Why vitamins are named using letters of the alphabet, and how they were discovered
It took thousands of years to link nutrition to deficiencies
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While there has always been an understanding of a connection between food and human health, it took a long time for science to catch up. Isolating the exact compounds in food, that provide a particular form of nutrition, didn't occur in earnest until the early 1900s. The resulting hard work of scientists in the first half of the 20th century initiated the beginning of our modern-day understanding of vitamins—named after letters of the alphabet, with some including numbers, too.
Curious? Click on to learn about when vitamins were discovered, why they are named after letters, and what scientists found out about their function.