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Essential vs Non Essential Nutrients

For ease of understanding, we will classify the nutrients required for human body into seven: water, carbohydrates, fibres, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals.

Water is required to carry out certain functions in almost every system in the body. Carbohydrates provide energy for the body, fibres help facilitate certain processes, proteins construct and reconstruct cells, fats store energy, and vitamins and minerals too facilitate biological processes in the body. Some of these nutrients are further divided into sub-nutrients, which will be discussed in dedicated pages later.

Most nutrients are essential to the body; meaning that they are not manufactured within the body or manufactured but in insufficient quantities¹ and therefore must be provided through diet. Absence of these nutrients in the human body will result in growth failure and illness². Others are non-essential; meaning that the body can produce them within itself using certain other nutrients.

There are 9 amino acids, one fatty acid, 13 vitamins, 12 minerals, and 3 electrolytes that are considered essential to the human body².

• Amino acids — Threonine, Valine, Leucine, Isoleucine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Tryptophan, Lysine and Histidine.
• Fatty Acids — Linoleic
• Vitamins — A, D, E, K, B12, Ascorbic acid (C), Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), Pyridoxine (B6), Folacin (B9), Biotin (B7) and Pantothenic acid (B5).
• Minerals — Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc and Iodine.
• Trace Elements — Copper, Manganese, Fluoride, Chromium, Selenium and Molybdenum.
• Electrolytes — Sodium, Potassium and Chloride.

All these essential nutrients must be sourced from diet alone; supplements cannot replace food. So take food seriously.

Also, note that the presence of non-essential nutrients in the diet can reduce the quantity requirement of essential nutrients because the essential nutrient can be produced in the body with the excess non-essential nutrient. The point is that, you need not worry about the presence of non-essential nutrients in food because they are put to use. A balanced diet isn't going to hurt.

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