Why Are Minerals So Important?
The value of adequate mineral intake for
overall health cannot be overstated. Their
effects are vast and broad; their deficiencies devastating.
Minerals are components of body tissues
and fluids that work in combination with
enzymes, hormones, vitamins and transport
substances. Minerals participate in nerve transmission,
muscle contraction, cell permeability,
tissue structure, blood formation, acid-base balance,
fluid regulation, blood pressure control,
protein metabolism and energy production.
The human body requires large amounts of
some minerals, and trace amounts of others,
while some minerals – such as Lead, Mercury
and Aluminum – are toxic to the body. Those
minerals that are essential to health in relatively
high amounts – Calcium, Phosphorus,
Potassium, Sulphur, Sodium, Chlorine, and
Magnesium – are called macrominerals. Trace
minerals – Zinc, Manganese, Copper, Iron,
Chromium, Selenium, Iodine and
Molybdenum, to name a few – are those
which are present in the body in minute
amounts, but are just as essential to health as
the major minerals.
One of the main functions of minerals in the
body is to activate enzymes. Magnesium, for
example, activates over 300 different enzymes,
while Zinc “turns on” over 100. Enzymes are
catalysts, functioning in the cells to accelerate
chemical reactions. All of these chemical reactions
collectively are referred to as “metabolism”,
which is the very basis of life.
Why Do We Need Minerals Now More Than Ever?
I. The Decreasing Levels of Minerals in Today’s Foods
Unlike the compost fertilizers of the past, today’s “high-tech” fertilizers
do not replace many of the nutrients essential to both the
natural growth of crop plants and to human beings, who depend
on them for adequate nutrition. As a result, even a “good” diet
may provide less nutrition than is generally required.
In addition, many modern food additives bind minerals so tightly
in food that ...
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