Skip to main content

Essential Nutrients

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Essential nutrients — certain amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals — cannot be synthesized by the body and must come from diet.

Show

Humans synthesize only eleven of twenty required amino acids; the rest must be eaten.

Watch for

"Essential" describes dietary necessity, not overall biological importance — non-essential nutrients matter too, only via a different synthesis route.