8.3: Vitamins and Minerals Functional Categories

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There are two common ways to teach about vitamins and minerals in nutrition classes. The traditional way is to start with fat-soluble vitamins and go down through the vitamins alphabetically (i.e. vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K). However, this method leads students to learn about vitamins and minerals more individually instead of how they work together. For instance, it makes sense to cover calcium with vitamin D, and iron with copper and zinc. You are going to learn about vitamins and minerals based on their function rather than covering them by whether they are a water-soluble vitamin or trace mineral. The hope is that you will gain a more integrative understanding of vitamins and minerals from this approach.

Here are the different functional categories that you are going to learn about. Notice that some micronutrients fit into more than one functional category. Each vitamin and mineral is presented in one section, with some mention of its overlap in other section(s) in certain cases.

Antioxidants	Macronutrient Metabolism	1-Carbon Metabolism	Blood	Bones & Teeth	Electrolytes
Vitamin E	Thiamin	Folate	Vitamin K	Vitamin D	Sodium
Vitamin C	Riboflavin	Vitamin \(\ce{B12}\)	Iron	Calcium	Potassium
Selenium	Niacin	Vitamin \(\ce{B6}\)	Vitamin \(\ce{B6}\)	Vitamin K	Chloride
Iron	Pantothenic Acid		Folate	Phosphorus	Phosphorus
Copper	Vitamin \(\ce{B6}\)		Vitamin \(\ce{B12}\)	Magnesium	Magnesium
Zinc	Biotin		Copper	Fluoride
Manganese	Vitamin \(\ce{B12}\)		Calcium	Vitamin A
Riboflavin	Vitamin C			Iron
	Iodine			Copper
	Manganese			Zinc
	Magnesium