Vitamins
As well as eating healthily, certain vitamins can also help combat general fatigue and support your body’s natural energy production. While caffeine and sugar may temporarily boost energy, nutrients like B12, CoQ10, magnesium, and iron play a much more significant role in helping you turn what you consume into energy for everyday living.
Vitamin B12 plays a critical role in the conversion of carbohydrates, fats and proteins into energy for your cells to utilize. It also plays an essential part in neurotransmitter and hormone production – many mass-marketed energy shots available for sale contain this vital nutrient.
Thiamine (vitamin B1) helps your cells convert carbohydrates to energy, while also being essential for the healthy functioning of your nervous system. Niacin (vitamin B3) plays an essential role in the conversion of fatty acids into energy; additionally it has antioxidant activity and produces the compound NAD+, which allows cells to convert glucose to energy more effectively.
Folic acid (vitamin B9) is essential to healthy red blood cell formation and DNA synthesis, crucial elements in cell division processes. Folic acid also assists the body in absorbing other B vitamins.
As a rule, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, nuts, seeds, and whole grains is the ideal way to ensure you’re receiving energy-boosting vitamins. If your levels of these vitamins are low however, supplements may also be beneficial – consult your healthcare provider or registered dietitian nutritionist (RD/RDN) prior to trying any new supplements to make sure it’s safe.
Minerals
Minerals are naturally-occurring inorganic substances with a specific chemical composition and ordered atomic structure, found throughout nature and essential for many aspects of daily living. From our food source to blood clotting mechanisms to helping maintain stable blood pressure levels – minerals play an essential role in human life – from bone formation to immune regulation, they play a key part.
Minerals must fulfill six criteria in order to be classified as minerals: natural occurrence, inorganic composition, geologic origins, solid conditions under normal circumstances and crystal structures. Minerals can either consist of one element (known as pure) or contain multiple elements combined into compounds (which includes table salt). They can either be hard or soft in texture with either opaque or transparent features, metallic or nonmetallic shine and various physical properties like elastic resilience conductivity and piezoelectricity which allows electricity production under pressure).
Minerals in our bodies can be divided into two groups: macrominerals and trace minerals. We need higher amounts of macrominerals such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and sodium than trace minerals such as iron, copper zinc iodine selenium etc – essential components to keeping bones strong, muscles toned and nerves functioning well while managing blood pressure and producing hormones.
Minerals possess unique characteristics that make them invaluable in various uses, like making soap, cosmetics and paper from it; using white paint with it; adding it as an ingredient in white paint formulations and using it in making glass and ceramic products such as cups; pipes; pop cans; batteries and cars are manufactured using minerals; they even occur naturally within our teeth and home walls!
The USGS Mineral Resources Program (MRP) investigates America’s vast supply of minerals. Through MRP research and data compilation, policymakers, industry and the general public can make sound decisions regarding national minerals issues.
