Fat Soluble Vitamins

Fat soluble vitamins are named after their ability to dissolve in fat and get absorbed by the human body together with the fat in the intestinal tract, to be precise by the small intestine. Just as for water soluble vitamins there exist a fat soluble vitamin list which shows dosages and sources as well as the vitamins functions. The major fat soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E and K. More recently added to this list is the fat soluble vitamin c. Characteristics of fat and water soluble vitamins are very different in the way they get absorbed into our system and they way they get stored. Fat soluble vitamins are absorbed through fat cells entering the body and therefore fat absorption is very impotant in maintaining a good supply of these vitamins in our bodies. While water soluble vitamins get exreted through bodily fluids and an amount greater than momentarily by the body needed cannot be properly stored, fat soluble vitamins can be stored to some point in our body. The storage of fat soluble vitamins happens within the fat storage and within the liver. It can be stored there till the body needs it and up to approximately six month. Therefore short term deficiencies are less likely than with water soluable vitamins. As with any vitamin fat soluble vitamins play different roles in our health system and are essential to the body.

Fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K are needed for vision, growth and development of tissues, for the immunity system, calcium concentration in the body, antioxidant properties and blood clotting functions.

Vitamin C, the major weapon to fight viruses and bacterial diseases is available as a water soluble vitamin (ascorbic acid) or fat soluble vitamin (ascorbyl palmitate). Fat soluble vitamin c has a lot of the benefits of its water soluble counterpart, but as an added bonus it stores longer in the body before getting flushed out. The body needs both vitamin c kinds, since both have unique properties of their own. But taking them in a combination reduces the amount that needs to be taken. A small pitfall of the fat soluble vitamin c is the higher price through more difficult production and the smaller request in the vitamin market. Vitamin c is also necessary to protect the fatty cells which store the fat soluble vitamins.

Usually diseases caused by a lack of fat soluble vitamins are rare in the United States and Western Europe, mild deficiencies can develop without the proper amounts of vitamins in the diet.