What are vitamins, really? I mean molecularly, physically, how do they differ, who discovered they exist and how, etc.
In: Biology
Vitamins are organic molecules that we need in our diet in small/trace amounts that assist with various bodily functions. Other than that, there is not much in common between the vitamins. Dietary minerals are kind of like vitamins except they aren’t organic molecules, but elements/ions like calcium, potassium, magnesium. There are also a few things that pretty much fit the definition of a vitamin, but for some reason aren’t considered one, like choline.
The rest of the things we need in our diet, we need in much larger amounts – water, carbs, protein, and fats. These are collectively called macronutrients or macros for short.
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