VITAMINS-FAT SOLUBLE

Vitamins are vital to life. All plants and animals need vitamins but only plants can make all the vitamins they need. Humans get most of the vitamins from the food they eat.

Some vitamins A, D, E and K are fat soluble. That means that they will hang around in your body for a while.

• Vitamin A (retinol)

This vitamin is so important to eyes and eyesight. You can get it in orange and yellow fruits such as carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin. You may also get from milk, cheese, egg yolk, liver and fish.

Vitamin A is also very important in helping us to grow and to stay healthy. It is needed by the immune system, which fights germs and stops cancers from growing. It also helps with looking after the mucous membranes of the respiratory, digestive and urinary tracts.

However, getting too much Vitamin A is unhealthy because it collects in the liver and can harm it, and it can do damage to other parts of the body (including the skin and bones).

• Vitamin D 

Vitamin D mostly comes from the energy of the sun. Sunshine acts on chemicals just under the surface of your skin to make this vitamin. Vitamin D helps calcium in its job of making strong, healthy bones and teeth.

You may also get vitamin D from food such as tuna, sardines and salmon, margarines (vitamins added), milk, eggs, butter and cheese.

• Vitamin E (Tocopherol)

Vitamin E helps vitamin A and all the B group vitamins to work. It is an anti-oxidant, which means that it goes round the body battling against some fats that could damage the body.

Unfortunately, it gets used up pretty quickly, so you have to make sure that you keep up your supply of E every day. You can get Vitamin E from vegetable oils and some margarines, wheat germ, nuts and seeds.

• Vitamin K

Vitamin K is very important in helping your blood to clot if you are bleeding and it also makes proteins used for healthy bones and tissues. You can get Vitamin K from leafy green vegetables, like spinach, broccoli and cabbage; and liver.