Mineral Supplements: Building Blocks for the Body

Along with vitamins, minerals and mineral supplements are important micronutrients essential to a healthy body and a healthy life as they serve as building blocks for other cells and enzymes. They also aid in a variety of bodily processes. Like vitamins, you should strive to get as many minerals from your diet as possible, but the reality is, the typical diet lacks the proper amounts of minerals for your body to function at its best. This is where mineral supplements can help. Which minerals should you supplement and how much of each should you take? 

That depends on a variety of factors such as your current health and what your overall health and fitness goals are. We have provided general information on each of the minerals to help you determine that for yourself. As you learn more about minerals and mineral supplements, you may see the terms, "macromineral," and "micromineral." It is helpful to have some understanding of these terms.

Science calls the minerals that the body needs in large amounts, macrominerals. The macrominerals are:

• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Potassium
• Silicon (silica)
• Sodium
• Sulfur

These macrominerals are essential for good health. Ideally, we would get all we need from our diets, but in many cases mineral supplements are needed to make up for any shortfalls.

Microminerals, or more commonly called, trace minerals, are also vital to human health. Trace minerals occur everywhere – in the soil, in food, and in your body.  They are generally found in tiny amounts, and as result they are much easier to become depleted.  Problems with essential trace minerals are almost always caused by too little of the mineral and not by too much. When deficiencies do occur, they can interfere with normal metabolic functions such as the regulation of blood sugar. In addition, certain substances and enzymes will not work properly in the absence of these essential trace minerals. 

The essential trace minerals for the human body are:

• Boron
• Copper
• Fluoride
• Iodine
• Lithium
• Manganese
• Molybdenum
• Vanadium
• Iron
• Chromium
• Selenium
• Zinc

Minerals are crucial to the proper functioning of the human body, and they must be obtained from your diet or through the use of mineral supplements.  You should strive to get as many of the minerals from you diet as possible, but even the best diets require mineral supplementation.