The Mineral Fix: How to Optimize Your Mineral Intake for Energy
Genres: Chemistry
Book Preface
You might have heard the term micro nutrients before. These are the smaller nutrients (hence the term micro) that are found in the foods that you eat. Examples of micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. Many of them, but not all of them, are considered essential for maintaining healthy physiological functioning of the body and thus need to be consumed from the diet. For example, micronutrient deficiencies during pregnancy, such as a lack of folic acid, iodine, zinc or iron can lead to birth defects or preterm birth. [1] Maintaining adequate nutrient status, especially b-vitamins and omega-3s, may slow or reduce cognitive decline in aging [2] . Thus, getting appropriate amounts of micronutrients can prevent severe acute consequences or prevent the decline in your health. To put this differently, your nutrition directly determines how well you age.
When we think of nutrition, many debate about what percentage of calories should come frommacronutrients (carbs, fats and protein). Those following a ketogenic diet tend to eat a higher fat, moderate protein, lower carbohydrate diet, while a more plant-based diet is higher in carbs, moderate in protein, and lower in fat. Then there are the high protein advocates who believe in consuming more protein because they tend to be more active and have more muscle. Regardless of which macronutrient camp you fall under all of us need to consume micronutrients.
Don’t let the term ‘micro’ fool you. Micronutrients do not have a micro effect on your health. In fact, when it comes to your health micro- nutrients have macro- effects on your healthspan and lifespan. This is because micronutrients are what your body uses to perform nearly all of its tasks such as regulating your heartbeat, allowing your body to cool off when it’s too hot, synthesizing energy (ATP), DNA and protein. If you can think of a physiological function in the body, there is a good chance that micronutrients are involved. Many enzyme systems in the human body require micronutrients as cofactors [3] .
Essential macronutrients include protein and fat, whereas the body can synthesize glucose making dietary carbohydrates technically non-essential [4] . However, this book focuses on micronutrients, specifically minerals.Just like with fats and protein, there are essential minerals that must be consumed otherwise we perish. Another example of essential micronutrients are vitamins. There are minerals that are considered non-essential and yet if we are not obtaining enough of them in the diet this can lead to worse health outcomes. Thus, both essential and non-essential minerals are extremely important for health and longevity.
The criteria for essential nutrients were established in the 1960s and 1970s [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] .It included the following requirements:
The element must be able to react with biological materials or form chelates.
The element must be ubiquitous in sea waters and the earth’s crust. In other words, it had to be present during the evolution of many organisms and the development of their essential functions.
The element must be present in a significant amount in living animals.
The element should be toxic only at extremely high intakes compared to regular nutritional intakes.
The body should have homeostatic mechanisms for regulating the element’s levels consistently.
Deficiencies in the element must have consistent and adverse effects on the body’s biological functions and this change is reversible or preventable with physiological intakes of the element.
In the Western world, you would have a hard time finding someone who is deficient in macronutrients, e.g., carbs, fats or protein. However, much of the population is deficient in micronutrients and in particular minerals . It’s not only likely that you are deficient in numerous minerals, but a large percentage of the general population has a suboptimal level of at least one mineral in their body [9] . For example, there is a big difference in preventing a frank nutrient deficiency, such as scurvy, which causes bleeding gums and visible bruising, versus a suboptimal intake of vitamin C, which increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Preventing scurvy only requires around 7-10 mg of vitamin C per day, whereas to fully saturate all body tissues with vitamin C and provide optimal antioxidant protection, around 1,000 mg of vitamin C per day (500 mg twice daily) or more may be needed [10] . In other words, with vitamin C, there is a 100-fold difference between an intake that prevents frank deficiency (10 mg/day) and an intake that provides optimal health (1,000 mg/day).
Another example would be magnesium. You can prevent frank magnesium deficiency by only consuming around 150-180 mg per day, however, optimal intakes of magnesium sit anywhere from 450 to 1,800 mg per day or more [11] . Thus, there can be a 10 or even a 100-fold difference in the amount of a micronutrient that prevents a frank deficiency versus one that provides optimal health and longevity . That is the key message of this book! In the following pages, we will reveal what those optimal intakes are for each mineral based on the evidence in the medical literature.
There are two kinds of minerals: macrominerals,which you need rather large amounts of, typically more than 100 milligrams (mg) per day,and trace minerals, which are typically consumed in amounts less than 100 mg per day.
There are 17 essential minerals , although there is considerable debate on this number [12] . However, in general, there are 7 essential macrominerals and 10 essential trace minerals. These essential minerals cannot be produced by the body and are considered essential to get in the diet in order for us to live.There are at least 5 minerals that could be considered essentialbut have yet to be deemed as such. Below is a list of these minerals, their food sources, and the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) or adequate intake (AI) for each in adults 19 years or older. It is important to note thatthe RDA/AI is to prevent mineral deficiencies and does not represent an optimal mineral intake.
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter 1: How Minerals Drive the Body’s Essential Processes
Chapter 2: Minerals Needed by the Body
Chapter 3: Superoxide Anions Drive Chronic Diseases and Minerals Are the Antidote
Chapter 4: Calcium, Magnesium, Hard Water and Your Heart
Chapter 5: Taking the Waters: Mineral Waters with Magnesium and Calcium
Chapter 6: Magnesium, Calcium and Phosphorus: Softening Up the Arteries and Hardening the Bones
Chapter 7: The History and Importance of Copper in the Diet
Chapter 8: Getting the Right Amount of Copper, Zinc and Iron
Chapter 9: Zinc for the Immune and Endocrine System
Chapter 10: Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism: The Sodium-Selenium-Iodine Connection
Chapter 11: Potassium, Sodium and Hypertension
Chapter 12: Boron and Other Possibly Essential Trace Minerals
Chapter 13: Sulfur, Glutathione and Organosulfur Compounds
Chapter 14: Chromium and Blood Sugar Management
Chapter 15: Manganese and Molybdenum: Hidden Player’s of the Body’s Antioxidant Defense
Chapter 16: Eating for the Minerals and Preventing Deficiencies
References
| Download Ebook | Read Now | File Type | Upload Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Download here
|
Read Now | Epub | May 21, 2021 |
How to Read and Open File Type for PC ?
