Vitamins, minerals and enzymes are chemicals that have various roles and activities in the body. While vitamins and minerals are important components of diet that you need to eat regularly to stay healthy, enzymes are proteins that your own cells produce -- for the most part, you can't benefit from consuming them. Vitamins, minerals and enzymes also interact and depend on one another for their functions in the body.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic -- meaning carbon-based -- molecules with essential roles in the body. Their roles, and their food sources, vary greatly. Vitamin C, for instance, has immune system function, the B vitamins play metabolic roles and vitamin K assists in blood clotting, explains Dr. Gary Thibodeau in his book "Anatomy and Physiology." For the most part, you can't make vitamins -- you have to consume them.
Minerals
Minerals are very small chemicals -- they include positively charged particles of metallic elements and negatively charged particles of certain non-metallic elements. Like vitamins, minerals are essential to healthy cellular function, and you must obtain them from food. Some -- such as sodium and potassium -- have roles in fluid balance and are found in the blood and cellular fluid, while others, such as iron, become parts of larger protein molecules in the body.
Enzymes
Enzymes are proteins that help chemical reactions take place faster than they otherwise would, explain Drs. Mary Campbell and Shawn Farrell in their book "Biochemistry." They serve a wide variety of roles in the body and are very reaction-specific. Some enzymes operate in the digestive tract, while others help burn nutrient compounds in the cells. Still others play roles in muscle movement. Enzymes can't operate in capacities -- or in environments -- for which they're not intended.
Enzyme Supplementation
Because you must eat most vitamins and minerals to have a sufficient supply, if you eat a diet that is vitamin- or mineral-deficient, you generally benefit from a supplement. Unlike vitamins and minerals, you don't need to eat enzymes to have a sufficient supply of them. In fact, with very few exceptions, you can't benefit from enzyme supplementation -- there's simply no scientific evidence that enzymes you eat can make it from the digestive tract to their area of functionality in the body.
References
- "Anatomy and Physiology"; Gary Thibodeau; 2007
- "Biochemistry"; Mary Campbell and Shawn Farrell; 2005
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