Figure 1.

Overview of the involvement of vitamins and minerals in the major pathways of cellular energy production. This figure displays a simplified scheme of energy metabolism. Briefly, macronutrients are oxidized (part A) into acetyl-CoA through several pathways including glycolysis, which produces pyruvate from glucose, and vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 and C play important roles Then acetyl-CoA enters the citric acid cycle (part B), which generates energy as NADH and FADH₂ through a series of eight oxidations that involve vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B8 and B12 as well as iron and magnesium. Finally, the electrons of NADH and FADH₂ are transferred to the electron transport chain (part C), where they provide energy used to generate ATP molecules; this step needs the input of vitamins B2, B3, B5 and of iron.