Micronutrients
Micronutrients are essential vitamins and minerals required by organisms in small amounts for optimal health and development, contrasting with macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, which are needed in larger quantities. These micronutrients play critical roles in various biological functions, including cell metabolism. Deficiencies in micronutrients can lead to significant health issues globally. For instance, vitamin A deficiency is a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness, impacting millions of children under five, while iodine deficiency can result in developmental disabilities and thyroid problems.
Micronutrients include thirteen recognized vitamins, such as A, C, D, E, K, and the B vitamins, along with over twenty dietary minerals. Some of these minerals are classified as macrominerals, needed in larger amounts, while others, like copper, iron, and zinc, are considered microminerals or trace elements. The understanding of micronutrients and their importance emerged in the early 20th century, leading to the identification of diseases caused by deficiencies, like scurvy and rickets. Despite advancements in nutrition science and public health initiatives, micronutrient deficiencies persist, particularly in developing regions, prompting global efforts to address these public health challenges through education and supplementation.
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Subject Terms
Micronutrients
Micronutrients are those vitamins and minerals that organisms require in very small amounts for good health and development. The term contrasts with macronutrients, which refers to carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—nutrients that are needed in much larger quantities. Micronutrients play various roles in cell metabolism and other important biological activities, and chronic micronutrient deficiencies are responsible for widespread health problems around the world.
Overview
Vitamins are organic (carbon-containing) compounds that act most commonly as coenzymes, substances that help proteins do their jobs in the body. There are thirteen recognized vitamins, each with a letter descriptor: A, C, D, E, K, and eight B vitamins subdivided by number (vitamin B1, and so forth). Each vitamin also has a chemical name (sometimes more than one); for example, vitamin C is ascorbic acid.
Dietary minerals are chemical elements (as opposed to compounds) required for good nutrition. Humans require over twenty dietary minerals. Sometimes all of these are considered micronutrients, and sometimes the seven “macrominerals”—those needed in quantities greater than one hundred milligrams per day, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium—are placed in the macronutrient category. The “microminerals,” or trace elements, such as copper, iodine, iron, and zinc, are always considered micronutrients.
Although humans have long understood that eating certain foods is necessary for good health, not until the twentieth century did scientists begin to isolate and identify the basic building blocks of nutrition and the various roles they play in the complex biochemistry of the body. The word “vitamin” was coined by Casimir Funk in 1912, and all the vitamins currently recognized were discovered over the next thirty years or so.
Along with the discovery of vitamins and dietary minerals came an understanding of the diseases caused by not having enough of them. By the middle of the twentieth century, scientists were synthesizing vitamins and minerals in the laboratory, and the first dietary supplements entered the market. Through an understanding of micronutrient deficiencies and how to correct them, many formerly common illnesses, such as scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and rickets (vitamin D deficiency), became all but a thing of the past.
However, some forms of micronutrient deficiency remain common around the world, especially in developing countries. Near the end of the twentieth century, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international health agencies identified deficiencies in micronutrients such as vitamin A, iodine, and iron as pressing public health problems worldwide, especially among children and pregnant people. Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness, among other problems; iodine deficiency can cause serious physical and mental developmental delays; and iron deficiency causes anemia, a blood condition. These deficiencies in a pregnant person can also lead to health problems in the baby after birth. Global initiatives to counter these problems include programs to get iodized salt (considered the best deterrent to iodine deficiency) and nutritional supplements to remote or impoverished areas of the world.
Bibliography
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