Learn What Food Minerals
Do For You

The body needs minerals.

However, you don’t often hear about the importance of food minerals. Sometimes, in advertisements, you read: “Get your vitamins!”.

What about minerals?

Why no love for minerals?

In the body, minerals and vitamins work together. They rely on each other. Without the presence of minerals, vitamins lose much of their effectiveness.

Food minerals keep the body primed by...

• keeping body fluids in proper composition

• keeping blood and bones in top form

• maintaining healthy nerve function

• regulating muscle tone and the cardiovascular system

Vitamins and minerals together are essential to life-sustaining processes such as energy production, growth, and healing.

Types

Bulk minerals

calcium, chlorine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium

Trace minerals

boron, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, sulfur, zinc

The body requires bulk minerals in larger amounts than trace minerals (Duh). However, it requires both to maintain its proper chemical balance.

The level of one mineral in the body affects other mineral levels. Out-of-balance mineral levels lead to serious illness.

How Do Minerals Get Into
The Food You Eat?

Minerals are naturally occurring elements found in the earth. Rock formations consist of mineral salts. Rock and stone gradually break down, via erosion, into tiny fragments called sediment.

This takes millions
of years.

The dust and sand left over accumulate and form soil. It teems with mineral salts. Everything planted in the soil absorbs these mineral salts. For example, all the fruits and veggies you eat.

A Snack Food Packing
Serious Mineral Power

Okay, y'know those little things you scrape out of a Halloween pumpkin before you carve a scary face in it. Well, when roasted, they don't taste half bad---a hint of sweet nuttiness.

Yes, pumpkin seeds.

Get this, a 1/4 cup of them contains:

52 % your daily serving of manganese
46 % your daily serving of magnesium
41 % your daily serving of phosphorus
29 % your daily serving of iron
24 % your daily serving of copper
17 % your daily serving of zinc

That's an extraordinary deal for eating a few seeds. Sprinkle them on your cereal or oatmeal. Mix them in a salad. You can eat them with the shell on. I've even seen recipes for spicy pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed cookies. Find a way to add them to your daily diet.

They're a no-brainer for better health.

Taking Dietary
Mineral Supplements, Worth It?

Maybe.

Why?

Modern agri-business farming practices (over-farming) has degraded the mineral content of the soil where crops grow. On top of that, cooking a vegetable further degrades its mineral content.

Now, you could eat raw fruits and vegetables every day and do fine without a food mineral supplement. But, be honest, that's just not practical eating. I know, I've tried to eat super-healthy many times.

It takes a lot of willpower to munch on a celery stalk.

As for plant based mineral supplements, they come in many forms---tablet, capsule, powder, and liquid. Tablets are best.

False Advertising

Chelated minerals.

These are food minerals chemically combined with amino acids.

Some mineral supplements are marketed as containing "chelated" minerals. You'll be told that they are more easily absorbed by the body. Truth is, this a gimmick. There is no scientific evidence supporting this claim. Non-chelated minerals work as well as chelated ones.

Inside Information

Many people who take mineral supplements do it wrong. They get poor value for their money. Where do they go wrong?

They go wrong by choosing single mineral supplements.

Oh, I think I need more calcium in my diet. Hey, that bottle says "Super Calcium" and hey look, it's only a few bucks. Sold!

Now that I think about it, maybe I could use more magnesium too. I hear magnesium works wonders.That one says "Magnesium Ultra". Looks good.

Do you see what I mean by single mineral supplements? Only those with a specific health condition would need to supplement with a high dose of a specific mineral. For example, people suffering from anemia require supplemental iron.

There's a better alternative.

A multi ingredient supplement.

A multi ingredient supplement often contains several food minerals, trace and bulk, in one tablet. This is attractive for three reasons.

1. You receive the health benefits of many minerals you wouldn't have otherwise thought to purchase.

2. You avoid the hassle of choosing a different supplement for each mineral (and keeping track of and swallowing all those pills).

3. And since minerals are more highly absorbed when taken together, your body experiences a greater overall positive effect. And you get greater value for your money.