Vitamins and minerals: good for your body and mind

You often do not think about it, but we cannot live without vitamins and minerals. Your body needs these substances from food for all kinds of processes. Without vitamins and minerals, you wouldn’t have the energy to work, walk, and even get up in the morning. Without vitamins and minerals your blood would not clot if you get a wound. You wouldn’t be able to see well. But vitamins and minerals do much more than just support these processes in your body. They are also important for keeping your brain working properly. You need them to think, concentrate and remember things. And they even affect your mood.

Resistance to stress

We live in a hectic world. Work, study, family, friends, sports and social media ensure that we are constantly busy or feel pressured. Certain vitamins and minerals play a role in dealing with this. For example, sufficient folic acid (vitamin B11), vitamin B5 and zinc contribute to your resistance to stress. This can help during busy working days or with great mental effort. You are less sensitive to stress and better balanced.

Mental effort and balance

Vitamins and minerals are also necessary for mental effort. In order to concentrate, learn, solve problems and remember things, you need enough of various B vitamins and vitamin C and of the minerals iron, iodine, magnesium and zinc. You get these from, for example, meat, fish, vegetables and eggs. The B vitamins, vitamin C and magnesium do even more for your mind: they are good for your mood and beneficial for a good mental balance.

Less aggression in prison?

There are even indications that vitamins and minerals influence our behaviour. For example, it seems that detainees are less aggressive if they get enough vitamins and minerals. The first research into this was carried out years ago in the United Kingdom. The number of violent incidents in prison fell by a quarter among inmates who were given a dietary supplement containing vitamins and minerals for three months. Violence remained the same among the inmates who received a placebo. A later study in the Netherlands also found comparable favorable results. How it works exactly has yet to be determined, but sufficient vitamins and minerals may therefore play a role in preventing aggressive behaviour.

Only effect in case of shortages

Less aggression, more resistant to stress, better concentration: vitamins and minerals seem like miracle cures. Yet there is a big ‘but’. The effects can be seen with a deficiency of vitamins and minerals. If you get too little of it, it can be accompanied by a decline in brain functions and mental balance. Improvement can then occur by eating healthier or taking a vitamin supplement. But more is not better. Those who already get enough vitamins and minerals will not experience any effect from some extra. For your body, enough is enough.

Vitamins and minerals for your mind: here they are