Dietary fibre:
Reduces risk of heart disease, lowers cholesterol. Recommended intake is 20 - 38gms per day. A considerable amount of scientific data supports the
relationship between viscous fiber and decreased intestinal absorption of
cholesterol. Daily intakes of > 3 grams of soluble fiber (and total fiber intake of >
25 grams) can result in a modest reduction in blood cholesterol levels.
Protein: Protein is the basic structural material of all cells, needed for growth and regeneration of cells.
Carbohydrates: Nutritionally important carbohydrates are sources of glucose and/or short chain
fatty acids. Carbohydrates should comprise 55-65% of total energy consumed
daily. carbohydrate requirements range from 300-450 grams daily for healthy
adults requiring 2000 and 3000 kilocalories, respectively.
Vitamin A: helps regulate the immune system; plays an important role in vision, bone growth,
reproduction, cell division, and cell differentiation
Beta Carotene: beta-carotene is most efficiently made into retinol, one of the most usable (active)
forms of vitamin A.
Vitamin D: essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate
serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of
bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone
remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Together with calcium, vitamin D also
helps protect older adults from osteoporosis.
Vitamin E: a powerful biological antioxidant, protect your cells against the effects of free
radicals, which are potentially damaging by-products of energy metabolism.
Vitamin K: Vitamin K is necessary for normal clotting of blood in humans.
Vitamin C: (Asorbic acid): important in the body’s ability to metabolise proteins.
Vitamin B1: Helps maintain healthy brain and nerve cells.
Vitamin B6: needed in protein metabolism, for nervous and immune systems to function
efficiently, to make hemoglobin, also helps increase the amount of oxygen carried
by hemoglobin, helps maintain your blood glucose (sugar) within a normal range.
Vitamin B12: Helps maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells, needed to help make DNA.
Thiamine: involved in oxidative metabolism of glucose, deficiency can result in difficulty in
concentration, irritablity, depression, muscle weakness and poor coordination.
Riboflavine: supports energy metabolism and biosynthesis of a number of compounds
Niacin: essential vitamin that supports energy metabolism, deficiency includes fatigue,
poor appetite, diarrhea, irritability, headache, emotional instability and possible
memory loss.
Folic Acid:
Panthotenic Acid: promotes endogenous synthesis of fatty acids, also involved in beta oxidation
of fatty acids and hepatic synthesis of cholesterol
Biotin: deficiency include hair loss, dermatosis, anorexia, nausea, weight loss, muscle
pains, and localized loss of sensation.
Calcium: Bone formation
Zinc: supports a healthy immune system, is needed for wound healing, helps maintain
your sense of taste and smell, is needed for DNA synthesis, also supports normal
growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence
Iron: is an essential component of proteins involved in oxygen transport, also essential
for the regulation of cell growth and differentiation.
Selenium: important antioxidant enzymes, help prevent cellular damage from free radicals,
help regulate thyroid function
Magnesium: is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body, helps maintain
normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, supports a healthy
immune system, and keeps bones strong, also helps regulate blood sugar levels,
promotes normal blood pressure, and is known to be involved in energy
metabolism and protein synthesis.
Folate: helps produce and maintain new cells, is needed to make DNA and RNA, the
building blocks of cells. It also helps prevent changes to DNA that may lead to
cancer. Both adults and children need folate to make normal red blood cells and
prevent anemia, is also essential for the metabolism of homocysteine, and helps
maintain normal levels of this amino acid.
Iodine: synthesis of thyroid hormone. deficiency include hypothyroidism, lethargy,
weight gain
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