Minerals provide how many calories

When deciding what to eat, check food labels and pick items that are high in vitamins and minerals. For example, when choosing drinks, you'll find that a glass of milk is a good source of vitamin D, calcium, phosphorous, and potassium. A glass of soda, on the other hand, doesn't have any vitamins or minerals. You can also satisfy your taste buds without sacrificing nutrition while dining out : vegetable pizzas or fajitas, sandwiches with lean cuts of meat, fresh salads, and baked potatoes are just a few delicious, nutritious choices.

If you're a vegetarian , you'll need to plan carefully for a diet that includes the vitamins and minerals you need. The best sources for the minerals zinc and iron are meats, fish, and poultry. But you can get these from dried beans, seeds, nuts, and leafy green vegetables like kale.

Vitamin B12 is important for making red blood cells and keeping nerves working well. It is found only in animal products. If you don't eat meat, you can get vitamin B12 from eggs, milk and other dairy foods, and fortified breakfast cereals. Vegans vegetarians who eat no animal products at all, including dairy products may need to take vitamin B12 supplements. Lots of people wonder if they should take vitamin or mineral supplements.

If your diet includes a wide variety of foods — including whole-grain products, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, nuts, seeds, eggs, and meats — you probably get the vitamins and minerals your body needs. There are many supplements on the market, and of course their makers want you to buy them.

Beware of unproven claims about the benefits of taking more than recommended amounts of any vitamin or mineral. Healthy teens usually don't need supplements if they eat a well-rounded diet. Most people get some level of vitamin D through exposure to sunlight. However, using sunscreen will decrease your exposure to vitamin D.

It is also difficult to get enough vitamin D through diet alone because there are not a lot of food choices rich in vitamin D. In fact, some primary food sources of vitamin D come from foods that have added vitamin D called fortified foods. Vitamin E is an antioxidant, which is a nutrient that helps fight damage to the cells in the body. Adults need 15 milligrams of vitamin E per day. Quick Tip: A small handful of almonds provides half of the daily recommended amount of vitamin E.

Not getting the vitamins and minerals can have serious consequences for your health. A general lack of nutrients can lead to malnutrition. This is sometimes easier to recognize and to treat. A lack of even one specific vitamin or mineral is harder to diagnose but can be just as dangerous. Some vitamin deficiencies can even be life-threatening. Having too much of some vitamins in your system can also be dangerous. For this reason, it is very important to talk your doctor before you start taking any supplements.

This is especially important if you are pregnant or have health conditions. The symptoms of vitamin deficiency vary. Some deficiencies have no symptoms at all. In general, if you have any of these symptoms, you should contact your doctor:. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, health.

Last Updated: August 3, This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this subject. What you eat is closely connected to the amount of sugar in your blood. The right food choices will…. Dietary supplements are any substances you take to improve your health or wellness.

This includes vitamins, minerals, and herbs. Every packaged, or processed, product should have a label called a nutrition facts label. Visit The Symptom Checker. Read More. Nutrition Tips for Kids. Preventing Malnutrition in Older Adults. Diabetes and Nutrition. Antioxidants: What You Need to Know. Calcium: What You Need to Know. In addition to energy storage, lipids serve as cell membranes, surround and protect organs, aid in temperature regulation, and regulate many other functions in the body.

Proteins are macromolecules composed of chains of subunits called amino acids. Amino acids are simple subunits composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The food sources of proteins are meats, dairy products, seafood, and a variety of different plant-based foods, most notably soy. Proteins provide structure to bones, muscles and skin, and play a role in conducting most of the chemical reactions that take place in the body.

Scientists estimate that greater than one-hundred thousand different proteins exist within the human body. There is one other nutrient that we must have in large quantities: water. Water does not contain carbon, but is composed of two hydrogens and one oxygen per molecule of water.

Water does not provide any Calories. More than 60 percent of your total body weight is water. Without it, nothing could be transported in or out of the body, chemical reactions would not occur, organs would not be cushioned, and body temperature would fluctuate widely. On average, an adult consumes just over two liters of water per day from food and drink. Alcoholic drinks are a source of Calories even though they are generally not considered nutrients. Alcohol itself provides approximately 7 Calories for every gram consumed.

In addition to alcohol, many alcoholic drinks contain carbohydrate as well. Micronutrients are nutrients required by the body in lesser amounts, but are still essential for carrying out bodily functions. Micronutrients include all the essential minerals and vitamins.

In contrast to carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, micronutrients do not contain Calories. This is often confusing because most people have heard how tired a person will feel if they are low in a micronutrient such as Iron. The tiredness can be explained by the fact that, micronutrients assist in the process of making energy by being part of enzymes i.

Enzymes catalyze chemical reactions in the body and are involved in many aspects of body functions from producing energy, to digesting nutrients, to building macromolecules. Micronutrients play many roles in the body. Minerals are solid inorganic substances that form crystals and are classified depending on how much of them we need.

Trace minerals, such as molybdenum, selenium, zinc, iron, and iodine, are only required in a few milligrams or less and macrominerals, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and phosphorus, are required in hundreds of milligrams. Many minerals are critical for enzyme function, others are used to maintain fluid balance, build bone tissue, synthesize hormones, transmit nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles, and protect against harmful free radicals. The thirteen vitamins are categorized as either water-soluble or fat-soluble.

The water-soluble vitamins are vitamin C and all the B vitamins, which include thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyroxidine, biotin, folate and cobalamin.

The fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E, and K. Vitamins are required to perform many functions in the body such as making red blood cells, synthesizing bone tissue, and playing a role in normal vision, nervous system function, and immune system function. Vitamin deficiencies can cause severe health problems. For example, a deficiency in niacin causes a disease called pellagra, which was common in the early twentieth century in some parts of America. Other vitamins were also found to prevent certain disorders and diseases such as scurvy vitamin C , night blindness vitamin A , and rickets vitamin D.

Though this is only Chapter 1, you have already seen the words "Calories" and "Energy" used several times. In everyday life you have probably heard people talk about how many Calories they burned on the treadmill or how many Calories are listed on a bag of chips.

Calories, are a measure of energy. It takes quite a lot of Calories energy to keep us alive. Even if a person is in a coma, they still burn approximately Calories of energy in order for: their heart to beat, their blood to circulate, their lungs to breathe, etc We burn even more calories when we exercise. The carbohydrates, fats and proteins we eat and drink provide calories for us and alcohol as well if we choose to consume it. Sometimes people refer to these nutrients as "energy yielding".

As you read above, carbohydrates provide 4 Calories for every gram we consume; proteins provide 4 Calories for every gram we consume; fats provide 9 Calories for every gram we consume and alcohol provides 7 Calories of energy for every gram we consume. Vitamins, minerals and water do not provide any calories, even though they are still essential nutrients. One way to think about the quality of your food is to consider how many nutrients you receive from a serving of that food compared to the number of Calories you receive from one serving of the food.