Minerals
by Tim O'Shea, D.C.
_<http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTRACTS/minerals.shtml_>
(<http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTRACTS/minerals.shtml>)
Minerals is one confusing topic. Inorganic, chelated, elemental, ionic,
colloidal, essential, trace - all these claims! What do we really need?
Credentials in nutrition apparently mean very little when it comes to
minerals. Much of what is written about minerals is speculative,
market-oriented, or dead wrong.
A net search on minerals is an overwhelming assault on one's patience,
time and credulity. How could all this stuff be right?
Minerals come from mines. Except when you're talking about nutrition.
Then they come from food. At least they used to. When we still had some
viable topsoil. Four elements compose 96% of the body's makeup: carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The remaining 4% of the body's
composition is mineral. There are several opinions about how many
minerals are essential. The following table shows the ones that are not
in dispute, in the first column. Macro means more than 100mg per day.
Trace usually means we don't know how much we need.
Essential Minerals
A) MACROMINERALS
Calcium
Chlorine
Sodium
Potassium
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Sulfur
B) TRACE MINERALS
Selenium
Cobalt
Chromium
Tin
Zinc
Vanadium
Copper
Silicon
Manganese
Nickel
Iron
Molybdenum
Fluorine
Iodine
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