What it's good for: Promotes growth and repair of body tissue, healthy eyes, good night vision and a strong immune system.

Absolutely essential for the proper growth of children, vitamin A or retinol is also needed by both children and adults for proper vision (it can prevent and sometimes cure night blindness) and for healthy skin and mucous membranes lining the body's inner cavities. In addition, vitamin A helps the body fight infection and, according to Harvard University's recent Nurses' Health Study, may reduce the risk of breast cancer. Its precursor present in many plants, BETA-CAROTENE, may also reduce the risk of some cancers. The latest good news, according to a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine study conducted in Africa, is that vitamin A and beta-carotene (and possibly other CAROTENOID vitamin A precursors) may reduce the transmission of AIDS from mother to infant. Formerly measured in international units (IU), which some vitamin bottle labels still list, vitamin A is now measured in retinol equivilants (RE). The latest RECOMMENDED DAILY ALLOWANCE (RDA) lists RE only, so that's what we use. To convert IU to RE: 1 RE = 3.3 IU if food source is an animal (retinol), 10 IU if food source is a plant (beta-carotene).

Where You Get It: Liver and fish oils, whole and fortified milk and eggs. Carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach and other leafy green veggies, yellow squash, peaches and apricots provide Beta and other carotenes.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex A, Cataplex AC, Cataplex ACP.

RDA: 800 RE for adult women; 1,000 RE for adult men.

Deficiency Symptoms: Lowered resistance to infection; rough, dry and pimply skin; digestive problems; kidney stones; night blindness and eye disease, including xerophththalamia, which can cause permanent blindness. Results of an ongoing Nurses' Health Study (an eight-year program involving 89,000 women nurses) suggest that those who didn't get enough beta-carotene and retinol had about 25 percent more breast cancers than those whose diets met the RDAs.

Watch out: Vitamin A can be toxic in large doses, and when taken during pregnancy can cause birth defects. Your body stores excess vitamin A so don't exceed the RDA. The worst case scenario: blurred vision, increased skull pressure, hair loss.

What they're good for: Building blocks that make up proteins like hormones, enzymes and proteins in tissues and muscle. There are nine essential amino acids that we need to get from food; the body can make the other 11.

Where you get them: Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products and beans.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Nutrimere, Protefood, Standard Bar Berry, Standard Bar Cocoa, Standard Bar Peanut Butter, Standard Bar Soy Almond Crunch.
DRI or RDA: None

What it's good for: A family of VITAMINS, all water soluble, somewhat related in function and often occurring together in foods. They include vitamin B1 (thiamin), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B12 (cobalamin), niacin(Nicotinic acid), folacin (folic acid, also called pteroylglutamic acid or PGA), PANTOTHENIC ACID and biotin.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.

What it's good for: Helps convert food into energy, nerve functions, growth and muscle tone. The chief function of this VITAMIN is to cooperate with other members of the B-COMPLEX in converting GLUCOSE to energy, which fuels the body. It is also important for a healthy nervous system. For years doctors blamed beriberi, a devastating nerve disease that once rampaged through Asia, on something harmful in food. Only with the turn of the twentieth century did scientists discover that rice bran, removed to create the polished white rice Asians preferred, contained something that prevented beriberi. And only in 1926 were crystals of this "beriberi vitamine" used to cure beriberi in people. Today we know this substance as thiamin or vitamin B1 and it is one of the nutrients added to grains and flours during the enrichment process.

Where You Get It: Wheat germ, pork, whole and enriched grains, dried beans, seeds, and nuts.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood®, Ferrofood, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.

RDA: Between 1.1 to 1.5 mg for adults.

Deficiency Symptoms:Deficiency Symptoms: Depression, irritability, attention deficit, muscular weakness. Severe thiamin deficiency can cause beriberi with symptoms including edema, paralysis and heart failure. Those most apt to be lacking in thiamin are alcoholics and those who constantly junk out on soft drinks, candy, pretzels, chips and other high-carb foods made with unenriched flours.

Precautions: Being water soluble, thiamin tends to leach out in the cooking water. It is also destroyed by heat. Indeed, as much as 30 percent of the thiamin can be lost as a loaf of bread bakes and another 10 to 30 percent as a slice of it toasts. Alcohol impairs the body's ability to absorb thiamin, as does tea, if drunk in prodigious quantities.

What it's good for: Releases energy, keeps red blood cells healthy, makes hormones. Like thiamin, this vitamin helps the body metabolize CARBOHYDRATES. But it also aids in the metabolism of fats and proteins. In addition, it's essential to the proper function of three other B vitamins (B6, FOLIC ACID and NIACIN), to the making of red blood cells and maintenance of body tissues, especially those of the skin and eyes.

Where You Get It: Dairy products, yogurt, cheese, meats, poultry, whole and enriched grains, and green vegetables such as broccoli, turnip greens, asparagus, and spinach.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.
Tidbit High doses of B-2 may help prevent migraine headaches.

RDA: Between 1.3 to 1.7 mg for adults.

Deficiency Symptoms: Dry and scaly facial skin, cracks at the corners of the mouth, oral inflammation.

Precautions: Being water soluble, niacin can leach out in cooking water and be lost unless that water is recycled. Fortunately, niacin isn't destroyed by heat or light like some of the other B vitamins.

What it's good for: Releases energy, important for a healthy digestive system, blood circulation, nerve function, appetite. Without this VITAMIN, an important member of the B-COMPLEX (sometimes called vitamin B3), the body cannot utilize CARBOHYDRATES, FATS and PROTEINS to provide energy. Thus the amount of niacin the body needs depends on the number of calories consumed. But that's not niacin's only role. It also helps ensure the health and vitality of the skin, digestive tract and nerves. In the early 1900s, when impoverished Southerners subsisted on highly refined corn breads, asylums were full of patients whose dementia was traced to pellagra, a debilitating niacin-deficiency disease. Niacin supplements effected miracle cures and led, ultimately, to the enrichment of cornmeal down South much the way the federal Enrichment Act of 1942 required food processors to restore the IRON, THIAMIN, RIBOFLAVIN and niacin lost in the milling of wheat.

Where You Get It: Poultry, fish, whole and enriched grains, dried beans, and peas.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.

RDA: Between 15 to 19 mg for adults.

Deficiency Symptoms: Digestive upsets, insomnia, headaches, irritability and, frequently, a sore, swollen, purple-red tongue. More desperate niacin shortfall leads to pellagra: skin and gastrointestinal lesions, inflamed mucous membranes, diarrhea, dementia and death. Now that most cereals, flours, pastas and cornmeals are enriched, full-blown pellagra is history. At least in the United States.

What it's good for: Converts food into energy, necessary to make important hormones, vitamin D, and red blood cells.

Where You Get It: Found in almost all foods.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.

DRI or RDA: None.

What it's good for: Helps convert food into energy, keeps red blood cells healthy, makes antibodies, maintains nerve function, enhances the immune system, helps prevent heart disease.

Where You Get It: Poultry, fish, pork, eggs, and whole grains.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.

Tidbit: Small doses of B-6 may help alleviate morning sickness. Check with your doctor.

RDA: Between 1.6 to 2.0 mg for adults.

Watch out: B-6 in high doses can cause balance difficulties, nerve injury.

Tidbit: Vitamin B7, also called vitamin I, was a factor extracted from rice polish. Its deficiency caused digestive disorders in pigeons. It is not established that this applies to humans. The term "vitamin B7" was later reused by some researchers to denote biotin.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B8 is the nucleic acid adenylic acid, also known as ergadenylic acid. Its deficiency decreases RNA synthesis, as well as ADP and ATP synthesis. A deficiency will inhibit the breakdown of food into energy and deteriorate hormone functions. This substance was not widely recognized as a required vitamin. The term "vitamin B8" was later reused by some researchers to denote inositol.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B9 was later found to be a mixture of multiple B vitamins which were later isolated to different substances. The term "vitamin B9" was later reused by some researchers to denote folic acid.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B10, also known as factor R was later determined to be pteroylmonoglutamic acid mixed with other B vitamins. Its deficiency caused slowed growth and deteriorated feather development in chicks, along with blood problems. It was believed by some researchers to apply to humans. Some early researchers used the term "vitamin B10" to denote para-aminobenzoic acid.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B11, also known as factor S was related to vitamin B10. It was also believed to have similar properties, and was also later determined to be a mixture of substances.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Releases energy from food, keeps red blood cells healthy, helps maintain the nervous system, boosts the immune system, helps prevent heart disease.

Where You Get It: Dairy products, lean beef, fish, poultry, and eggs.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.

RDA: 2 mcg for adults.

Tidbit: Vitamin B13 is a factor extracted from whey called orotic acid. Its deficiency causes anemia, large abnormal blood cells, heart problems, skin problems, and liver deterioration. It is recognized more widely in europe, but has not been widely supported in the United States. It should probably be grouped with the "sub-vitamin B complex" of substances that are useful to the body, but may not be required in food. It is most often used similarly to ascorbate to combine with minerals for better absorption. This also allows vitamin manufacturers to include it in vitamin formulations without listing and/or claiming it as a separate vitamin.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B14 was not clearly isolated to a specific chemical. It was extracted from yeast, organ meats, grains, legumes, and eggs. Its deficiency caused a kind of anemia. It might have been similar to vitamin B10 and B11.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B15 is dimethylglycine (or trimethylglycine). It was mostly researched in the former Soviet Union. It is believe to help oxygen absorpsion, aiding with heart problems, stress, cancer, and premature aging. The Russians used it primarily to increase the performance of their olympic athletes. It is very controversial and is not officially recognized in the United States. Later researchers referenced diisopropylamine dichloroacetate as being "vitamin B15", either believing it to be an alternate chemical form with the same properties, or a more accurate isolation of the chemical.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B16 was also researched in the former Soviet Union, but never resulted in widespread use by that government.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin B17 is any of the nitrilosides. It was researched by Dr. Krebs as a cancer cure. It is very controversial in the United States, and is outlawed as fraudulent and/or dangerous in many states. It is still recognized in some other countries.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Metabolizes fats, proteins and carbohydrates, helps in the transfer of carbon dioxide and assists in various metabolic chemical conversions.

Where You Get It: Cheese, beef liver, cauliflower, eggs, mushrooms, chicken breast, salmon and spinach.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® B, B6 Niacinamide, Cataplex® B12, Catalyn®, Catalyn® Chewable, Choline, Cyrofood® Tablets, Ferrofood®, Folic Acid B12, Cataplex® G, Inositol, Niacinamide B6.
Suggested Daily Value: 300 mcg for adults.

What it's good for: Helps wounds heal, strengthens blood vessels, builds connective tissue, healthy gums, skin and promotes strong teeth and bones. May boost immunity.

Discussion: It wrought so well that if all the physicians of Montpelier and Louaine had been there, with all the drugs of Alexandria, they would not have done as much in one year as that tree did in six days." Thus spoke French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535 on his second voyage to Newfoundland after seeing Native Americans cure his men of scurvy with a strong sassafras tea. In 1747, a British Navy surgeon experimenting with sailors' rations showed that those given oranges and lemons each day were cured of scurvy. Throughout the following years, British naval surgeons' medicine chests included concentrated syrup of lemon juice (or lime, as the Brits called it, which is why British sailors are known as limeys). Another 173 years would pass before researchers extracted this antiscorbutic substance from orange juice and named it vitamin C. We now know that ascorbic acid is a particularly versatile VITAMIN. It's integral to the building and maintenance of collagen, a PROTEIN or "glue" that holds the body's cells in place. It's indispensable to bones and teeth (for much the same reason), to blood vessels, to the healing of wounds. Further, vitamin C helps metabolize several AMINO ACIDS and hormones. It's a powerful ANTIOXIDANT, too, helping the body rid itself of carcinogenic by-products of metabolism called free radicals. There's even strong evidence that vitamin C may raise blood levels of HDL, or "good"cholesterol, which helps flush fatty deposits from the arteries, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Or so studies at the National Institute on Aging and the USDA indicate. But researchers are quick to point out that beyond 345 milligrams of vitamin C per day for men and 215 milligrams for women, the HDL boosting stops.

Where You Get It: Citrus fruits, strawberries, green and red peppers, collard and mustard greens, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, kiwi, guava and parsley.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® AC, Cataplex® ACP, Cataplex® C, Congaplex®, Cyruta®, Cyruta® Plus, Immuplex®, Collagen C.

RDA: 60 mg for adults.

What it's good for: Supports bones, teeth, muscle tissue, regulates the heartbeat, muscle action, nerve function, blood clotting.

Where You Get It: Dairy products, calcium-fortified orange juice or soy milk, salmon with bones, and green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, kale, and collards.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Bio Dent®, Calcifood® Wafers, Calcium Lactate, Cal Ma Plus®, Calsol®, Min Chex®, Min Tran®.

DRI: 1,000 mg for adults.

What it is: A unit of measure, like an inch or a pound. Calories measure the amount of energy your body gets from food. You need energy to be physically active and for your body to grow and function. Carbohydrates, fat and protein provide the energy from food.

What it is: The body's most readily available source of energy. Each gram of carbohydrate provides 4 calories of energy. The main forms of carbohydrate are sugars and starches. Sugars are simple carbohydrates. Starches, such as breads, cereals and pasta, are complex carbohydrates. Detailed information can be found here.

What it's good for: Makes cell membranes, hormones. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is often called "bad" cholesterol because too much in your blood can cause heart disease. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is often called "good" cholesterol because it helps remove LDL .

Where You Get It: Meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and eggs.

DRI or RDA: None.

More Information: All about fats, The Cholesterol Myths, Glossary - Cholesterol.

What it's good for: Acts cooperatively with other substances to control insulin and certain enzymes.

Where You Get It: Cheese, whole grains, meat, peas, beans and blackstrap molasses.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cyruta®, Cyruta® Plus, Diaplex®, Cataplex® GTF.

Tidbit: An organic non-protein molecule that binds with the protein molecule to form the active enzyme. Several vitamins are components of coenzymes.

Tidbit: Coenzyme R denotes biotin.

RDA: see above.

What it's good for: Co-enzyme Q10, also known as ubiquinone, improves energy production within the heart and acts as an antioxidant. Patients with congestive heart failure, hypertension and angina show lower levels of CoQ-10 than those with no cardiovascular disease. It prevents lipid oxidation occurring in fat-soluble media such as cell membranes and is useful in the treatment of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. It is sometimes proposed as a complementary therapy to combat AIDS-related conditions.


Where You Get It: The body makes CoQ10 from the amino acids tyrosine and methionine, and it is found in foods such as fish, wheat germ and vegetable oils. The therapeutic doses of the supplement range from 30 to 100 mg per day, levels 10-40 times that found in organ meat, the most concentrated dietary source of CoQ10. It has no serious adverse effects, but its safety in pregnancy has not been established.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® E

Tidbit: Inorganic complement of an enzyme reaction, usually a metal ion.

What it's good for: Formation of red blood cells, pigment, bone health.

Where You Get It: Nuts, black pepper, blackstrap molasses and cocoa.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Trace Minerals B12®, Cataplex® C, Chezyn®, Copper Liver Chelate, Immuplex®.

DRI or RDA: None.

More Information: Too much or not enough copper can have serious health consequences. Go here for detailed information about copper.

What it's good for: Calcium and phosphorus metabolism, aids bone growth and integrity, promotes strong teeth.

Where You Get It: Fortified milk, egg yolks and fatty fish, like herring, kipper and mackerel.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Calcifood® Wafers, Cataplex® D.
DRI: 5-10 mcg for adults.

Dietary Reference Intakes: A joint collaboration with Canada and the US, DRIs are revised recommendations for vitamins and minerals from the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which will gradually replace the Recommended Dietary Allowances or RDA guidelines. DRIs are being developed for vitamins and minerals that currently have no RDAs.

What it's good for: Antioxidant powers protect cell membranes, essential for red blood cells, aids cellular respiration and protects lung tissue from pollution.

Where You Get It: Vegetable oils, wheat germ, green leafy vegetables, seeds, nuts, seafood, apples, carrots and celery.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Cataplex® E, Cataplex® E2, For-Til B12®, Wheat Germ Oil, Wheat Germ Oil Perles Fortified.

RDA: Between 8 to 10 mg for adults

What they're good for: Make cell membranes, hormones, and prostaglandins.

Where you get them: Vegetable oils such as canola, flaxseed, walnut, corn, soybean, and safflower oils, fish, and fish oil supplements.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Black Currant Seed Oil, Chlorophyll Complex Perles Fat Soluble, Cataplex® F Perles, Cataplex F® Tablets, Linum B6, Wheat Germ Oil, Wheat Germ Oil Perles Fortified.

Tidbit Flaxseed oil is a great source of omega-3s, but not for cooking because heat destroys them.

DRI or RDA: None.

What it is: A concentrated energy source. Fat provides 9 calories per gram, more than twice as much energy as protein and carbohydrate. Fat also provides essential fatty acids, is an important component of cell structure, and transports vitamins A, D, E and K.

More Information: Go here for detailed information about fats.

What it's good for: Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar levels, helps move waste through the intestines. Diets rich in plant fiber are related to a reduction of heart disease, colon cancer and diabetes.

Where You Get It: Fruits, vegetables and whole-grains.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Gastro-Fiber™

Tidbit: If you're upping your fiber intake, do it slowly to avoid stomach upset. Also, drink lots of water.

DRI or RDA: None.

More Information: Go here for detailed information about fiber.

What it's good for: Discovered only in 1945, this B VITAMIN is used by the body both to synthesize and break down AMINO ACIDS and to synthesize DNA/RNA-like nucleic acids, which in turn are needed to build new cells, especially new red blood cells. Its role in preventing two devastating birth defects — spina bifida (a condition in which the backbone doesn't envelop and protect the spinal cord) and anencephaly (a fatal malformation of the brain) — is so significant the FDA, to ensure that pregnant women receive sufficient folacin, aims to add it to the list of nutrients now being used to enrich flours, cereals, breads and pastas (140 micrograms folacin per 100 grams [3 1/2 ounces] food is the proposed amount). In addition to preventing these birth defects, folic acid may also protect against certain types of cancer (lung, cervical, colorectal) and coronary heart disease. Even so, nutritionists recommend getting folic acid from food, not vitamin pills. There is some concern, however, that too much folacin masks pernicious anemia and makes it difficult to diagnose.

Where You Get It: Green leafy vegetables, dried beans, liver, poultry, fortified cereals, oranges and nuts.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Folic Acid B12.

DRI or RDA: 180 for women and 200 mcg for men.

What it's good for: Helps cells grow and divide, reduces risk of certain birth defects, important for red blood cells and crucial in creating amino acids.

Where You Get It: Green leafy vegetables, dried beans, liver, poultry, fortified cereals, oranges and nuts.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Folic Acid B12.
Tidbit Pregnant women or women trying to conceive are often told to take folate.

RDA: 180 for women and 200 mcg for men.

What it's good for: You've probably heard that it helps dental health. Fluoride is added to the water supply of most American cities for the ostensible purpose of dental hygiene. You'll be amazed to find out that such a thing is not only unlikely, but actually the reverse is true. Read here.

Where You Get It: Tea, fish eaten with their bones, processed foods, and treated drinking water.

DRI: Between 3.1 to 3.8 mg for adults.

Tidbit: Vitamin F refers to the Essential Fatty Acids, or EFAs. These are still accepted as being required by the human body, but are no longer denoted as a vitamin. The FDA outlawed this terminology when fast-food chains started claiming "vitamin enriched foods" based on the fact that frying food in oil adds EFAs.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin G is an old term for riboflavin.

Tidbit: Vitamin H3 was once listed in the Merck Index for para- aminobenzoyldiethylaminoethanol hudrochloride. This was based on the work of a Rumanian scientist, Dr. Ana Aslan who used procaine preparations as a youth drug. Her drug was very popular in the 60's, and research still goes on today. Her preparations break down into para-aminobenzoic acid (B-complex factor) and DEAE (related to choline precursors), and thus produced vitamin-like properties. A few researchers postulated that there was a unique vitamin property to the original substance as well. Her drug, called Gerovital-H3, thus became listed in the Merck Index as "vitamin H3". This terminology has since been dropped, and the hypothesis is rejected by most doctors in the United States.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Making thyroid hormones that control metabolism. Extensive information can be found here.

Where You Get It: Lobster, shrimp, bread, milk and iodized salt.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Trace Minerals B12®, Cataplex® F Tablets, Iodomere®, Prolamine Iodine.

RDA: 150 mcg for adults.

What it's good for: Making hemoglobin in blood and myoglobin in muscle, which supply oxygen to cells. Iron is a A MINERAL that is essential not only to good health but also to life itself. The bulk of the iron in the human body is in the red blood cells' hemoglobin; in fact, it is what makes blood red. Hemoglobin shuttles oxygen from the lungs to every body cell, and without iron, hemoglobin cannot do its job. Another compound, myoglobin, grabs iron from hemoglobin and stores it in muscles where it's crucial to proper muscle function. On hemoglobin's trip to the lungs, its iron carries carbon dioxide, which we then expel as we exhale. And that's not all. Iron is part of the chemical makeup of several vital enzymes and proteins and plays a major role in energy metabolism.

All dietary iron, however, is not created equal. There are two basic types: heme iron, the easily absorbable form that accounts for 40 percent of the iron in meats, and nonheme iron, the not-so-easily assimilable form present in vegetables. How well the body absorbs it depends on many things — whether there's sufficient VITAMIN C, whether antacids, high-FIBER or oxalate-rich foods, or coffee or tea are also present. Each of them can thwart the body's ability to absorb iron.
Sometimes hemochromatosis, a possibly inherited inability to metabolize iron, is responsible for an iron buildup. Overloads of iron can damage the liver and pancreas, leading in some cases to diabetes.

Where You Get It: Molasses (especially blackstrap), calf's liver, dried beans, dried prunes and prune juice, whole-wheat and enriched bread, meat and poultry, eggs, broccoli, beet greens, kale and, yes, green leafy vegetables like Popeye's spinach.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Chlorophyll Complex Perles Fat Soluble, Ferrofood®.

RDA: Between 10 to 12 mg for men and 12 to 15 mg for women.

Deficiency Symptoms: Children deficient in iron often display many of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder — restlessness, disruptiveness, inability to concentrate — and these may appear long before blood tests show any lack of iron. The reason is that a child's brain reacts to an iron deficit early on. Adults deficient in iron, on the other hand, tire easily, become apathetic, unmotivated — and usually before anemia develops.

An iron deficiency is usually defined as dwindling reserves of iron in the body in general. Anemia, on the other hand, refers specifically to reduced levels of hemoglobin. With less iron present, the blood cells can't ferry sufficient oxygen from the lungs to body tissues. Symptoms of anemia include extreme fatigue, overall weakness, headaches, apathy and pallor.

Watch out: Iron supplements even in small amounts can be toxic to young children. Keep iron and multis with iron out of reach. Some two thousand American children suffer from iron poisoning every year, mostly because they've gobbled powerful iron supplements that were carelessly left within their reach (all it takes to kill a 22-pound toddler are five 110-milligram iron pills).

If the body is to absorb iron properly, it needs vitamin C. Certain other compounds block the body's ability to absorb iron: antacids, dietary fiber, coffee, tea, PHOSPHATES salts such as calcium phosphate, and phytates (substances found in whole grains and soy products).

Tidbit: Vitamin I is an old term for biotin. The term "vitamin I" was also used as an old term for vitamin B7. The term "vitamin I" was proposed for an undiscovered substance composed of vitamins A and E that was formed internally in the body. This was based on observations that both vitamins have many similar effects. Later, this theory was dropped. The similar effects noted for these and other vitamins may have been the antioxidant activity, which is exhibited by many substances. The term "vitamin I" was also used by a few researchers to denote biotin.)

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin J is an old term for choline. The term "vitamin J" was also used by some researchers to denote vitamin C2, chatechol (flavin), a bioflavinoid.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Helps blood clot.

Where You Get It: Green beans, green leafy vegetables, dairy products, eggs, meats, cereals, fruits and vegetables.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Chlorophyll Complex Perles Fat Soluble.

RDA: Between 60 to 65 mcg for women and 70 to 80 mcg for men.

Tidbit: Vitamin L1 is anthranilic acid or ortho-aminobenzoic acid, a vitamin required for lactation in human females.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin L2 is adenyl thiomethylpentose, an alternate form of vitamin L.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Enzyme activation, nerve and muscle function, and bone growth.

Where You Get It: Nuts, meats, leafy vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Calcium Lactate, Cal Ma Plus®, Chlorophyll Complex Perles Fat Soluble, Magnesium Lactate, Min Tran®.

Tidbit: Magnesium supplements may help ward off migraine headaches.

DRI: Between 280 to 300 mg for women, 350 to 400 mg for men.

What they're good for: Essential for reproductive function, physical growth, normal formation of bones and cartilage and normal brain function.

Where You Get It: Whole grains and cereals, fruits, vegetables and tea.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Trace Minerals B12®, Cataplex® E, E Manganese, Ligaplex® II, Manganese B12.

DRI or RDA: None.

What is it: Inorganic (carbon-free) elements that turn to ash when burned. Of the more than three dozen known minerals, nineteen are necessary for good health. See MACROMINERALS; MICROMINERALS. See also the individual minerals — ARSENIC; CALCIUM; CHLORINE; CHROMIUM; COPPER; FLUORINE; IODINE; IRON; MAGNESIUM; MANGANESE; MOLYBDENUM; NICKEL; PHOSPHORUS; POTASSIUM; SELENIUM; SILICON; SODIUM; SULFUR and ZINC.

Macrominerals are comprised of the seven MINERALS needed by the human body in relatively large amounts: CALCIUM, chlorine (see CHLORIDE), MAGNESIUM, PHOSPHORUS, POTASSIUM, SODIUM and SULFUR.

Microminerals also known as trace elements or trace minerals are the twelve minerals we need in minute quantities for good health: ARSENIC, CHROMIUM, COPPER, FLUORINE, IODINE, IRON, MANGANESE, MOLYBDENUM, NICKEL, SELENIUM, SILICON and ZINC. Many nutritionists now believe that three others should be added to this list: BORON, TIN and VANADIUM.

For a detailed discussion of the trace minerals go here.

What it's good for: As a component of three different enzymes, it's involved in the metabolism of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) iron and food converts food into energy. Helps breakdown toxic build ups of sulfites in the body. May help prevent cavities.

Where You Get It: Milk, lima beans, spinach, breads, liver and cereals.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Catalyn®

DRI or RDA: None.

What they're good for: A nutrient that provides dietary energy without raising cholesterol levels.

Where you get them: Olive oil, canola oil, and peanut oil.

DRI or RDA: None.

Tidbit: Vitamin N is thioctic acid or alpha-lipoic acid. It acts as an acetate replacing factor and pyruvate oxidation factor in the human body. It is lipid soluble, so is no longer conside. Its deficiency causes decreased ATP production resulting in fatigue and decreased muscle strength. Used by weight lifters and body builders. It is not clear if this is a required nutrient, or if the body can make enough of its own.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Helps form bones and teeth, builds muscle and is involved in almost all metabolic actions in the body.

Where You Get It: Milk, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, whole grains, seeds and nuts.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Calcifood® Wafers, Calsol®, Phosfood® Liquid, Soy Bean Lecithin, Super EFF®.

DRI: 800 mg to 1,200 mg for adults.

What they're good for: A nutrient that provides dietary energy without raising cholesterol levels.

Where you get them: Corn oil, safflower seed oil, sunflower seed oil, sesame oil, soybean oil and fish oil.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Several products contain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Read more here.

DRI or RDA: None.

What it's good for: Helps keep blood pressure down and aids muscle contractions, aids healthy electrical activity in the heart and rapid transmission of nerve impulses throughout the body.

Where You Get It: Dried fruits, most raw vegetables, citrus fruits, molasses, and sunflower seeds.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Organically Bound Minerals™

DRI or RDA: None.

What it's good for: Keeps the body running, made from different combinations of amino acids. More information can be found here.

Where You Get It: Meat, eggs, dairy products, beans, whole grains, and vegetables.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Nutrimere ®, SP Complete™

RDA: Between 46 and 63 g for adults.

Tidbit: Vitamin P denotes the bioflavinoids. Vitamin P1 denots rutin. Vitamin P2 denotes hesperidin. Vitamin P4 denotes troxerutin. The bioflavinoids strengthen capillary walls by helping the body to manufacture collagen and elastin. Stronger veins will aid in the treatment of varicose veins and spider veins, which are the small capillaries that have broken down. Hemorrhoids may even be prevented with the addition of bioflavinoids in the diet.

By increasing your intake of bioflavinoids, which are chemical compounds related to vitamin C, studies have been shown to help prevent heart disease as well as reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. Bioflavinoids are also helpful in the treatment of allergies, cataracts, and heart disease.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Several products contain Vitamin P.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin PP was an old term for niacin.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin Q was a substance announced by a Dr. Quick, who reported that its deficiency caused a lack of blood clotting. Although it was extracted from soy beans, alfalfa and clover, like coenzyme Q10, it was not isolated to a specific substance. It is not clear if the coenzyme Q10 complex is related.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin Q1 through vitamin Q7 denote coenzymes Q1 through Q7, respectively, but cannot be used as precursors to coenzyme Q10 in humans.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin Q8 and vitamin Q9 denote coenzyme Q8 and coenzyme Q9, respectively, and are precursors to coenzyme Q10.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin Q10 denotes coenzyme Q10.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin Q199 was an alternate term for coenzyme Q10.

RDA: Not established

What it is: Nutrient intake recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the American Academy of Sciences. RDAs are safe levels of intake for essential nutrients, based on current scientific knowledge. They are set to meet the known nutrient needs or practically all healthy people. RDAs have been around and updated regularly for more than 50 years. RDAs are gradually being replaced by revised guidelines called Dietary Reference Intakes or DRIs.

Tidbit: Vitamin R was an old term for vitamin B10.

RDA: Not established

What it Does: Shown to raise cholesterol, associated with a risk of heart disease.

Where You Get It: Butter, lard, meat, poultry, whole-milk dairy foods, palm oil, and coconut oil.

DRI or RDA: None.

What it's good for: Works with vitamin E as an antioxidant and binds with toxins in the body, rendering them harmless.

Where You Get It: Lobster, clams, crabs, whole grains, Brazil nuts and oysters.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Immuplex®

RDA: 55 mg for women and 70 mg for men.

What is it: Regulates and balances the amount of fluids outside the cells in the body. Aids in muscle contractions and nerve function.

Where You Get It: Processed foods and table salt.

DRI or RDA: None.

Tidbit: Vitamin S was an old term for vitamin B11.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin T is Goetsch's vitamin in the form of mycoine or penicin.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin U was originally an old term for folic acid. The term was later used for an ulcer-preventative factor discovered in cabbage, alfala, celery and cereal grasses. That substance was isolated down to methylmethioninesulfonium chloride.

RDA: Not established

What is it: Essential to life, these thirteen organic compounds perform dozens of vital jobs in the body. Vitamin entered our vocabulary only in 1912, when the first one — thiamin or B1 — was isolated. We now know that some of the devastating diseases of the past — beriberi, rickets, scurvy — were nothing more than acute vitamin deficiencies. To prevent future deficiencies, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences devised recommended dietary allowances, the daily amounts of the different food nutrients considered adequate for healthy individuals. These figures are updated every five to ten years, the last update being 1989. The book on vitamins is far from complete. Research continues and few scientists doubt that new vitamins, even new roles for existing vitamins, will surface. There are 13 vitamins now known: VITAMIN A, vitamin B1, VITAMIN B2 (riboflavin), NIACIN, VITAMIN B6 (pyridoxine), VITAMIN B12 (cobalamin), FOLIC ACID, PANTOTHENIC ACID, BIOTIN, VITAMIN C, VITAMIN D, VITAMIN E and VITAMIN K.

Tidbit: Vitamin V is possibly nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide/NAD. Its deficiency causes developmental problems in chicks. The term "vitamin V" was also used by some researchers to denote para-aminobenzoic acid.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin W is being researched, but may turn out to be biotin, because it has similar properties.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin X is a term that has been used for almost every undiscovered vitamin until its true chemical nature was identified. Most notably, it was during the search for vitamin B12, the search for vitamin E, and the isolation of biotin.

RDA: Not established

Tidbit: Vitamin Y is being researched, but may turn out to be vitamin B6, because it has similar properties.

RDA: Not established

What it's good for: Essential for normal growth, development and immunity. Helps maintain skin, hair and bones. Keeps reproductive organs functioning and helps in the perception of taste and the ability to see at night.

Where You Get It: Beef, poultry, liver, oysters, eggs and dairy products.

Standard Process™ Supplements: Several products contain zinc. Read more here.

RDA: Between 12 to 15 mg for women and 15 mg for men.

Tidbit: Strangely enough, there has never been a vitamin with the name of "Z".