Natural vitamins are organic compounds that can be found only in the living beings (plants and animals).They have discovered almost twenty active vitamins, each of them is present in several amounts in specific food. Vitamins are definitely necessary for the growth and the health preserving but, with very few exceptions, they must be obtained from food or the alimentary integrators because our body is unable to synthetize them. Vitamins carry out the function of coenzymes, responsible for the oxidation process of the metabolism. Since the vitamins act on a cellular level, the deficiency of one or more vitamins can cause various symptoms.

Minerals are nourishing aliments existing in our body and in food in organic and inorganic combinations. There are seventeen minerals in our body, of which they constitute 4 - 5%. They are in bones, teeth, soft tissues, muscles, blood, nervous cells and are important for the development of the physiological processes; they reinforce the skeleton structure and maintain the vigour of the heart, brain as well as the strength of all muscles and the nervous system. Minerals coexist with the vitamins and their functions are correlated. For example: some vitamins of the B group are absorbed only when they are in combination with phosphorus; vitamin C favours the iron absorption, while D vitamin the absorption of calcium. Minerals help the osmotic pump to maintain the delicate hydric balance in our body; they favour the transport of the chemical substances inside and outside cells and help the production of antibodies.The minerals interact among themselves in carrying out their functions. Physical and nervous stresses cause an increase of the mineral requirements for the body; while their deficiency causes disorders that can be eliminated with the appropriate diet. All the necessary minerals for our body must be taken from food.