should take care of replenishing their diet with the missing vitamins. Sometimes you can make up for the lack of nuts. In any case, vegetarianism is a big responsibility, as is a raw food diet. Having decided to switch to such an unbalanced diet, you need to get on a permanent record with a specialist and do tests every two months to check the balance of substances in the body. Very often, you may need supplements or vitamins. Such people should pay attention to algae, sea kale, for example. There are also natural plant sources, peas, white beans, chia seeds, avocados, walnuts, and moringa that can be purchased as supplements.

Semi-finished products

When instead of a good juicy chop you hastily boil sausages, you not only deprive yourself of the vitamins contained in meat, but also poison your body with nitrites and nitrates, not to mention cholesterol. To neutralize the harm from such food, you need much more vitamins, which you need to take care of. In principle, constant and long-term consumption of semi-finished products, eating in fast food chains, etc. is not much different from smoking. Therefore, for advice, go to the stanza "Smoking". It is also worth paying attention to the stanzas "Vegetarianism" and "Medications".

Cooking method

Of course, grilled, deep-fried or fried foods butter they look very appetizing. But this way of cooking destroys vitamins and increases the amount of carcinogens and antivitamins in food. Less harmful frying in vegetable oil, but best for extracting fat soluble vitamins suitable for stewing with a little oil. Oil should be chosen one that does not easily go into the soaring stage. That is, the oil that can withstand high temperatures without evaporating. Ideal for this Not hydrogenated Coconut oil, in the absence of this, Canola oil can be used (very controversial). When baking not passing the 180-degree line, cold-pressed olive oil can be used.

Alcohol

Strong alcohol causes the formation of free radicals in the body. In addition, they snack on vodka, usually pickled cucumber or smoked meats, which in itself is harmful, because they are sources of nitrates and preservatives. Much more preferable is a glass of dry red wine with cheese and fruit. Natural wine contains a complex of flavonoids and antioxidants, which themselves are a vitamin supplement and weaken the effect of carcinogens. But you should pay attention to the amount of wine, besides, it should not be too strong. The dose varies depending on your weight. If you drank wine in the evening and in the morning you have weakness and headaches, this means that you have overloaded the body and this method of treatment does not bode well for you.

Lack of dairy products

Violation of the intestinal microflora significantly reduces the absorption essential vitamins so keeping it up and running is essential. Sour-milk products with bio cultures contained in them contribute to the restoration of intestinal microflora. When choosing such products, give preference to those that contain live cultures of bacteria. They usually have a shelf life of less than a week. To date, experts are not sure that milk has a positive effect on the absorption of minerals. It is known that despite the high content of calcium, many people are not able to absorb it from milk. As we age, the body loses the ability to absorb lactose, which can cause diarrhea that removes fluids and substances from the intestines faster than the body takes them into the digestive system. In case of serious violations of the intestines, it is necessary to conduct a course of special biological preparations after consulting a doctor.

Diets and drugs for weight loss

Many drastic diets, cleansings, Tibetan teas, pills, homogeneous diets, etc. lead to an imbalance in the body. Some just won't let you get enough nutrients, others remove from the body everything that it needs and does not need. The result is the same, lack of fluids, minerals, provitamins and binders in addition to slowing down digestive processes and hormonal disorders. The latter, in turn, lead to processes characteristic of the age-related organism described in the column "Old age". The effect of such diets is not very long, but the consequences of violations can be disentangled for a long time. Starting and ending such diets, cycles of drugs and allowing yourself other "pranks" you need to regularly do blood tests to check the balance of substances. Such stresses and overloads can wake up dormant destroyer genes, a tendency to obesity, brain diseases, cancer, diabetes. But almost always they cause beriberi and damage. intestinal tract, as well as destroy the microflora. Algae, broccoli, and industrial vitamin supplements may be relevant. The lack of substances can lead to an increased need for food and lead to obesity in turn.

Other types of stress

long nervous tension, pregnancy, cancer, benign tumors, menopause, anorexia, bulimia, prolonged struggle with the flu, autoimmune diseases lead to hormonal and vitamin imbalances. Often, vitamins and medicinal herbs not compatible with all of these conditions or their treatments. Therefore, you need to eat a lot of fruits, cereals and quality proteins found in chicken breast, eggs, sesame paste and legumes.

Solar "malnutrition"

Today it is fashionable to be afraid of ultraviolet radiation. We hide from the sun behind the walls of houses, a layer of anti-tank creams and other tricks. But at the same time we forget that we need sun rays on your skin for the production and absorption of a number of elements, in particular vitamin D, growth hormones, antidepressants and amino acids, as well as to restore hormonal balance. In the summer, to get the right amount Radiation is enough for half an hour in the morning or afternoon, in winter for an hour and a half, depending on the location.

Vitamins and minerals are important components of our diet. But, in addition to paying attention to the amount of vitamins and minerals taken per day, you also need to know what their proportions should be. This is important because the combination of some vitamins and minerals can interfere with the absorption of others. Also, our habits, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and excessive amounts of coffee or strong tea, have a bad effect on the absorption of some compounds.

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Vitamin absorption

fat soluble vitamins will be better absorbed if a small amount of fat is delivered to our body at the same time, so fats cannot be completely excluded from the diet. Vitamin D is also more common in dairy products rich in fat than in lean ones. Also vitamin E dissolves only in fats, so nutritionists warn that dieters should consume at least two teaspoons olive oil in a day. This also applies to carotenoids, that is, vegetable dyes that give fruits and vegetables their yellow, orange and red color. in a good way The introduction of fats into the diet is to add, for example, a little bit of olive oil to a salad with carrots or tomatoes. When preparing a tomato salad, it is also worth adding fatty cottage cheese, which will help absorb lycopene, a carotenoid found in tomatoes.

Unsaturated fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 are essential for our body. Therefore, their oxidation should be prevented, and antioxidants, that is, vitamin E, will help in this. Therefore, when we plan our diet, it is worth considering a combination vegetable oils, sea ​​fish with green vegetables, spinach, garlic or nuts.

Absorption of calcium and iron

Calcium, which is necessary for our body to better digest lactose, that is, milk sugar and vitamin D. A good source of easily digestible calcium is milk and its products, and in particular fat-containing foods. The absorption of vitamin D decreases with the intake of foods rich in fiber or oxalic acid. This role is also played by phytates contained in grain products and seeds of legumes. These compounds bind calcium, so it becomes unavailable to the body. Therefore, when planning your lunch with the above products, you should make sure that foods containing calcium are included in it, for example, drinking coffee with milk or eating spinach in combination with fried eggs is pointless.

Iron is especially important for women, children, and vegetarians. Unfortunately, it often happens that this element is not enough in our body. Iron is found in meat, but also in plants. Vitamin C and organic acids improve the absorption of iron, so you should combine, for example, meat products with cabbage and potatoes. To improve iron absorption, you can combine meat with plants that also contain iron.

Factors affecting the decline iron absorption:

• diet rich in fiber;
• use a large number coffee;
• drinking a lot of tea.

When planning a diet or going shopping, it is worth considering how to find the right balance between vitamins and minerals so that our food is truly valuable. In addition, it is worth increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables to ensure the intake of the required amount of vitamins.

Higher animals cannot synthesize cobalamin (vitamin B12), they must obtain this coenzyme from food. Animal products (liver, kidneys, fish, eggs, milk) are its main sources.

A. Transport of cobalamin (B12)

Biochemistry of cobalamin. Aqueous, or OH-cobalamin, is the precursor to two active forms, methyl- and adenosylcobalamin. Methylcobalamin is required for the formation of methionine from homocysteine; cobalamin transfers the methyl group required for this type of N5-methyltetrahydrofolate (see below) to homocysteine. Some enzymes, such as methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, require adenosylcobalamin to break and form carbon-carbon bonds.

Cobalamins are relatively large hydrophilic molecules required by transport proteins (A). During passage through the gastrointestinal tract, blood plasma, and other compartments, cobalamin binds to (1) intrinsic factor (IF), which is secreted by the gastric parietal cells; (2) transcobalamin II (TC II) in blood plasma; (3) R-proteins in blood plasma (TC I) and granulocytes (TC III), saliva, bile, milk, etc. Stomach acid releases cobalamin from food proteins. In most cases, cobalamin binds to R-proteins in saliva or (at high pH) to IF (A1). R-proteins are digested in the duodenum by the action of trypsin, resulting in the release of cobalamin, which is then coupled to (trypsin-resistant) intrinsic factor (IF). In the terminal ileum, the mucosa has highly specific receptors for the cobalamin-IF complex. TC II binds to these receptors and is absorbed by receptor-mediated endocytosis, provided pH > 5.6 and Ca2+ (A2) ions are available. The density of receptors, and therefore the rate of absorption, increase during pregnancy. Cobalamin binds to TCI, II and III in plasma (AZ). TC II mainly distributes cobalamin to all cells undergoing division (TC II receptors, endocytosis). TC III (from granulocytes) transports excess cobalamin and unwanted cobalamin derivatives to the liver (TC III receptors), where they are either stored or excreted in bile. The half-life of TC I, which serves as a short-term depot of cobalamin in the blood plasma, is about 10 days.

A vegetarian diet or cobalamin malabsorption can lead to severe deficiency symptoms such as pernicious anemia (= B-12-folate deficiency) and damage spinal cord(funicular myelosis). It takes years for these symptoms to develop because the body has a reserve of 1,000 times the daily requirement (1mcg).

B. Absorption folic acid

Folic acid/folate (= pteroylglutamic acid). N5,N10-methylenetetrahydrofolate, the metabolically active form of folic acid (daily requirement is 0.1-0.2mg), is required for DNA synthesis (formation of deoxythymidylate from deoxyuridylate). Folic acid from food usually contains up to seven glutamine residues (y-linked peptide chain: Pte-Glu7) instead of pteroylglutamic acid ","oATXN1PxqZ4"],"ro":["QrTs4AAo_lE"],"la":["GOxqfVsFNGw"],"el":["bANckLPIx2s","H51rb8VX3tU"])