Vitamin A
It plays a vital role in bone growth, reproduction and immune system health. It acts as an antioxidant, it also helps the skin and mucous membranes repel bacteria and viruses more effectively. It is essential to healthy vision especially night vision and may slow declining retinal function in people with retinitis pigmentosa.
Vitamin A deficiency can lead to childhood blindness, according to the World Health Organisation around 250,000 to 500,000 children around the world with Vitamin A deficiency become blind every year. Sadly half of these children die within 12 months of losing their sight.
Symptoms of severe deficiency are night blindness, dry eyes, diarrhoea and skin problems.
Vitamin B1
It helps your body break down carbohydrates into sugars. Vitamin B1 also referred to as thiamine.
Too little vitamin B causes beriberi, a disease affecting the heart, digestive system and the nervous system.
Symptoms of beriberi include difficulty in walking, loss of sensation in hands and feet and may even lead to congenital heart failure.
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B2 is also known as riboflavin. It helps your body break down and use the carbohydrates, fats and proteins in your diet.
Vitamin B2 also functions to keep your skin, lining of the gut, and blood cells healthy. Getting enough of the vitamin can help prevent migraine headaches and cataracts. It may also increase energy levels, boost the immune system, and treat acne and muscle cramps.
Vitamin B6
The Vitamin is involved in more than 100 enzyme reactions in the body’s cells. These include helping the body metabolize amino acids from our food and building new red blood cells.
Health benefits of Vitamin B6 include reduction in heart disease risk.
Deficiency of the vitamin can lead to anaemia, rash as well as depression and confusion.
Vitamin B12
This vitamin is also known as cyanocobalamin. It is essential in building blood cells and maintaining healthy nerve cells in the body. It is also needed to convert carbohydrates into glucose in the body leading to energy production, it helps in healthy regulation of the nervous system reducing depression, stress and brain shrinkage, is essential for healthy skin, hair and nails, it helps in cell reproduction and constant renewal of the skin. It also helps protect against cancers including breast, colon, lung and prostate cancer.
Deficiency of the vitamin can lead to anaemia.
Symptoms of B12 deficiency include weakness, fatigue, constipation, weight loss and loss of appetite. Deficiency is also damaging to the nervous system and can cause depression, confusion and dementia.
Vitamin D3
Vitamin D is also called the ‘sunshine vitamin’. However with today’s indoor living and extensive use of sunscreen due to concern for skin cancer, we are now a society deficient in this life sustaining vitamin.
The vitamin regulates the absorption of calcium and phosphorous and facilitating normal immune system function. It is also important for normal growth and development of bones and teeth as well as improved resistance against certain diseases.
The vitamin also has a role in reducing risk of multiple sclerosis, decreases chances of developing heart disease and also reduces likelihood of developing the flu.
Vitamin D3 deficiency has been linked to conditions such as high blood pressure, precipitates and exacerbates osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Vitamin E
The vitamin is also known as tocopherol. It is a fat soluble antioxidant.
The most widely known health benefits of Vitamin E are protection against toxins such as air pollution, premenstrual syndrome, eye disorders such as cataracts, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. Another important benefit of the vitamin is that it reduces cholesterol and risk of developing cancer. It can also be used to treat scars, acne and wrinkles as it speeds up cell regeneration, this creates an anti-aging effect that makes the skin look younger.
Vitamin E deficiency can lead to impaired reflexes and coordination, difficulty in walking and weal muscles, it can also lead to anaemia,
Omega 3
These are essential fats meaning that the body cannot make them from scratch but must get them from food.
They are an integral part of cell membranes throughout the body and affects the function of the cell receptors in these membranes. They provide the starting point for making hormones that regulate blood clotting, contraction and relaxation of artery walls and inflammation. They also bind receptors in cells that regulate genetic function.
Omega 3 fats have been known to help prevent heart disease and stroke, may help control lupus, eczema and rheumatoid arthritis.
Omega 6
Omega 6 is classified as an essential fat acid due to the fact that the human body cannot synthesize it
Health benefits of omega 6 include; it plays an important role in cell growth and is essential for brain and muscle development, it is also important in the nervous system as a transmitter of nerve impulses.
I have to confess that before I wrote this article I had not quite figured how nutritious Blue band is, no wonder we turned out so well having been raised on Blue band. As a parent if you are not already feeding your little on Blue band I’d suggest you do so with immediate effect given the health benefits of consuming the nutrients that can be found in Blue band. So packed with nutrients is the new Blue band that one would be tempted to eat it as a meal, just kidding.
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