Cebu City - Eat more carrots to have good eyesight. Eat spinach to get “Popeye–muscles”. Fish is food for the brain. An apple a day keeps the doctors away. These old wives’ tales are passed down generation to generation despite there isn’t hard evidence that proves so. However, have we ever asked ourselves why our parents always repeatedly reminded us to always eat our fruits and vegetables? And why do their parents do the same thing to them?

Although there isn’t any proven scientific explanation that can show that these tales are completely accurate, there is a bit of truth that stems from them. We eat more vegetables and vitamins every day to get the essential vitamins, minerals, and fibers for the regulation of body processes. There are some vitamins that do not naturally occur in the body. The only way we can get them is from the foods we eat.

Essential vitamins are vital for growth, reproduction, disease prevention, and good health however, the human body cannot make them on its own. Therefore, we must get them by eating the right kind of food. Vitamins A, B, C, E, K, are essential vitamins while vitamin D can be a conditionally essential vitamin that becomes essential under certain conditions.

Nonessential vitamins are another class of vitamins that our body can make. However, we can obtain them from the diet as well, but they have a significant effect on health. That means; they can be beneficial to the body and can be toxic when taken in excess amounts. Furthermore, some amino acids and fatty acids are nonessential since the body can synthesize them. Some vitamins like vitamin D and biotin can be synthesized by the body, so they are not technically considered "essential".

The reason vitamins are extremely important is that these biological nutrients are required for a number of cellular and tissue-specific processes in our body. Vitamins are primarily attained from your dietary intake, with different vitamins originating from different types of food sources. To have a safe and complete intake of the vitamins we are required to eat every single day. The key is to simply follow the Pinggang Pinoy, the familiar food plate model that conveys the right food group proportions on a per-meal basis to meet the body's energy and nutrient needs of Filipinos. // ND II Mary Carmeli Garrovillo, RND