home > minerals
Minerals are essential to life.
They are needed by every organism
from bacteria and simple plants to man. Some creatures even have
bizarre uses for minerals . An ancient form of bacterium still existing
on earth eats iron for its energy and breathes sulfuric acid.
Living organisms use minerals to activate enzymes, hormones
and other organic molecules that participate in the growth, function and
maintenance of life processes. Without the proper minerals in the
appropriate amounts, the organic molecules cannot assist the body in
carrying out it's primary functions..
Unlike most organic compounds, minerals are absolutely essential.
Animals, plants or bacteria synthesize all of the organic compounds
such as amino acids, vitamins, lipids and cofactors fundamental for life
from carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen abundant in air or water. While
humans cannot synthesize all organic nutrients, they are provided by
other organisms in a balanced diet. Minerals cannot be synthesized -
they must be accumulated from the trace amounts present in soil or
mineral rich waters
Some authorities conclude that as many as 60 elements are
necessary for optimum longevity and quality of life in humans. In fact,
the number of different minerals necessary for complete nutrition is
still unknown to science. Until recently only a few minerals whose
deficiencies caused overt, gross symptoms were regarded as necessary for
good health. Such symptoms include iron deficiency causing anemia and
iodine deficiency causing goiter. Now it has become widely recognized
that a large number of minerals are required by the body, and dietary
deficiencies in these minerals may not produce overt symptoms but can
still result in poor health or a shortened life expectancy.
Some minerals once regarded as solely "toxic" have now been
identified as important in supporting longevity and quality of life.
Selenium has been considered a toxic element for decades, but studies in
China and the U.S. have now demonstrated that sufficient dietary
selenium markedly reduces the incidences of and death from cancer. We
now know that selenium plays an important role in activating the
protective enzyme glutathione peroxidase. Some forms of chromium are
considered a toxic, nuisance pollutant when present on sites
contaminated by the mining and metal plating industries. Trivalent
chromium, when taken in appropriate amounts, is a dietary supplement
that is associated with fat metabolism and has been linked to the
regulation of blood glucose levels.
The intensive agriculture practiced today provides the food
necessary for our rapidly growing populations worldwide, but these
methods tend to deplete the soil of many minerals. Plants absorb a wide
range of minerals from the soil as they grow, and only some of these
minerals are replenished when agricultural fertilizers are used. As
plants grow in the soil year after year, accumulation of the trace
minerals from the soil causes these nutrients to become exhausted so
that current crops contain little or no trace minerals.
In earlier times, trace minerals were replenished in
agricultural soils by periodic flooding which deposited new layers of
mineral-rich silt in the soil on a regular basis, or by the use of
animal or human manure as fertilizers. Destructive flooding of farmland
is now mostly controlled, and the use of manure as fertilizer has
sharply diminished because of cost and public health concerns. Farmers
nowdays only add a mineral to the soils when it is clearly needed by the
plants, not the people who eat them. In the future, farmers may learn to
supplement their soils with a sufficient number and amount of all
necessary elements so that food crops become a better source of
nutritional minerals. Until then, high quality nutritional supplements
will be the only dependable source of many minerals.
