Minerals
Minerals, like vitamins, are essential for health. They help maintain normal heart rhythm, teeth and bones, muscle, and your body’s acid-base fluid balance.
Again, like vitamins, they are grouped into two categories; macro-minerals and trace minerals. Macro-minerals are required in daily doses of over 100 milligrams while trace minerals are needed in such tiny amounts that their requirements are often measured in micrograms.
A healthy diet containing a wide variety of food sources will supply enough minerals to maintain a healthy balance. Problems start to arise when a major food group, such as meat or dairy products, is eliminated.
As such, vegetarians are particularly at risk of mineral deficiency – if they do not plan their diet correctly. Minerals found in meat (such as iron, copper, and selenium) can also be supplied by other foods, but awareness is key if mineral levels are to be maintained at a healthy level.
The table below lists each essential mineral, along with a guide to their main food sources.
| Mineral | Function | Food Source |
| Calcium | Bones, teeth, blood clotting, muscle cocentration | Milk products, vegetables, legumes |
| Chloride | Digestion, extracellular fluids | Salt in food |
| Chromium | Energy metabolism | Legumes, grains, meats, vegetable oils |
| Copper | Iron metabolism | Meats, water |
| Fluorine | Bones, teeth | Water, seafood, tea |
| Iodine | Thyroid hormone | Fish, milk products, vegetables, iodized salt |
| Magnesium | Protein synthesis | Grains, greens |
| Phosphorus | Bones, teeth, acid-base balance | Milk products, meats polutry, fish, grains |
| Potassium | Nerve transmission, fluid and acid-base balance | Greens, bananas, meats, milk products, potatoes,coffee |
| Selenium | Antioxidant | Seafood, meats, grains |
| Sodium | Nerve function, fluid and acid-base balance | Salt |
| Sulphur | Liver function | Dietry protein |
| Zinc | Enzyme activity | Meat, poultry, fish, milk products, grains, fruits,vegetables |
