This article will refer to the last article which I talked about vitamins and minerals in the overall picture. Today we will focus more on the details, beginning with fat soluble vitamins which include vitamin A, D, E and last but not least K. Let’s see what the benefits of these fat soluble vitamins are and where it can be found, from which sources or which type of food.
Vitamin A can be found only in animal. The most important sources of this vitamin are fish liver oil; especially cod and tuna, liver, egg yolk, milk and other dairy products. Vitamin A cannot be found in vegetable, instead the substance which called Carotenoid would be found instead. Carotenoid is usually found in a green vegetable, yellow vegetable and orange vegetable such as carrot, pumpkin, ripe papaya, tomato, Morinda citrifolia, Kale and Coccinia grandis. Vitamin A has many functions as follows:

1) Nourish the retina of the eyeballs; lack of vitamin A will result as a symptom of blurred vision at night;

2) Support growth; lack of vitamin A since young age will result as a slow growth;

3) Helps in the synthesis of Glycoproteins and Mucopolysaccharide, which are an important composition of the mucous tissue; lack of vitamin A will result as a dry skin with blister along the pores and dry mucous membranes; and

4) Vitamin A is also an anti-oxidation which helps decrease the risk of having cancer.

However, if we receive too much vitamin A causing an excessive accumulation in our body, this may be endanger to our body as it may cause the symptom of bored with food, hair loss, rough and dry skin, have chronic sore, Cheilitis, swelling arms and legs, and bones pain. Children may have cartilage and brittle bone. Adults with high accumulation of vitamin A may have tumor in brain, liver and the infectious of Splenomegaly causing his or her life.

Vitamin D in human body comes from 2 important sources which are 1) self-created under our own skin and 2) food sources such as green vegetables, meat, milk, fish, egg, butter, yeast and certain types of mold. The function of vitamin D is to control the balance between calcium and phosphorus, help increase the absorption of calcium and phosphorus at the intestine, help control the phosphate level at the kidney and also help increase the citrate level in blood, bones, liver and heart. Lack of vitamin D in a child will result as a symptom of rickets. Lack of vitamin D in an adult will result as a symptom of Osteomalacia. If our body receives too much vitamin D, it might be intoxication. For example: High calcium and phosphorus in blood will cause the loss of calcium in bones more than the usual rate will would be result as a brittle bones.

Vitamin E is a pale yellow and viscous substance. It can be found in soy milk and various vegetable oils such as cottonseed oil, sunflower oil and extracted wheat germ oil. Vitamin E can also be found in foods like fats, eggs, margarine, and nuts. The most important function of vitamin E is to be an anti-oxidation for our body. Other than that vitamin E also helps support the creation of muscle cell tissues and red blood corpuscle in our body. Nowadays, vitamin E has been used as a treatment for heart disease and certain vascular diseases, and also used in skin care products and anti aging products. Lack of vitamin E in a male rat results as infertility. There is no appearance of any harm for receiving too much vitamin E, the extra vitamin E will be kept in the muscle and fat in our body.

Vitamin K can be found in green vegetable such as spinach, kale, cabbage and broccoli. Vitamin K is also can be found in meat, mostly in pork liver. In addition human’s intestine can also creates vitamin K by its own. Therefore, normal people would not have any symptom as a lack of vitamin K. Vitamin K functions is to help the liver to synthetic substances that help with the coagulation of blood such as Prothrombin. Lack of vitamin K will result as a slow coagulation of blood or constant bleed if there is any wound. Vitamin K is a heat-endurance substance but can be destroy easily if in contact with light, substances that are alkaline and oxidizing agents.

In next article, we will be talking about the sources or foods which the Water Soluble Vitamins can be found. Thank you very much