Nutrient Atlas
Nutrients
Four kinds of things inside food, kept distinct because they behave differently.
Essential vitamins
- Vitamin KA fat-soluble vitamin, abundant in leafy greens as phylloquinone.
- Vitamin CA water-soluble vitamin the body cannot make, so it comes from food.
- Vitamin AA fat-soluble vitamin. In plants it comes as provitamin-A carotenoids, which the body converts; measured in retinol activity equivalents (RAE).
- FolateA B vitamin that occurs naturally in food as food folate.
- Vitamin B6A water-soluble B vitamin that acts as a coenzyme.
Essential minerals
- CalciumThe most abundant mineral in the body, most of it in bones and teeth.
- MagnesiumA mineral involved in hundreds of enzyme systems.
- PotassiumAn electrolyte present in all body tissues.
- IronA mineral that carries oxygen in blood and muscle. Plant foods provide non-heme iron.
- ManganeseA trace mineral that works as an enzyme cofactor.