MINERALS: A QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

Most experts will recommend you get the bulk of your vitamins and minerals through the foods you eat, adding a good multivitamin. However, if you choose to take supplements, please check with your healthcare provider to learn what is recommended (and how much) for your personal requirements.

MOST COMMON MINERALS

BORON
Benefits: Trace mineral. Helps bone integrity (formation and strength) and helps maximize vitamin D.
Food Sources: beans, peas, lentils, nuts, pears, leafy vegetables, soy meal, prunes, raisins, almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, dates and honey.

CALCIUM
Benefits: Strengthens your teeth and bones. It helps regulate your blood pressure and is involved in heart function. It helps activate enzymes needed to convert food to energy. Calcium also helps your muscles contract and your blood clot. It ensures healthy nails, hair and skin.
Food Sources: Sardines, dairy products (such as low fat yogurt), especially cheese, tofu, green leafy vegetables, watercress, spinach, dandelion greens, peas, parsley, mint, chickpeas, molasses, sesame seeds, brewer’s yeast, salmon, egg yolk, torula yeast, kidney beans, soybeans,(including tofu) Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, seaweed and walnuts.

CHROMIUM
Benefits: Chromium plays an important part in regulating blood sugar levels by enhancing the performance of the hormone insulin. Also, it plays a role in the storage of fat.
Food Sources: Red meat, brewer’s yeast, thyme, cloves, seaweed, nuts, parsley, natural maple syrup, whole grains, wheat germ and bran, buckwheat, sprouts, millet, brown rice, whole rye, beans, oats, corn, beets, peas, carrots, black pepper, clams, mushrooms and molasses. Note: the chromium content in soil is quite low so this is one mineral that may need to be supplemented.

COPPER
Benefits: Trace mineral. A component of several enzymes, including one needed to make hair, skin, and other pigments. Involved in cellular function, helps control free radicals, assists physical growth, converts iron into hemoglobin (the pigment that makes blood red and carries oxygen), and is needed to make connective tissue and nerve fibers. Copper stimulates iron absorption and helps in the control of inflammation.
Food Sources: Seafood (such as oysters and crab), sardines, seeds and nuts, liver, legumes, mushrooms, molasses, raisins, and whole-wheat bread.

MAGNESIUM
Benefits: Magnesium plays many important roles in the body. It’s stored in your body tissues and is responsible for more than 300 enzymatic reactions. Magnesium is vital for the growth and maintenance of bones and teeth. As it works with calcium, it’s also necessary for the relaxation of muscles and the development and functioning of a healthy nervous system and heart. Magnesium is essential for the proper transporting of glucose in the bloodstream and the release of the hormone insulin (helps control blood sugar levels). This very important mineral also helps the proper release of energy from the foods you digest.
Food Sources: Bran buds, tofu, whole wheat, cooked spinach, seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, and others), grains including millet, almonds, cocoa, Brazil nuts, cashews, and hazelnuts, dark-green vegetables and molasses. Note: chicken, fish and meat (protein-rich foods) all aid in the absorption of magnesium, as well as calcium, phosphorus and zinc, and the following vitamins: B1, B6, C and D. Legumes, nuts (especially hazelnuts, macadamias, cashews, almonds, and pecans), pineapple, brown rice, and egg yolks.

MANGANESE
Benefits: Manganese helps maintain blood sugar levels and may protect against some cancers and other diseases, as well as boosting your body’s immune system. It helps maintain healthy bones, tendons, and joints and may have a role in balancing blood sugar levels. Manganese aids in the formation of collagen. (Collagen aids in the healing of wounds.)
Food Sources: whole grains, tea, green leafy vegetables, soy beans and chick-peas.

MOLYBDENUM
Benefits: Molybdenum is one of the minerals that helps your body produce enzymes (those needed for energy from the carbs and fats you eat and metabolism). It is essential for blood sugar balance and also helps regulate iron storage, prevent tooth decay, and sustain mental alertness. Molybdenum facilitates important enzymes needed for the immune system, nutrition, and fertility and potency.
Food Sources: Legumes, yeast, whole grains (such as wheat and rice), liver, and dark green vegetables.

POTASSIUM
Benefits: Potassium is essential in the functioning of your heart, muscles, nerves, and metabolism. Stored in the body, it balances your body’s acid and alkaline levels, as well as your body fluid levels. Also, potassium prevents calcium from being lost in your urine.
Food Sources: Blackstrap molasses, spinach, tomatoes, whole grains, dried fruits, papaya, avocado, plantains (bananas), radishes, red pepper, seeds and nuts, and red wine. (Soft drinks rob your body of potassium.)

FLUORIDE
Benefits: Fluoride plays a vital role in the development and health of teeth and bones. It is absorbed into a child’s teeth as they form, primarily as a result of drinking fluoridated tap water.
Food Sources: Besides tap water, fresh fruit and vegetables, and tea.

IODINE
Benefits: Iodine also plays a role in maintaining connective tissue. It is also essential for the functioning of the thyroid gland in making thyroid hormones, which regulate the body’s metabolism (rate at which calories are burned).
The thyroid hormones also convert carotene to vitamin A.
In children, it is important for their mental and physical development.
Food Sources: Salt, seafood (fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, trout, and haddock), kelp, and dairy.

IRON
Benefits: Essential for making hemoglobin (the red pigment of red blood cells that carries oxygen in your bloodstream to all the cells of the body). The rest is stored in your muscles and bone marrow, spleen and liver. It helps keep your nails and hair strong. It improves resistance to infection.
Food Sources: Blackstrap molasses, raisins, cereals (such as bran flakes and All-Bran), beetroot, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, and unsulphured dried fruit.

PHOSPHORUS
Benefits: Works with calcium and is essential for the growth and development of soft tissue and bone. It’s an important mineral, vital for the production of energy, as well as DNA structure. Phosphorus is needed for metabolism, body chemistry, nerve and muscle function. Most phosphorus is stored in the bones.
Food Sources: Fish, meat, eggs, dairy products, legumes, canned chickpeas, cooked lentils, nuts, whole grains and liver.

IMPORTANT COMBINATION… POTASSIUM, CALCIUM, AND MAGNESIUM:
wheat germ, sunflower seeds, soybeans, almonds, Brazil nuts, pistachios and pecans.

SELENIUM
Benefits: Works with vitamin E as an anti-oxidant, protecting cells from free radicals and prevent the breakdown of fats and body chemicals. It has been shown to protect the male prostate gland. Selenium also protects against some environmental toxins.
Food Sources: Shrimp, tuna, lobster, clams, herring, grains (such as wheat and rice). molasses, mushrooms, nuts (especially cashews, Brazil nuts and walnuts) and brown rice.

SILICA
Benefits: Necessary for calcium absorption. Bone enhancer.
Food Sources: brown rice, bell peppers, and leafy green vegetables.

VANADIUM
Benefits: Helps regulate glucose.
Food Sources: vegetable oils, whole grains, fish and other seafood, and liver.

ZINC
Benefits: Essential for the proper function of more than 100 enzymes in the body, necessary for digestion and metabolism. It is an important factor in the growth of children. It’s also essential for a healthy immune system and in healing of wounds. In addition, zinc helps rid the body of harmful metals and it’s needed for insulin release.
Food Sources: Sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, torula yeast, seafood (such as oysters and sardines) blackstrap molasses, wheat germ, maple syrup and brewer’s yeast. Also, include lamb, beef, pork and liver.

SODIUM
Benefits: Helps maintain proper water balance and pH balance (electrolytes). It also helps your cells absorb nutrients.
Food Sources: Table salt, condiments such as tomato sauce and ketchup, pickled foods (as well as refined and smoked), some breakfast cereals, and bread.

SULFUR
Benefits: Essential mineral for the production of the protein “keratin”. Keratin promotes the formation health of bones, tendons, hair, cartilage, and skin. Like some other minerals, it helps in the production of the hormone insulin that balances your blood sugar.
Food Sources: Fish, beans and peas, red hot peppers, garlic, onions, eggs, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, horseradish.

Sources: Research in the above websites plus: All Your Health Questions Answered Naturally, Maureen Salaman, Dr. Decuypere, Health Alternatives, Clearwater, Florida | Health 24 / Media24 (Naspers) Group, South Africa

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