The chemical structure of retinol, the most common dietary form of vitamin A

A vitamin (US /ˈvaɪtəmɪn/ or UK /ˈvɪtəmɪn/) is an organic compound required as a vital nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism.^[1] In other words, an organic chemical compound (or related set of compounds) is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on the circumstances and on the particular organism. For example, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is a vitamin for humans, but not for most other animals, and biotin and vitamin D are required in the human diet only in certain circumstances. By convention, the term vitamin does not include other essential nutrients such as dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, or essential amino acids (which are needed in larger amounts than vitamins), nor does it encompass the large number of other nutrients that promote health but are otherwise required less often.^[2] Thirteen vitamins are universally recognized at present.

Vitamins are classified by their biological and chemical activity, not their structure. Thus, each "vitamin" refers to a number of vitamer compounds that all show the biological activity associated with a particular vitamin. Such a set of chemicals is grouped under an alphabetized vitamin "generic descriptor" title, such as "vitamin A", which includes the compounds retinal, retinol, and four known carotenoids. Vitamers by definition are convertible to the active form of the vitamin in the body, and are sometimes inter-convertible to one another, as well.

Vitamins have diverse biochemical functions. Some have hormone-like functions as regulators of mineral metabolism (e.g., vitamin D), or regulators of cell and tissue growth and differentiation (e.g., some forms of vitamin A). Others function as antioxidants (e.g., vitamin E and sometimes vitamin C).^[3] The largest number of vitamins (e.g., B complex vitamins) function as precursors for enzyme cofactors, that help enzymes in their work as catalysts in metabolism. In this role, vitamins may be tightly bound to enzymes as part of prosthetic groups: For example, biotin is part of enzymes involved in making fatty acids. Vitamins may also be less tightly bound to enzyme catalysts as coenzymes, detachable molecules that function to carry chemical groups or electrons between molecules. For example, folic acid carries various forms of carbon group – methyl, formyl, and methylene – in the cell. Although these roles in assisting enzyme-substrate reactions are vitamins' best-known function, the other vitamin functions are equally important.^[4]

Until the mid-1930s, when the first commercial yeast-extract vitamin B complex and semi-synthetic vitamin C supplement tablets were sold, vitamins were obtained solely through food intake, and changes in diet (which, for example, could occur during a particular growing season) usually greatly altered the types and amounts of vitamins ingested. However, vitamins have been produced as commodity chemicals and made widely available as inexpensive semisynthetic and synthetic-source multivitamin dietary and food supplements and additives, since the middle of the 20th century.

The term vitamin was derived from "vitamine," a combination word coined by Polish scientist Casimir Funk (originally Kazimierz Funk) from vital and amine, meaning amine of life, because it was suggested in 1912 that the organic micronutrient food factors that prevent beriberi and perhaps other similar dietary-deficiency diseases might be chemical amines. This proved incorrect for the micronutrient class, and the word was shortened to vitamin.

History[link]

The value of eating a certain food to maintain health was recognized long before vitamins were identified. The ancient Egyptians knew that feeding liver to a person would help cure night blindness, an illness now known to be caused by a vitamin A deficiency.^[5] The advancement of ocean voyages during the Renaissance resulted in prolonged periods without access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and made illnesses from vitamin deficiency common among ships' crews.^[6]

In 1747, the Scottish surgeon James Lind discovered that citrus foods helped prevent scurvy, a particularly deadly disease in which collagen is not properly formed, causing poor wound healing, bleeding of the gums, severe pain, and death.^[5] In 1753, Lind published his Treatise on the Scurvy, which recommended using lemons and limes to avoid scurvy, which was adopted by the British Royal Navy. This led to the nickname Limey for sailors of that organization. Lind's discovery, however, was not widely accepted by individuals in the Royal Navy's Arctic expeditions in the 19th century, where it was widely believed that scurvy could be prevented by practicing good hygiene, regular exercise, and maintaining the morale of the crew while on board, rather than by a diet of fresh food.^[5] As a result, Arctic expeditions continued to be plagued by scurvy and other deficiency diseases. In the early 20th century, when Robert Falcon Scott made his two expeditions to the Antarctic, the prevailing medical theory was that scurvy was caused by "tainted" canned food.^[5]

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the use of deprivation studies allowed scientists to isolate and identify a number of vitamins. Lipid from fish oil was used to cure rickets in rats, and the fat-soluble nutrient was called "antirachitic A". Thus, the first "vitamin" bioactivity ever isolated, which cured rickets, was initially called "vitamin A"; however, the bioactivity of this compound is now called vitamin D.^[7] In 1881, Russian surgeon Nikolai Lunin studied the effects of scurvy while at the University of Tartu in present-day Estonia.^[8] He fed mice an artificial mixture of all the separate constituents of milk known at that time, namely the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and salts. The mice that received only the individual constituents died, while the mice fed by milk itself developed normally. He made a conclusion that "a natural food such as milk must therefore contain, besides these known principal ingredients, small quantities of unknown substances essential to life."^[8] However, his conclusions were rejected by other researchers when they were unable to reproduce his results. One difference was that he had used table sugar (sucrose), while other researchers had used milk sugar (lactose) that still contained small amounts of vitamin B.^{[citation needed]}

The Ancient Egyptians knew that feeding a person liver (back, right) would help cure night blindness.

In east Asia, where polished white rice was the common staple food of the middle class, beriberi resulting from lack of vitamin B₁ was endemic. In 1884, Takaki Kanehiro, a British trained medical doctor of the Imperial Japanese Navy, observed that beriberi was endemic among low-ranking crew who often ate nothing but rice, but not among officers who consumed a Western-style diet. With the support of the Japanese navy, he experimented using crews of two battleships; one crew was fed only white rice, while the other was fed a diet of meat, fish, barley, rice, and beans. The group that ate only white rice documented 161 crew members with beriberi and 25 deaths, while the latter group had only 14 cases of beriberi and no deaths. This convinced Takaki and the Japanese Navy that diet was the cause of beriberi, but mistakenly believed that sufficient amounts of protein prevented it.^[9] That diseases could result from some dietary deficiencies was further investigated by Christiaan Eijkman, who in 1897 discovered that feeding unpolished rice instead of the polished variety to chickens helped to prevent beriberi in the chickens. The following year, Frederick Hopkins postulated that some foods contained "accessory factors" — in addition to proteins, carbohydrates, fats etc. — that are necessary for the functions of the human body.^[5] Hopkins and Eijkman were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for their discovery of several vitamins.^[10]

In 1910, the first vitamin complex was isolated by Japanese scientist Umetaro Suzuki, who succeeded in extracting a water-soluble complex of micronutrients from rice bran and named it aberic acid (later Orizanin). He published this discovery in a Japanese scientific journal.^[11] When the article was translated into German, the translation failed to state that it was a newly discovered nutrient, a claim made in the original Japanese article, and hence his discovery failed to gain publicity. In 1912 Polish biochemist Casimir Funk isolated the same complex of micronutrients and proposed the complex be named "vitamine" (a portmanteau of "vital amine" reportedly suggested by Max Nierenstein a friend and reader of Biochemistry at Bristol University^[12]).^[13] The name soon became synonymous with Hopkins' "accessory factors", and, by the time it was shown that not all vitamins are amines, the word was already ubiquitous. In 1920, Jack Cecil Drummond proposed that the final "e" be dropped to deemphasize the "amine" reference, after researchers began to suspect that not all "vitamines" (in particular, vitamin A) have an amine component.^[9]

In 1931, Albert Szent-Györgyi and a fellow researcher Joseph Svirbely suspected that "hexuronic acid" was actually vitamin C, and gave a sample to Charles Glen King, who proved its anti-scorbutic activity in his long-established guinea pig scorbutic assay. In 1937, Szent-Györgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery. In 1943, Edward Adelbert Doisy and Henrik Dam were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of vitamin K and its chemical structure. In 1967, George Wald was awarded the Nobel Prize (along with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffer Hartline) for his discovery that vitamin A could participate directly in a physiological process.^[10]

In humans[link]

Vitamins are classified as either water-soluble or fat-soluble. In humans there are 13 vitamins: 4 fat-soluble (A, D, E, and K) and 9 water-soluble (8 B vitamins and vitamin C). Water-soluble vitamins dissolve easily in water and, in general, are readily excreted from the body, to the degree that urinary output is a strong predictor of vitamin consumption.^[14] Because they are not as readily stored, more consistent intake is important.^[15] Many types of water-soluble vitamins are synthesized by bacteria.^[16] Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed through the intestinal tract with the help of lipids (fats). Because they are more likely to accumulate in the body, they are more likely to lead to hypervitaminosis than are water-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamin regulation is of particular significance in cystic fibrosis.^[17]

List of vitamins[link]

Each vitamin is typically used in multiple reactions, and, therefore, most have multiple functions.^[18]

In nutrition and diseases[link]

Vitamins are essential for the normal growth and development of a multicellular organism. Using the genetic blueprint inherited from its parents, a fetus begins to develop, at the moment of conception, from the nutrients it absorbs. It requires certain vitamins and minerals to be present at certain times. These nutrients facilitate the chemical reactions that produce among other things, skin, bone, and muscle. If there is serious deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, a child may develop a deficiency disease. Even minor deficiencies may cause permanent damage.^[32]

For the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means. For example, microorganisms in the intestine — commonly known as "gut flora" — produce vitamin K and biotin, while one form of vitamin D is synthesized in the skin with the help of the natural ultraviolet wavelength of sunlight. Humans can produce some vitamins from precursors they consume. Examples include vitamin A, produced from beta carotene, and niacin, from the amino acid tryptophan.^[19]

Once growth and development are completed, vitamins remain essential nutrients for the healthy maintenance of the cells, tissues, and organs that make up a multicellular organism; they also enable a multicellular life form to efficiently use chemical energy provided by food it eats, and to help process the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats required for respiration.^[3]

Deficiencies[link]

It was suggested that, when plants and animals began to transfer from the sea to rivers and land about 500 million years ago, environmental deficiency of marine mineral antioxidants was a challenge to the evolution of terrestrial life. Terrestrial plants slowly optimized the production of "new" endogenous antioxidants such as ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), polyphenols, flavonoids, tocopherols, etc. Since this age, dietary vitamin deficiencies appeared in terrestrial animals.^[33] Humans must consume vitamins periodically but with differing schedules, to avoid deficiency. Human bodily stores for different vitamins vary widely; vitamins A, D, and B₁₂ are stored in significant amounts in the human body, mainly in the liver,^[29] and an adult human's diet may be deficient in vitamins A and D for many months and B₁₂ in some cases for years, before developing a deficiency condition. However, vitamin B₃ (niacin and niacinamide) is not stored in the human body in significant amounts, so stores may last only a couple of weeks.^[20][29] For vitamin C, the first symptoms of scurvy in experimental studies of complete vitamin C deprivation in humans have varied widely, from a month to more than six months, depending on previous dietary history that determined body stores.^[34]

Deficiencies of vitamins are classified as either primary or secondary. A primary deficiency occurs when an organism does not get enough of the vitamin in its food. A secondary deficiency may be due to an underlying disorder that prevents or limits the absorption or use of the vitamin, due to a "lifestyle factor", such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, or the use of medications that interfere with the absorption or use of the vitamin.^[29] People who eat a varied diet are unlikely to develop a severe primary vitamin deficiency. In contrast, restrictive diets have the potential to cause prolonged vitamin deficits, which may result in often painful and potentially deadly diseases.

Well-known human vitamin deficiencies involve thiamine (beriberi), niacin (pellagra), vitamin C (scurvy), and vitamin D (rickets). In much of the developed world, such deficiencies are rare; this is due to (1) an adequate supply of food and (2) the addition of vitamins and minerals to common foods, often called fortification.^[19][29] In addition to these classical vitamin deficiency diseases, some evidence has also suggested links between vitamin deficiency and a number of different disorders.^[35][36]

Side-effects and overdose[link]

In large doses, some vitamins have documented side-effects that tend to be more severe with a larger dosage. The likelihood of consuming too much of any vitamin from food is remote, but overdosing (vitamin poisoning) from vitamin supplementation does occur. At high enough dosages, some vitamins cause side-effects such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.^[20][37] When side-effects emerge, recovery is often accomplished by reducing the dosage. The doses of vitamins differ because individual tolerances can vary widely and appear to be related to age and state of health.^[38]

In 2008, overdose exposure to all formulations of vitamins and multivitamin-mineral formulations was reported by 68,911 individuals to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (nearly 80% of these exposures were in children under the age of 6), leading to 8 "major" life-threatening outcomes and 0 deaths.^[39]

Supplements[link]

Dietary supplements, often containing vitamins, are used to ensure that adequate amounts of nutrients are obtained on a daily basis, if optimal amounts of the nutrients cannot be obtained through a varied diet. Scientific evidence supporting the benefits of some vitamin supplements is well established for certain health conditions, but others need further study.^[40] In some cases, vitamin supplements may have unwanted effects, especially if taken before surgery, with other dietary supplements or medicines, or if the person taking them has certain health conditions.^[40] Dietary supplements may also contain levels of vitamins many times higher, and in different forms, than one may ingest through food.^[41]

There have been mixed studies on the importance and safety of dietary supplementation. A meta-analysis published in 2006 suggested that Vitamin A and E supplements not only provide no tangible health benefits for generally healthy individuals but may actually increase mortality, although two large studies included in the analysis involved smokers, for whom it was already known that beta-carotene supplements can be harmful.^[42] Another study published in May 2009 found that antioxidants such as vitamins C and E may actually curb some benefits of exercise.^[43] While others findings suggest that evidence of Vitamin E toxicity is limited to specific form taken in excess.^[44] A double-blind trial published in 2011 found that vitamin E increases the risk of prostate cancer in healthy men.^[45]

Governmental regulation of vitamin supplements[link]

Most countries place dietary supplements in a special category under the general umbrella of foods, not drugs. This necessitates that the manufacturer, and not the government, be responsible for ensuring that its dietary supplement products are safe before they are marketed. Regulation of supplements varies widely by country. In the United States, a dietary supplement is defined under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.^[46] In addition, the Food and Drug Administration uses the Adverse Event Reporting System to monitor adverse events that occur with supplements.^[47] In the European Union, the Food Supplements Directive requires that only those supplements that have been proven safe can be sold without a prescription.^[48]

Names in current and previous nomenclatures[link]

The reason that the set of vitamins skips directly from E to K is that the vitamins corresponding to letters F-J were either reclassified over time, discarded as false leads, or renamed because of their relationship to vitamin B, which became a complex of vitamins.

The German-speaking scientists who isolated and described vitamin K (in addition to naming it as such) did so because the vitamin is intimately involved in the Koagulation of blood following wounding. At the time, most (but not all) of the letters from F through to J were already designated, so the use of the letter K was considered quite reasonable.^[49][52] The table on the right lists chemicals that had previously been classified as vitamins, as well as the earlier names of vitamins that later became part of the B-complex.

Anti-vitamins[link]

Anti-vitamins are chemical compounds that inhibit the absorption or actions of vitamins. For example, avidin is a protein in egg whites that inhibits the absorption of biotin.^[53] Pyrithiamine is similar to thiamine, vitamin B₁, and inhibits the enzymes that use thiamine.^[54]

See also[link]

Food portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article Vitamine.

• USDA RDA chart in PDF format
• Health Canada Dietary Reference Intakes Reference Chart for Vitamins
• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: Fact Sheets
• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Dietary Supplements: Background Information

Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias in November 2007.
Background information
Birth name	Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva
Born	(1943-09-23) September 23, 1943 (age 68) Madrid, Spain
Genres	Latin American music, Latin, Latin pop, Dance and Classical
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1968–present
Labels	Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment
Website	www.julioiglesias.com

Julio Iglesias (born Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva; September 23, 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter whose romantic image, magnetic stage presence, and expressive music made him one of the best-selling artists of all time. By the early 21st century he had sold hundreds of millions of albums in more than a dozen languages.^[1] He has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums.^[2] According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best-selling music artists in history.^[3] While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads, his success has continued on as he entered new musical endeavors.^[4] He is the father of singer Enrique Iglesias.

Early life[link]

Iglesias was born in Madrid, the eldest son of Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga and María del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat. Iglesias' father's family was from Galicia, and Iglesias' mother an Andalusian.

In the 1960s, he studied law in Madrid and was a goalkeeper for one of Real Madrid's^[5] football teams. On September 22, 1963, he was involved in a car crash, resulting in an injury to his spinal cord.^[6] He said, "I had a car accident; [a] very, very strange car accident...I lost control of the car and rolled it, resulting in what they call 'paraparexia,' which is not paraplegia. It's a compression in the [spinal] cord, in the sense of the neck...my spinal cord; and I was very, very ill for three years."  His doctors thought he would never walk again; indeed, his legs were left permanently weakened, and they continued to require therapy as of late October 2010. However, slowly, he began recovering his health. To develop and increase the dexterity of his hands, he began playing guitar.^[6] When he recovered from his accident, he resumed academic studies and traveled to the United Kingdom to study the English language, first in Ramsgate, then at Bell Educational Trust's Language School in Cambridge.

In 1971, he married Spanish Filipino^[7] journalist Isabel Preysler and had three children, Chabeli Iglesias, Julio Iglesias, Jr. and Enrique Iglesias. Their marriage was annulled in 1979. In 1981 his father, Julio Iglesias Puga, Sr, was kidnapped by Basque terrorists but found alive two weeks later, prompting Julio Iglesias to move his children to Miami, Florida.^[8]

On August 24, 2010, Julio Iglesias and Miranda Rijnsburger got married after a 20-year relationship. The religious ceremony was celebrated in the Parish of the Virgen del Carmen of Marbella, and was followed by a Mass of thanksgiving in the chapel on the property the couple owns in the same city.^[9] The couple has three sons and twin daughters: Miguel (born September 7, 1997), Rodrigo (born April 3, 1999), Victoria and Cristina (born May 1, 2001) and Guillermo (born May 5, 2007).^[10] After Iglesias was 60 years old, his 89 year old father produced more children: half-brother Jaime born May 18, 2004; and half sister Ruth born July 26, 2006. Julio's half siblings were a product of Dr. Iglesias Puga's second marriage, to Ronna Keitt.^[11]

Career[link]

In 1968, he won the Benidorm International Song Festival, a songwriter's event in Spain, with the song "La vida sigue igual" (meaning "Life Continues Just The Same") which was used in the film La vida sigue igual, about his own life. After his events he signed a deal with Discos Columbia, the Spanish branch of the Columbia Records company. He represented Spain in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, earning fourth place, after Northern Irish singer Dana and the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin. His entry was the song "Gwendolyne." Shortly after he had a number one hit in many European countries with "Un Canto A Galicia." That single sold 1 million copies in Germany. In 1975 he found success in the Italian market by recording a song exclusively in Italian called "Se mi lasci non vale" ("If You Leave Me, It Can't Be"). Notable albums from this decade are A Flor de Piel (1974, with the European hit "Manuela"), "El Amor" (1975), and "Soy" (1978). He also sang in French. One of his popular songs is "Je n'ai pas changé".

Following the annulment of his marriage to Preysler in 1979, he moved to Miami, Florida, in the United States and signed a deal with CBS International, and started singing in different languages such as English, French, Portuguese, German and other languages to his music. Iglesias released the album De Niña a Mujer (1981), dedicated to his daughter (that divided the cover photo with him), from it came the first English-language hit, a Spanish cover of "Begin the Beguine" which became number 1 in the United Kingdom, he also released a collection, Julio (1983). In 1984, he released 1100 Bel Air Place, the hit album which gave him publicity in the English-speaking entertainment industry. It sold four million albums in the United States, with the first single "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", a duet with Willie Nelson, earning a fifth place spot in the Billboard Hot 100; it also featured "All of You", with Diana Ross.

Julio Iglesias made a cameo appearance as himself on The Golden Girls as Sophia Petrillo's date on St. Valentine's Day. In 1984 he recorded the duets with Diana Ross and Willie Nelson previously mentioned. Iglesias won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in the 1988 Grammy Awards for the album Un Hombre Solo (A Man Alone). He recorded a duet with Stevie Wonder on "My Love", in his Non Stop album, a crossover success in 1988. In the 1990s, Iglesias returned to his original Spanish melody in Tango (1996), nominated for Best Latin Pop Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards, losing to the Romances album by Mexican singer, Luis Miguel.^[12] Also that year, his youngest son from his first marriage, Enrique Iglesias, also was nominated for the Vivir album.

Julio Iglesias went on to win the World Music Award for Tango in Monaco later that year where he was up against singer Luis Miguel and son Enrique for the second time. Julio performed two "Tangos" to the delight of the audience. In 1995, he appeared as a guest star in the videoclip of Thalía's song "Amandote"; she had starred in the video clip of Iglesias's hit "Baila Morena". Iglesias returned to the headlines in October 2003, when he went to Argentina and kissed show host Susana Giménez three times during a live telecast of her show.

In 2003, he released his album Divorcio (Divorce). In its first day of sales, Divorcio sold a record 350,000 albums in Spain, and reached the number 1 spot on the charts in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Russia. In 2003 and 2004, he was featured on a ten month world tour; which took Iglesias, aided by the success his album Divorcio and toured from Europe and Asia to North America, South America and Africa. More than half the shows on the tour sold out within days of going on sale. In December 2004, his Dutch girlfriend Miranda Rijnsburger and Iglesias himself recorded a duet of the Christmas song "Silent Night". The song, which was not officially released, also included a voice message from Iglesias, Rijnsburger and their 4 young children. The song was released online through the singer's official website and a CD was included on their Christmas card as a holiday gift from the Iglesias family to their friends and fans around the world.

In 2008, Iglesias recorded another song as a gift to his fans. The family recorded "The Little Drummer Boy" in Spanish and English and included it in the family's Christmas card. Iglesias also made investments in the Dominican Republic's eastern town of Punta Cana, a major tourist destination, where he spends most of the year when he is not on tour. Iglesias's south Florida mansion on the exclusive private Indian Creek Island property was placed on the market in 2006 for a quoted $28 million, making it one of "Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South" in 2006 according to Forbes Magazine.^[13]

In September 2006, a new English album titled Romantic Classics was released. "I've chosen songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that I believe will come to be regarded as the new standards", Iglesias stated in the album's sleeve notes. The album features the hits "I Want to Know What Love Is", "Careless Whisper", and "Right Here Waiting". Romantic Classics was Iglesias's highest debut on the Billboard charts, entering at number 31 in the United States, 21 in Canada, 10 in Australia, and top spots across Europe and Asia. He returned to the studio to record songs in Filipino and Indonesian for his Asian releases of Romantic Classics which helped propel record sales in the Asian entertainment industry. Iglesias promoted Romantic Classics in 2006 and was seen all over the world on television shows. For example, in the United States, he appeared on Dancing With The Stars (where he sang his hit "I Want To Know What Love Is"), Good Morning America, The View, Fox and Friends, and Martha Stewart.

In 2008, Iglesias promoted his Romantic Classics album worldwide and in 2009-2010, he planned a world tour as a celebration of forty years in the music industry.^{[citation needed]} After his house in Indian Creek did not sell he razed his house to the ground in 2008 and said he planned to build another.^[14]

In 2010, Iglesias continued to travel around the world with his "Starry Night World Tour" to promote his 42 years of career. Julio Iglesias is currently learning Tunisian Sephardic cuisine for which he has developed an incredible passion, the Mloukhia being his best recipe. According to his close friend, Emilio Lopez, Julio is also learning Orthodox Judaism to become a rabbi in Los Angeles and teach French-speaking kids how to pray with a Latino twist.

Julio is frequently seen at the Tunisian restaurant in Paris called Douieb where he orders the Tunisian sandwich.

According to his official site, he has sold over 300 million albums worldwide as of 1 November 2010 (2010 -11-01)^[update].

In March 2011, the artist launched a new studio album called Numero 1.

Iglesias' performance of the song La Mer ("The Sea") is featured in the soundtrack of the 2011 film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The performance comes from a live album, currently out-of-print, recorded live at the Olympia theater in Paris in 1976. At the beginning and the end of the recording, Iglesias introduces the song, and his backing musicians, in fluent French.

Discography[link]

Studio, live, remastered and compilation main albums

• 2011: Numero 1
• 2010: The Essential: Julio Iglesias
• 2010: Original album classic
• 2010: Nathalie-The best of Julio Iglesias
• 2007: Quelque Chose De France
• 2006: Romantic Classics (US:#41)
• 2006: Remastered+Bonus Track
• 2006: Remastered (US:#81)
• 2005: L'homme Que Je Suis
• 2003: Divorcio
• 2001: Ao meu Brasil
• 2000: Noche De Cuatro Lunas
• 1996: Tango
• 1995: La Carretera
• 1994: Crazy (US:#30)
• 1992: Calor (US:#186)
• 1990: Starry Night (US:#37)
• 1989: Raíces
• 1988: Non Stop (US:#52)
• 1987: Un Hombre Solo
• 1987: Tutto l'amore che ti manca
• 1985: Libra (US.#92), (US Latin:#1)
• 1984: 1100 Bel Air Place (US:#6) [Singles: "All Of You" US:#19, US R&B:#38, "Moonlight Lady" Adult Contemporary #17, "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" US:#5, US Country:#1]
• 1983: En Concierto
• 1982: Momentos
• 1982: Momenti
• 1982: Et l'amour crea la femme
• 1981: De niña a mujer
• 1981: Fidèle
• 1981: Minhas canções preferidas
• 1981: Zartlichkeiten
• 1980: Hey!
• 1980: Amanti
• 1980: Sentimental
• 1979: A vous les femmes
• 1979: Innamorarsi alla mia eta
• 1979: Emociones
• 1978: Aimer La Vie
• 1978: As Vezes Tu, As Vezes Eu
• 1978: Da "Manuela" A "Pensami"
• 1978: "Quiero" Album (El Amor)
• 1977: A mis 33 años
• 1976: America
• 1976: Ein Weihnachtsabend Mit Julio Iglesias
• 1976: En El Olympia
• 1975: A Mexico
• 1975: El Amor
• 1974: A Flor de Piel
• 1974: Viens M'embrasser
• 1973: Soy
• 1972: Un Canto a Galicia
• 1972: Por una mujer
• 1969: Yo Canto

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview with Julio Iglesias
• Julio Iglesias at the Internet Movie Database