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A vitamin is any essential dietary component, which is organic (otherwise it would be a dietary mineral), and is not a fat, protein/amino acid, or carbohydrate (although carbohydrates are considered non-essential).

Vitamin D is conditionally essential. If you have enough sunlight, your body can synthesize it.

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TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
How does the body absorb the sun’s bananas though? Let’s see you weasel your way out of that, science nerd!

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- saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You apply this
  
  Image
  
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  - TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    … oh damn.
    
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- seven_phone@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I actually can raise my hand for this one, the impact with the skin surface emulsifies the outer banana layer which is then readily absorbed by the pore system. Bananasplitsynthesis is a very well understood process.
  
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  - TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That’s good stuff. Bravo
    
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ewigkaiwelo@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve heard somewhere that maybe initially vitamin the word comes from “vital amino acids” => vita(l)min(o)… and any substance from a living creature would include amino acids anyway because they have DNA RNA and such

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- Jesus_666@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Vita + amine, actually. Amines are compounds with an NH₂ group; amino acids are a subset of that.
  
  The person who coined the term though he had isolated an amine that was effective against a certain disease. What he had actually isolated was neither an amine nor effective against that disease but was actually a different essential compound. (He was looking for what we now know as thiamine but had actually discovered niacin.)
  
  The name “vitamin” stuck around despite the fact that most vitamins aren’t amines.
  
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MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Didn’t explain it. Jus said “it’s something your body needs”

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- niucllos@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  There was actually just a very detailed gastropod episode on this, but the tl;dl version is that a vitamin isn’t a specific thing the way a protein or a carbohydrate is. It’s anything that the body needs in small amounts that isn’t something else
  
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- rhombus@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Because that’s the definition: an essential organic compound that is not a mineral, fatty acid, or amino acid. It’s the “everything else” category for essential nutrients.
  
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- TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Brawndo, got it
  
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