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

Salt is a mineral in “vitamins and minerals” that are necessary for human health and life that we extract from food.

Potassium, iron, calcium, etc are necessary minerals for metabolic processes. Cell replication, enzyme production, and cellular communication use those materials.

The reason they aren’t considered vitamins is that they are present in the natural world without organic processes to produce them.