What are Vitamins and
Minerals?
A History Of Vitamins
Benefits of Vitamins
Guide to Vitamins
Guide To Minerals
Supplements and
their benefits
About Your Nutrition
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Guide to Minerals
Dietary Minerals
Dietary Minerals are the chemical elements required
by living organisms, other than the four elements
Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Oxygen. They can be
either bulk minerals (required in relatively large
amounts) or trace minerals (required only in very
small amounts).
These can be naturally occurring in food or added in
elemental or mineral form, such as calcium carbonate
or sodium chloride. Sometimes minerals are added to
the diet separately from food, as vitamin and
mineral supplements.
Appropriate intake levels of each dietary mineral
must be sustained to maintain physical health.
Excessive intake of a dietary mineral may either
lead to illness directly or indirectly because of
the competitive nature between mineral levels in the
body. For example, large doses of zinc are not
really harmful themselves, but will lead to a
harmful copper deficiency unless compensated for.
Bulk Minerals
In human nutrition, the dietary bulk mineral
elements are:
Calcium
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Sulphur
Calcium
Calcium is necessary to promote both bone growth in
the young and bone strength in the old (to help
prevent osteoporosis). Your teeth, skeleton and
nails are all dependent on calcium. Calcium
supplements are used to prevent and to treat calcium
deficiencies. There are conflicting recommendations
about when to take calcium supplements. However,
most experts agree that no more than 500 mg should
be taken at a time because the percent of calcium
absorbed decreases as the amount of calcium in the
supplement increases. It is recommended to spread
doses throughout the day, with the last dose near
bedtime. Recommended daily calcium intake varies
from 1000 to 1500 mg, depending upon the stage of
life.
Calcium carbonate is the most common and least
expensive calcium supplement. It can be difficult to
digest and causes wind in some people. Taking
magnesium with it can help to prevent constipation.
Calcium carbonate is 40% elemental calcium. 1000 mg
will provide 400 mg of calcium. It is recommended to
take this supplement with food to aid in absorption.
In some calcium supplements based on calcium
carbonate, vitamin D is added to aid in absorption.
Vitamin D is needed for the absorption of calcium
from the stomach and for the functioning of calcium
in the body.
Calcium citrate is more easily absorbed,
easier to digest and less likely to cause
constipation and gas than calcium carbonate. It also
has a lower risk of contributing to the formation of
kidney stones.
Calcium citrate is about 21% elemental calcium.
1000 mg will provide 210 mg of calcium. It is more
expensive than calcium carbonate and more of it must
be taken to get the same amount of calcium.
Calcium phosphate costs more than calcium
carbonate, but less than calcium citrate. It is
easily absorbed and is less likely to cause
constipation and gas than either. Calcium lactate
and calcium aspartame are both more difficult to
digest, and more expensive than calcium carbonate.
Magnesium.
It is very rare to naturally have a magnesium
deficiency unless caused by abuses such as using
drug. Green vegetables such as spinach provide
magnesium. Nuts (especially cashews and almonds),
seeds, and some whole grains are also good sources
of magnesium. Although magnesium is present in many
foods, it usually occurs in dilute form. As with
most nutrients, daily needs for magnesium are
unlikely to be met from a single serving of any
single food. Eating a wide variety of foods,
including five servings of fruits and vegetables
daily and plenty of whole grains, helps to ensure an
adequate intake of magnesium.
Too much magnesium may make it difficult for the
body to absorb calcium. Not enough magnesium can
lead to hypomagnesaemia, with irregular heartbeats,
high blood pressure , insomnia and muscle spasms.
However, as noted, symptoms of low magnesium from
pure dietary deficiency are rarely encountered.
Phosphorus.
An average person contains a little less than 1 kg
of phosphorus, about three quarters of which is
present in bones and teeth. A well-fed adult in the
industrialized world consumes and excretes about 1-3
g of phosphorus per day in the form of phosphate.
Phosphorus is found is most fresh vegatables, which
obtain the mineral from the soil.
Potassium
Potassium is an essential mineral macro nutrient in
human nutrition.
Potassium is also important in allowing muscle
contraction and the sending of all nerve impulses. A
shortage of potassium in body fluids may cause a
potentially fatal condition known as hypokalemia,
typically resulting from diarrhea, increased
diuresis and vomiting.
Eating a variety of foods that contain potassium is
the best way to get an adequate amount. Healthy
individuals who eat a balanced diet rarely need
supplements. Foods with high sources of potassium
include orange juice, potatoes, bananas, avocados,
apricots, parsnips and turnips, although many other
fruits, vegetables, and meats contain potassium.
Research has indicated that diets high in potassium
can reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
Sodium
Sodium ions are necessary for regulation of blood
and body fluids, transmission of nerve impulses,
heart activity, and certain metabolic functions.
Interestingly, sodium is needed by animals, which
maintain high concentrations in their blood and
extracellular fluids, but the ion is not needed by
plants. A completely plant-based diet, therefore,
will be very low in sodium. This requires some
herbivores to obtain their sodium from salt licks
and other mineral sources. The animal need for
sodium is probably the reason for the
highly-conserved ability to taste the sodium ion as
"salty." Receptors for the pure salty taste respond
best to sodium, and otherwise only to a few other
small monovalent cations (Li+, NH4+, and to some
extent also K+). Calcium chloride also tastes
somewhat salty, but also quite bitter.
The most common sodium salt is sodium chloride
(table salt), used for seasoning and warm-climate
food preservation, such as pickling. As such, salt
has been an important commodity in human activities.
The human requirement for sodium in the diet is less
than 500 mg per day, which is typically less than a
tenth as much as many diets "seasoned to taste."
Most people consume far more sodium than is
physiologically needed. For certain people with
salt-sensitive blood pressure, this extra intake may
cause a negative effect on health.
Sulphur
Sulphur is an essential component of all living
cells. Therefore it is present in most of what we
eat especially if that food has not been processed
or cooked.
Trace Minerals
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Fluorine
Iodine
Iron
Manganese
Molybdenum
Selenium
Zinc
As the name implies these minerals are present in
our bodies in small amounts. However many are
available as supplements such as the most commonly
known one, iron, which is used by some people to
counter anaemia. All of these trace minerals are available in
adequate amounts when eating a balanced nutritious
diet.
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What are Vitamins and Minerals?
Vitamins and minerals are necessary to enable
people's bodies to function correctly. Although they
are consumed in foods every day....
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About Your Nutrition
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