eli5: If vitamins are things considered essential to human life, why is salt not considered a vitamin?

Question

Salt isn’t regularly considered a spice, nor is it discussed as a vitamin like A, B, etc. But isn’t it necessary in small amounts for humans?

In: 402

Answer 1

“Vitamin” is a compound word made from “Vital” and “Amino”. “Amino acids” are the pieces that proteins are made of, which in turn make up our entire bodies.

I could go more into detail how this came to be, but this is the reason why salt (which is a mineral) is not a “Vitamin”.