Facts on Minerals

1. The Body Can't Make Minerals

Your body gets most vitamins from food, but it produces some internally. Minerals, though, must come from the food we eat or water we drink. For food to have the minerals, it needs to be grown in soil rich in them. Minerals are transferred from the soil to the plant life, and then animals and humans. There's such a great connection to minerals contained in the soil that entire communities benefit when they replenish the land. In 1943, A.T. Marvel went to a small rural community in New Carlisle, Indiana, and realized that most of the students had false teeth by the time they were 16. He began a program to restore minerals to the land and the entire community's health benefited.

2. Minerals are the Trigger Mechanism

Our body is a series of biochemical reactions. Vitamins need help to work with the body and minerals are the means to get that help. The chemical term for this type of helper is a catalyst. If you had no minerals, all the vitamins in the world still wouldn't make you healthy; they'd be waiting for the match of minerals to light their fuse.

3. Just a Trace of Trace Minerals

There are a number of minerals necessary for your body to function at top form. You need larger amounts of some minerals, such as calcium, boron, chromium, copper, magnesium, potassium, manganese, selenium, silica and zinc. Other minerals, called trace minerals, give your body what it needs when you just ingest a small amount. Trace minerals, while you only need them in small amounts, are just as necessary to the body's health as other minerals.

4. Mineral Shortage Can Affect Your Weight

Many minerals participate in the metabolic process. Three minerals that keep your metabolic rate high enough to burn calories to keep weight off are chromium, manganese and zinc. Make sure you get the recommended daily allowance of each, especially if you're trying to lose or maintain your weight.

5. Too Much of A Good Thing

You can get too many minerals. The main way this happens is usually by taking excess doses of supplements, working in an industry that produces the mineral, such as manganese mines, drinking contaminated water or cooking in copper pots that were never properly lined for the task. Depending on the mineral, toxic doses vary from diarrhea to depression. Calcium deposits can build in the body and even look like cancer when viewed on an X-ray.