The Roles Of Vitamins, Minerals & Nutrients In The Metabolism Of Energy

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, vitamins and minerals -- also known as micronutrients -- do not provide your body with energy, but they do help your body carry out the metabolic process. The metabolic process breaks down macronutrients, which are carbohydrates, fats and proteins, into usable energy. While all vitamins, minerals and nutrients play key roles in your body's processes, vitamin B-12, pantothenic acid, manganese, copper and zinc are particularly important in energy metabolism.

Vitamin B-12

When your body takes in vitamin B-12, it is broken down into several compounds, including 5-Deoxyadenosylcobalamin. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, this compound is used by an enzyme to start, or catalyze, an important biochemical process that your body uses in the metabolism of energy from protein and fat.

Pantothenic Acid

Your body uses pantothenic acid, also called vitamin B-5, to form an enzyme called coenzyme A. Coenzyme A is used in biochemical reactions that result in your body's production of energy from carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Your body also uses coenzyme A to metabolize, or remove by chemical processes, drugs and toxins in your liver.

Manganese

Your body uses manganese to activate several of the enzymes involved in energy metabolism. For example, your body uses pyruvate carboxylase, an enzyme that contains manganese, in the process of converting glucose from proteins and fats. Glucose is the sugar that is fuel for your body. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, which is activated by manganese, is another enzyme involved in this process.

Copper

Copper works closely with the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase to produce energy. Cytochrome c oxidase starts the process that converts oxygen to water, creating an electrical element that your mitochondria -- the part of the cell that makes energy -- uses in its processes.

Zinc

Your body uses zinc in a variety of processes, including the metabolism of energy from food. Zinc is primarily used to make the enzymes active in the chemical reactions involved in the metabolic process, but it is also used in the release of insulin. Insulin enables your cells to absorb glucose, which produces energy.