Minerals

HealthHerbsAndNutrition.com > Information > Minerals

Dietary Minerals

Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. They are inorganic elements that originate in the soil. In humans, minerals are nutrients needed by the body in small amounts to help it function properly and stay strong. Although the Western diet has improved in terms of nutrition over the last few decades, deficiencies in certain minerals, such as zinc, calcium or iron, are still relatively common.

Minerals, like vitamins, are important nutrients found in foods. Vitamins and minerals are essential for initiating and promoting all of the biochemical processes that the body performs to maintain normal health. Humans need small amounts of about 25 minerals to maintain normal body function and good health; 16 of which are essential nutrients and must be supplied by the diet.

Many people think minerals and vitamins are the same, but they are not. The main difference is that vitamins are organic substances (meaning that they contain the element carbon) and minerals are inorganic substances. Additionally, unlike vitamins, minerals cannot be destroyed by overcooking of meals. Of course, when you boil mineral-rich foods (such as vegetables) for a long time and then discard the cooking liquid; you will be pouring some of the mineral down the drain.

Types of Minerals

There are three groups of minerals, major minerals, micro minerals and trace minerals (micro and trace are generally clubbed together). Major minerals (also known as macro minerals and macro elements) are needed in the diet in amounts of 100 milligrams (mg) or more each day. They include calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus and chlorine. Macro minerals are present in virtually all cells of the body, maintaining general homeostasis and required for normal functioning. Acute imbalances of these minerals can be potentially fatal, although nutrition is rarely the cause of these cases. In short, for a mineral to be considered macro or essential, it must perform at least one function vital to life, growth or reproduction.

Micro minerals include at least iron, cobalt, chromium, copper, manganese, zinc, and molybdenum. They are dietary minerals needed by the human body in very small quantities (generally less than 100mg/day).

Some minerals such as selenium, chromium and iodine are required in even lesser amounts, hence the name given to their category – trace minerals. Their requirement per day is in micrograms.

Biological functions and health benefits

Minerals by themselves are inactive chemical elements, like the iron in a pan or calcium in a rock. But in the body, mineral nutrients are required to build tissues. They are also important for muscle contractions, nerve reactions, and blood clotting. Minerals function in nerve impulse transmission and muscle contraction. Minerals help regulate body processes, such as in enzyme systems. Minerals help maintain acid-base balance, to keep the body pH neutral.

Minerals help release energy from food. For instance, calcium and phosphorous are important in bone structure and growth; potassium and sodium for electrolyte balance; and iron for oxygen transport.

Some enzymes need metal ions obtained from minerals to aid chemical reactions in the body. They function as a cofactor for a number of enzymes that catalyze important chemical transformations in the global carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles. In fact, these minerals are required to manufacture these very enzymes themselves, the ones that are so very necessary for the metabolism of proteins and fat.

The body also uses minerals to carry oxygen to its cells. They help move blood sugar (glucose) from the bloodstream into the cells to be used as energy and turn fats, carbohydrates, and proteins into energy. Your body requires them for proper physical and mental development. They promote and stimulate early growth and blooming and root growth. Some of them get incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins, which are important antioxidant enzymes. Some like zinc function as antioxidants and are involved in many critical biochemical reactions.

Why take any supplements containing vitamins and minerals ?

The levels of these minerals found in foods often depend on the amounts present in the soil where plants were grown or animals grazed. The depleted soils from which our foods come have totally lost their mineral balance. This is precisely the reason that foods – fruits and vegetables and grains – being raised on the lands of today do not contain as much quantity of minerals and vitamins (nutrients) as they did earlier. Fertilizers generally used, replenish the soil with only nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (called NPK).

The body can maintain its own mineral balance over short periods. If the intake of minerals is low, it draws from stores laid down in the muscles, the liver and even the bones. For healthy people, supplements may help prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies when the diet does not provide all necessary nutrients. They can also supply amounts of nutrients larger than the diet can provide. Larger amounts of some nutrients may help to protect against future disease.

People may consume diets that are deficient in one or more nutrients for a variety of reasons. The typical Western diet often supplies less than adequate amounts of several essential vitamins and minerals. Recent nutrition surveys in the U.S. have found large numbers of people consume too little calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and, possibly, copper and manganese.

Weight-loss, pure vegetarian, macrobiotic, and several other diets can also place some people at risk of deficiencies that vary with the type of diet. Certain groups of people are at especially high risk of dietary deficiencies.

Dietary Mineral Supplements

When it comes to dietary mineral supplements, there is a lot of conflicting information out there and choosing the right product can be quite challenging.

The reality is that our body needs minerals only in trace amounts, despite what many marketers will have you believe. Excessive dosages of minerals can be toxic, so you really have to be careful.

There are two main mineral formulas available:

The first are ionic mineral supplements, which contain positively or negatively charged minerals. Although these supplements can be absorbed in the body, there are a lot of conditions which need to be present for this to happen. If there are too many different minerals competing for absorption, or too much of one particular mineral, chances are these nutrients will never find their way into your bloodstream.

The second, and perhaps even more well-recognized are the colloidal mineral supplements. Put simply, avoid these at all costs. These are suspended mineral solutions with molecules too large to be absorbed. Science proves that these are just a huge waste of money.

So what are the best dietary mineral supplements ?

Your best bet is to choose a comprehensive supplement that not only contains minerals, but also has vitamins, amino acids, essential enzymes, antioxidants, bioflavonoids, and very importantly, herb extracts to help combat all malnutrition issues at once and other nutrients that can increase the bioavailability of these minerals.

The ideal formula will have trace amounts of important minerals such as boron, calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, sulfur, potassium and zinc in their most readily available forms.

Also, look for a dietary mineral supplements that have the following qualifications:

Therefore, be careful to choose a manufacturer that follows the pharmaceutical GMP compliance, which is the highest standard available, and ensures manufacturing and quality control procedures were strictly adhered to.

All of this can be achieved in Herbal Supplements made specifically to assist recovery from various health disorders. In fact, these supplements are so effective for precisely this reason only, that they contain most of the requisite minerals and vitamins in quantities and form, most suitable for your body.