General characteristics of water soluble vitamins

The American diet generally contains adequate amounts of the water soluble vitamins.

The nine water soluble vitamins – eight B vitamins and vitamins C are found in the watery components of foods, such as the juice of an orange. These vitamins got their names from the labels B and C on the test tubes in which they were first collected. Later, test tube B was found to contain more than one vitamin.

These vitamin are distributed into water filled-filled compartments of the body, including the fluid that’s surrounds the spinal cords.

The body absorbs water-soluble vitamins easily and just as easily excretes them in the urine. At any time, the vitamins may be picked up by the extracellular fluids washed away by the blood, and excreted in the urine. Therefore water soluble vitamins need to be consumed more frequently that fat-soluble ones because excess water soluble will be excreted.

They are seldom reach toxic level when compared with fat soluble vitamins.

Some of the water-soluble vitamins are destroyed by heating during cooking all of them are subject to leaching into cooking water.

In the body, water soluble vitamin act as coenzymes – that is, they assist enzymes in doing their metabolic work within the body.
General characteristics of water soluble vitamins