The obvious benefit of taking a multi vitamin is to prevent deficiency. The same thing can be said for minerals. Just like vitamins, minerals help your body grow, develop, and stay healthy. The body uses minerals to perform many different functions – from building strong bones to transmitting nerve impulses. Some minerals are even used to make hormones or maintain a normal heartbeat. Minerals are sometimes chemical constituents of vitamins but can also found in enzymes, hormones, bones and muscles. There are about sixty different minerals that make up about four percent of the body.
A daily supplement with macro and trace minerals should be strongly considered because the body cannot produce minerals. Minerals must be ingested (eaten in our food). Most of the minerals in our diets come directly from plants or indirectly from animal sources. Minerals may also be present in the water we drink, but this varies with geographic location. With that being said, there is strong evidence to suggest that many people don’t eat a well balanced diet consisting of nutritious foods. As a result a majority of people, are lacking in a number of key vitamins and minerals.
Minerals have been divided into two groups: macro and trace. Macro minerals are found in relatively large amounts and trace minerals are found in very small amounts in the body.
List and Functions of A Few Minerals:
Calcium – strong bones and teeth
Phosphorus – strong bones and teeth
Sodium – maintains balance for water flow in and out of cell
Potassium – crucial in regulating the heartbeat
Iron – lets red blood cells carry oxygen, prevents anemia
Zinc – part of an enzyme involved in acid-base balance, liver function, digestion, and bone maintenance, prevents loss of sense of taste, growth failure, delayed healing of wounds, reproduction problems
Fluorine – produces tooth structure that resists acids, prevents tooth decay
Copper – used in breathing, energy release, production of red blood cells
Iodine – important component of thyroid hormones for metabolism
One word of caution when taking minerals to supplement you daily diet, in some cases an over consumption of some specific minerals can actually prove to be toxic. This can easily occur when taking a multi vitamin due to the mass combining of many different minerals and vitamins into one tablet or gel capsule. If you have any concerns or questions regarding the taking of a multi vitamin supplement then always seek professional medical advice or guidance from a doctor or health care specialist.