The importance of potassium in human body

Potassium is necessary for the human body mainly in all tissue cells. Like sodium, it is also found in the extracellular fluid.

Potassium very important to human health. Potassium regulates blood pressure by lowering it, prevents strokes, cardiovascular diseases and it enhances nerve functions by providing cells with nutrients and energizing the whole body.

Every muscle movement and every nerve impulse transmission relies on potassium. Potassium is even necessary of carbohydrate and protein metabolism.

Potassium also helps eliminating wastes from our body and is a key compound in the detoxifying process. Potassium balances both water and acid in the blood and body tissues.

Potassium are found in a majority of the foods people eat. Good sources are meat, poultry, fish, milk and curds. Rich sources are whole grain cereals and pulses, vegetables and fruits such as bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, celery, orange, grapes, chiku and custard apple.

Potassium can also be found in herbs such as catnip, nettle, plantain, sage, horsetail and skullcap.
The importance of potassium in human body

Role of calcium in human nutrition

Calcium is one of 21 elements known to be essential to humans. Approximately 99% of the calcium within the human body is located within bone and teeth, where it provides a structural service.

The skeleton is an important reservoir for the calcium circulating in the extracellular fluid.

It serves both functions mainly by adjusting the balance between bone formation and bone resorption.

A positive calcium balance is required before bone growth can occur. Calcium intake and skeletal modeling and turnover determine calcium balance during growth.

Calcium is also important in metabolic functions such as muscular function, nervous stimuli, enzymatic and hormonal activities, and transport of oxygen.

Calcium being involved in muscle contraction, endocytosis, exocytosis, cell mobility the movement of chromosomes and release of neurotransmitters.

Small but highly important amounts of calcium are present in extracellular fluids, particularly blood plasma, as well as in a various body cells. A drop in the level of calcium to below 2.1 mmol/liter is termed hypocalcaemia and can lead to various symptoms.

Half of the plasma calcium is ionized and it fraction affects humoral controls, which are important in dictating intestinal absorption, renal loss and calcium bone metabolism.

Research findings also have suggested the potential involvement of calcium in cancer prevention and hypertension.
Role of calcium in human nutrition

Trace Elements of Zinc in Nutrition

Zinc is an essential trace element for all forms of life. It is widely distributed in foods. Because virtually none of its is present as the free ions, bioavailability is a function of the extent of digestion.

The vast majority of zinc is absorbed by the small intestine though a transcellular process with the jejunum being the site with the greatest transport rate.

Numerous aspects of cellular metabolism are zinc-dependent. Zinc plays important roles in growth and development, the immune response, neurological function and reproduction.

Nearly 300 different metalloenzymes depend on zinc for their ability to catalyze vital chemical reactions. Among the classes of enzymes with zinc metalloenzymes are oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases and ligases.

Zinc plays an important role in the structure of proteins and cell membranes. It is because zinc ability to stabilize thiol groups and phospholipids and to quench free radicals.

Zinc influences all immune cell subsets. However, zinc especially important in the maturation and function of T cells, because zinc is an essential cofactor for the thymus hormone, thymulin.

Zinc finger proteins have been found to regulate gene expression by acting as transaction factors. Zinc fingers are protein complexes that form a tetrahedral complex with zinc and provide structural stability for small polypeptides.

Zinc also plays a role in cell signaling and has been found to influence hormones release and nerve impulse transmission.

There is also a suggestions that zinc can act as an endogenous protective factor against atherosclerosis by inhibiting the oxidation of LDL by cells or transition metals.

Other functions little known including in maintaining the integrity of the vasculature and particularly the vascular endothelium.

Because zinc is required for normal cellular repair process and because atherosclerosis is believed to begin with vessel wall injury or dysfunction.

Zinc also interacts with platelets in blood clotting, affects thyroid hormone function, and influence behavior and learning performance.
Trace Elements of Zinc in Nutrition

Functions of Potassium

Potassium is an dietary mineral that is also known as an electrolyte, essential to both cellular and electrical function.

Intracellular fluid contains about 95 percent of the body’s potassium, with the highest amount in skeletal muscle cells.

The flow of sodium and potassium in and out of cells is an important component of muscle contractions and the transmission of nerve impulses.

The central nervous system (CNS) zealously protects it potassium – CNS potassium levels remain constant even in the face of falling levels in the muscle and blood.

Potassium also helps regulate blood pressure.

Potassium influences the contractility of smooth, skeletal, and cardiac muscle and profoundly affects the excitability of nerve tissue.

It is also plays a critical role in the transmission of electrical impulses in the heart.

It is also important in maintaining electrolyte and pH balance.

Potassium deficiency, also called hypokalemia, established the importance of potassium maintenance in cardiovascular disease.

There is also suggestion that increasing potassium intake may be key in lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of stroke, congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias.
Functions of Potassium

Proteins in Human Body

Protein are the main building blocks of the tissues of the body. The proteins are made up of smaller molecules called amino acids.

Once consumed (eaten) a protein is digested into the smaller amino acids and transported to the all the cells of the body where the amino acids can be put back together to make the proteins the body needs.

The human body contains thousands of different proteins, each with a specific function determined by this unique shape.

Most proteins the body makes function as structural proteins. Muscle tissues and connective tissues are mainly composed of proteins.

Collagen, which appears microscopically as a densely packed long rod, is the most abundant protein in mammals and gives skin and bone their elastic strength.

Hair and nails are made of keratin, which is another dense protein made of coiled helices.

Some proteins have an extremely important function by serving as enzymes.

Enzymes make biological chemistry efficient and less wasteful of energy.

The digestive system produces digestive enzymes whose function is to break down food into its chemical constituents.

Amylase is an enzymes that is involved in the breakdown of the polysaccharide starch into the monosaccharide glucose.

Protein can be involved in the Immune Response Mechanism and serve as carrier or transport molecules and also participate in the translation of DNA.

About half the dietary protein that consume each day goes into making enzymes, the specialized worker proteins that do specific jobs such as digesting food and assembling or dividing molecules to make new cells and chemicals substances.

To perform these functions, enzymes often need specific vitamins and minerals.

Obviously, the new born animal needs lots of proteins for growth and maturation.

The genes of DNA decide which amino acids (obtained from digestion) will go on to make a protein the cell needs for whatever structure or function requirement.

Dietary protein is one of three sources that contributes amino acids to the amino acid pool. The other two are protein turnover and biosynthesis of amino acids in the liver.
Proteins in Human Body

Vitamin E Sources and Functions

It was discovered in 1922 in vegetable oil given the name ‘tocopherol’. Vitamin E, of which there are four different forms, is fat soluble.

The four have the same name except with the prefixes alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-, (the first four letters of the Greek alphabet).

Only alpha-tocopherol contributes toward meeting the human vitamin E requirement and it is the most common form of vitamin E in food.

It is our body’s major fat soluble antioxidant. It protects vulnerable polyunsaturated lipids in cell membranes, in blood and elsewhere throughout the body.

The richest dietary sources of vitamin E are the vegetable oils. Safflower and olive oil contain the highest proportion of alpha-tocopherol, followed by soybean oil.

Curiously enough, these oils are also the richest sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which vitamin E protects from oxidation.

Nuts and seeds such as sunflower seeds, are among the best food sources.

In western diet, vitamins E intake derives mainly from fats and oils contained in margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing and desserts, and increasingly also from fortified food (e.g., breakfast cereals, milk, fruit juices).

Vitamin E helps reduce oxidation of lipid membranes and the unsaturated fatty acids and prevents the breakdown of other nutrients by oxygen.

Some scientists compare the function of vitamin E on the cell membrane to a lightening and nullifying the damage that occurs of lightening strikes. This function of vitamin E is also performed and enhanced by other antioxidants, such as vitamin C, beta-carotene, glutathione (L-cysteine), coenzyme Q and the mineral selenium.

In fact, there is a direct recycling process for vitamin E that requires the immediate presence of beta-carotene, vitamin C, flavonoids, and coenzyme Q to work.

Observational studies have suggested that high intake of antioxidant including vitamins E, may lower the risk of some chronic disease, especially heart disease.

Different forms of vitamin E, other than alpha-tocopherol, have immuno-regulatory functions,

Alpha-tocopherol is the most common form of vitamin E in plasma and tissues and the most extensively studied for its beneficial effect on immune function, probably because it is the exclusively component in most vitamin E supplements.
Vitamin E Sources and Functions

Deficiency of Biotin

Biotin is a water soluble vitamin that is generally classified in the B complex group. This B complex vitamin used in the formation of enzymes that fuel the human body.

Biotin is a key factor in metabolizing and utilizing fats an glucose for energy.

Deficiency of this compound is unusual, but can be demonstrated by the feeding of raw egg white, which contains the substance, avidin, which ties up biotin.

Because some anticonvulsant drugs breakdown biotin, people who take then for long periods also risk a deficiency.

Biotin deficiency also has been clearly demonstrated in biotinidase deficiency. This due to several process which involved gastrointestinal absorption, salvage of biotin at cellular level and renal loss of biocytin.

Infants born with biotinidase deficiency suffer from a rare genetic defect that leads to biotin depletion.

Decreased levels of biotin cause the metabolism to become severely impaired. When enzymes aren’t available to breakdown and build up protein, every biochemical process of the body suffers since protein are the essential building blocks of cellular composition.

The clinical findings and biochemical abnormalities caused by biotinidase deficiency are quiet similar to those of biotin deficiency: common finding include periorificial dermatitis, conjunctivitis, alopecia, ataxia, and development delay.
Deficiency of Biotin

Calcium in Human Body

Calcium is the most abundant divalent cation of the body, representing about 1.5% to 2 % of total body weight.

Calcium in the body roses from an average of 24 grams at birth to about 1300 grams at maturity.

Over 99% of the total calcium of the body located in the bones, where it accounts for 39% of the total body bone mineral content and in the teeth, mostly as hydroxyapatite.

Physical FunctionStructural component of bones and teeth; role in intracellular and hormonal secretion regulation, muscle contraction, blood clotting, and activation of some enzyme systems.

The calcium in bones serves as a reservoir for calcium that is needed throughout the body.

Calcium also is the key factor in normal transmission of nerve impulses. The movement of calcium into nerve cells triggers the release of neurotransmitter at the junction between nerves.

Deficiency symptoms
The symptoms of calcium deficiency includes rickets, osteomalacia, osteoporosis, scurvy, tetany, parathyroid hyperplasia, stunted growth, laryngospasm.

Deficiency of calcium lowers the body resistance and for the children become as easy prey to respiratory and intestinal infections.

Poor calcium intake affects mostly bone and muscle. Rickets occurs in children when the amount of calcium accretion per unit of bone matrix is deficient.

Hypocalcemia may result in tetany, a condition characterized by intermittent muscle contractions that fail to relax, especially in muscles of the arms and legs.

Food sourcesCalcium is present in foods and dietary supplements as relatively insoluble salts.

Food sources of calcium include milk, milk products, sardines, clams, oysters, turnip greens, broccoli, legumes and dried fruits.

Majority of dietary calcium in industrialized countries comes from milk products.

When substantial amounts of grains are consumed, for like breads or as maize, these can be important sources, although the calcium in cereals rends to be less bioavailable than that in dairy products.
Calcium in Human Body

Function of Carbohydrate in Human Body

In order to carry out its day to day physiological functions and maintain a constant body temperature (due to invariably in an environment of changing temperatures), the body requires a constant source of energy.

Carbohydrates are an important energy source in the human diet. They generally supply about 45% of the energy requirement in developed countries and up to 85% in developing countries.

Carbohydrate are the cheapest, most efficient and most readily available source of food energy in the world, since they are the main constituents of the foods that are the easiest to produce and that can be obtained throughout the world, namely, grains, legumes and potatoes.

Carbohydrate are the most widely distributed, naturally occurring organic compounds on earth.

Carbohydrates have been considered a fundamental source of nourishment and inexpensive and versatile staple of the diet.

The carbohydrates that are important in nutrition include the sugars, the starches, the dextrin and glycogen.

The functional properties of carbohydrates in food include:
*Nutrition
*flavour and color production
*Sweetening
*Texturing
*Plasticizing action and humectancy

Dietary guidance for consumption of carbohydrates has resemble laboratory analysis of carbohydrates: take way fat and protein and the remainder must to be carbohydrate.

Nutritionist generally accept the fact that humans don’t need more than 10-12% kilocalories from protein, and less than 30% of kilocalories from fat.

Subsequently, intake of carbohydrate should be 55% of kilocalories or more.

Human diets historically have contained 40-80% of their energy as carbohydrate although as income increase, so does the fat content of the diet while carbohydrate content of the diet, especially the starch, decreases.

Starch is the major plant polysaccharide that is readily digested in the intestine and thus serves as a source of carbohydrates.

In human body, carbohydrates support the immune system and assist processes such as growth and blood clotting. Their primary role, however, is to supply energy to every cell of the body.

The major portion of energy requirements of human is met by starch of cereal grains and tubers such as potatoes.

For certain body systems such as the brain and the nervous system, , carbohydrates are the preferred energy source. The brain an nervous system are sensitive to the concentration of glucose in the blood. Normal blood glucose levels are important for a feeling of well being.

What exactly is a carbohydrate? A carbohydrate molecule is made of carbon, hydrogen and water and these building blocks can be joined in countless ways to form different carbohydrates. As the names implies, an empirical formula of CH2O (or CH2O) was often encountered, with molecular formulae of C5H10O5 and C6H12O6 being most common.

It was founded in the nineteenth century that carbohydrates in general have a formula Cn(H2O)n. They were therefore thought to be hydrates of carbon and hence were called ‘carbohydrates’.

The water solubility of these molecules was commensurate with presence of hydroxyl groups and there was always evidence for the carboxyl group of an aldehydes of ketone.
Function of Carbohydrate in Human Body

Mineral in Human Bodies

Mineral in Human Bodies
In general, the function of minerals in the body can be divided into two categories, namely, building body tissue and regulating numerous processes.

Potassium, sulfur, phosphorus, iron and other minerals are structural components of soft tissue.

Sodium is principally found in extracellular fluid (bone is an exception), where it is the chief cation, and thus it is considered mainly as a primary determinant of body fluid osmolarity as well as the maintainer of body fluid pH.

Intracellular fluid contains much smaller amounts of sodium though these stores, and perhaps the sodium of the bone also serve in this capacity.

It is also important to mention that the energy for impulse transmission in the nerve and its action potential derive from the potential energy represented by the separathion of sodium and potassium across the cell wall.

On the other hand, calcium, together with phosphorus, magnesium and fluorine are components of bone and teeth. Deficiencies during the growing years cause growth to be stunted and bone tissue to be poor quality.

A continual intake of mineral is essential for the maintenance of skeletal tissue in good condition

Minerals are an integral part of many hormones, enzymes and other compounds that regulate physiological functions in the organism.

For example, iodine required to produce the hormone thyroxine, chromium is involved in the production of insulin and hemoglobin is an iron containing compound.

Thus, production of these substances in the organism depends on adequate intake of the involved minerals.

Minerals can also act as catalysts. Calcium is a catalysts in blood clotting. Some minerals are catalysts in the absorption of nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract, the metabolism of proteins, fat and carbohydrate and the utilization of nutrients by the cell.

Mineral dissolved in the body fluids are responsible for nerve impulses and the contraction of muscles, as swell as for water and acid base balance.

Minerals play an important role in maintaining respiration, heart rate and blood pressure within normal limits.

The deficiency of minerals in the diet may lead to severe chronic clinical signs of disease, frequently reversible after their supplementation on the diet or following total parenteral nutrition.

The influence of minerals on biochemical reactions in living systems also make it possible to use them intentionally in many food processes.
Mineral in Human Bodies

Digestion and absorption at infant age

Digestion and absorption at infant age
The complex process of digestion/absorption can be optimally effective only when the GI tract and accessory organs are totally develop and fully functioning.

Not only must the muscular tube (alimentary canal) with it a mucosal lining and endocrine cells be operating efficiently in conjunction with the nervous system, but the accessory organs (pancreas, liver, and gallbladder) with their important digestive secretions also must be physiologically mature.

The feeding of infants is based on primarily in degree of maturation of the GI tract and accessory organs.

Good examples of the emphasis on GI tract maturity are the care given to the fat in infant formula and the time and sequence of the introduction of various foods into the infant’s diet.

Only those fats possessing an ease used in commercial formulas and the introduction of solid food, beginning with baby cereal usually occurs no earlier than 4 months of age.

The infant pancreas, although structurally mature at term, is usable for several months to produce enzymes sufficient for effective digestion.

Pancreatic lipase, alpha-amylase and the proteolytic enzymes are in too short supply to accommodate digestion of a mixed diet. Digestion of fat is a real concern because there is a deficiency of bile salts from the liver as well as low lipase release from the pancreas.
Digestion and absorption at infant age

Functions of Protein and Individual Amino Acids

Functions of Protein and Individual Amino Acids
Traditionally amino acids have been described as ketogenic and glucogenic, that is, they tend to give rise to acetoacetate or carbohydrate intermediates.

In light of the present knowledge of interrelated metabolic pathways, these terms are obsolete. Nonetheless, it is perhaps useful to remember that phenylalanine, tyrosine, leucine and isoleucine are degraded in part to acetoacetate whereas other amino acids are degraded chiefly to pyruvate, oxaloacetate, alpha-ketoglutarate, succinate and fumarate.

The dietary requirements of certain of the amino acids are influenced by the intake of other nutrients. For example, phenylalanine is converted to tyrosine in the animal cell.

The dietary requirement for phenylalanine, therefore is a function of the total aromatic amino acid content of the diet.

Similarly, methionine may function metabolically as a precursor of other sulfur-containing amino acids so that both of the dietary methionine and cystine determine the requirement for methionine.

The relationship between tryptophan and nicotinic acid is another important example. Tryptophan may be metabolized to form nicotinic acid, and in so doing, contributes to the total amount of the vitamin available for cellular metabolism.

Many of the amino acids are precursors of other significant compounds required in metabolic processes. For example, tyroxine and therefore, phenylalanine give rose to the hormones tyroxine and epinephrine.

Glutamic acid cysteine, and glycine are components of a tripeptide glutathione, which functions in cellular oxidation-reduction reactions.

Sulfur containing amino acids give rise to taurine a bile acid component,. Tryptophan may be metabolized to form serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine), a tissue hormone that is found predominantly in serum, blood platelets, gastrointestinal mucosa and nerve tissue.

Methionine provides methyl groups for synthesis of choline, creatine and methylation of nicotinamide to its major excretion product N’-methylnicotinamide.

Glycine contributes to the porphyrin ring of hemoglobin and, along with serine, provides part of the structure of the purine and pyrimidines of the nuclei acids.

Two hydroxylated amino acids – hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine – are important constituents of collagen; approximately 12 percent of the total amino acids content of collagen is hydroxyproline.
Functions of Protein and Individual Amino Acids

Calcium

Calcium
Calcium is vital for the formation of strong bones and teeth and for the maintenance of healthy gums. It is also important in the maintenance of a regular heartbeat and in the transmission of nerve impulses. Calcium lowers cholesterol levels and helps prevent cardiovascular disease. It is needed for muscular growth and contraction, for the prevention of muscle cramps. It may increase the rate of bone growth and bone mineral density in children.

This important mineral is also essential in blood clotting and helps prevent cancer. It may lower blood pressure and prevent bone loss associated with osteoporosis as well. Calcium provides energy and participates in the protein structuring of RNA and DNA. It is also involved in the activation of several enzymes, including lipase, which breaks down fats for utilization by the body. In addition, calcium maintains proper cell membrane permeability, aids in neuromuscular activity, helps to keep the skin healthy, and protects against the development of preeclampsia during pregnancy, the number one cause of maternal death. If high blood pressure develops due to pregnancy, it can be reduced by calcium intake.

Calcium protects the bones and teeth from lead by inhibiting absorption of this toxic metal. If there is a calcium deficiency, lead can be absorbed by the body and deposited in the teeth and bones.

Calcium deficiency can lead to the following problems: arching joints, brittle nails, eczema, elevated blood cholesterol, heart palpitation, hypertension (high blood pressure), insomnia, muscle cramps, nervousness, numbness in the arms and/or legs, a pasty complexion, rheumatoid arthritis, rickets and tooth decay. Deficiencies of calcium are also associated with cognitive impairment convulsions, depression, delusions and hyperactivity.
Calcium

Nutritional Processes: Gastrointestinal Tract

Nutritional Processes: Gastrointestinal Tract
The gastrointestinal tract (GI) is bordered by a layer of epithelial cells (with glands) sitting on a lamina propria (or basement membrane), comprising the mucosa and adjacent to the submucosa, which is penetrated by blood capillaries, lymphatics and nerves. Beneath the mucosa and submucosa are two layers of smooth muscle, lying in longitudinal and transverse directions, to allow contractions and peristalsis, Within the stomach , but particularly in the small intestine, the surface area of the mucosa is greatly increased. The mucosal and submucosal layer is folded into microscopic villi on the surface of larger folds or ridges. At the bases of the villi are the “crypts” where new epithelial cells are formed that migrate upward to the villi. These cells are sloughed off at a fairly rapid rate; the lifespan of villus cells in the small intestine is as little as 2 - 3 days (in man), that of colonic cells 3 – 8 days). Cells in the crypts include those with glandular and mucous-secreting functions, where as those in the villi are largely absorptive. Glandular cells are important in signaling the initiation and coordination of digestive processes, involving a large number of hormones neurotransmitters and paracrine factors. Mucous provided by “goblet” cells promotes lubrication within the lumen of the GI tract. In the small intestine, crypt cells are also the source of some digestive juices.

The epithelia cells of the mucosa have an apical (lumen –oriented) surface that is often additionally invaginated to form microvilli (or a brush border). In the small intestine the brush border contains transporter and some digestive enzymes. It is also more rigid than other parts of the cells membrane, a fact now attributed to high concentrations of sphingolipid in the outer half of the lipid bilayer. Surface cells are held together by tight junctions near the apical (top) parts of the cells. At the opposites (serosal) end, the cells membrane has a different (less rigid) structure (high in phosphatidyl-choline) and also serves different functions. Nutrients entering the blood or lymph for distribution to body tissues must first cross the brush border and ultimately the serosal surface of these cells to enter the intestinal fluid. Transport across either or both of these surfaces may be independently and/or differentially controlled, depending upon the nutrient. For there, capillaries and lymphatics take nutrients to the rest of the body. Nutrients not making it across the serosal membranes will remain with the mucosal cells until they are sloughed off, from whence they may be released by digestion and resorbed or lost with cell debris and bacteria in feces.
Nutritional Processes: Gastrointestinal Tract

Proteins and Amino Acid*

Proteins
Nearly half of the dry weight of a typical animal cell is protein. Structural components of the cell, antibodies, and many of the hormones are proteins but as much as 90% of cellular proteins are the enzymes upon which fundamental cellular function depends. They may be as many as 1000 different enzymes in a single cell.

The protein molecule is a polymer of amino acids joined in peptide linkages. Although the molecular weight is usually high, there is a vast range in both structure and complexity of protein molecules. Hemoglobin for example, has a molecular weight of about 64,500; myosin, a muscle protein is estimated to have a molecular weight of about 489,000. It is not uncommon for peptide structures of fairly low molecular weight (less than 10,000 and containing less than 100 amino acids) to be designated polypeptides rather than proteins. On the average, about 20 different amino acids occur in most proteins, the amino acids present, their position in the molecule, and the spatial arrangement of the molecule all determine the proteins and characteristics of the proteins. In turn the function of a protein depends, in large measure, on its structure.

Amino acids
The amino acids are the fundamentals units of protein structure. All amino acids contain at least one amino group (-NH2) in the alpha position and one carboxyl, and all (except Glycine) contain an asymmetric carbon atom. For this reason, they may exist as isomers. Most naturally occurring amino acids are of the L-configurations, although D-amino acids are not uncommon in some microorganisms. The presence of a D-amino acid oxidase in mammalian tissue, however, suggests that the D-forms may play some yet unrecognized role in mammalian protein metabolism.
Proteins and Amino Acid

Classification of Lipids

Classification of Lipids
Lipids include all substances that are extractable from biological materials with the usual fat solvents (ether, chloroform, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, acetone, etc). Certain lipids are an energy source for the cell, others are structural compounds (particularly important are the lipid constituents of cell and organelle membranes), and still other function as hormones. This diversity of function recalls the not too remote past when lipids were considered to be inert constituents of adipose cells.

Of the many compounds classified as lipids, only fraction is significant in the diet, or in the structure and function of the human cell. The following classification is limited to lipids of importance in animal nutrition and excludes the fat soluble vitamins that, although properly classified as lipids, following the classic practice of nutritionist.

A. Simple Lipids
Fatty acids
Neutral fats (mono-, di- and triacyl glycerols)
Wax
*Sterol ester
*Nonsterol ester

B. Compound Lipids
Phospholipids
*Phosphatidic acids, lecithin, cephalins, etc
*Plasmalogens
*Sphinghomyelins
Glycolipid (carbohydrate containing)
Lipoproteins (lipids in combination with protein)

C. Derived Lipids, alcohol (including sterols and hydrocarbons)
Classification of Lipids