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Those Mighty Minerals! (Nut 101–brief review–final installment)

MIGHTY MINERALS!

We need them every day.

For the past several weeks, I’ve offered a brief review of nutrition basics. For some of you, this may have been boring or repetitive (perhaps you knew all this already!) But, hopefully, you gleaned some knowledge that has been useful to you in making healthy nutrition choices.

This is the last blog in this particular nutrition series. Today, we focus on the importance of choosing foods that provide us with vital minerals that keep our body functioning efficiently and with good health.

Minerals are nutrients that regulate many chemical reactions in the body. Macro minerals are required daily in amounts greater than 100 milligrams:  Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, and Magnesium. Trace minerals are also necessary, but in smaller quantities:  Iron, Chlorine, Cobalt, Copper, Manganese, Molybdenum, Iodine, Selenium, Sulfur, and Zinc.

I’m  not going to specifically discuss every mineral, but a few deserve extra recognition:

Calcium is essential for building and maintaining strong bones and teeth. It is also needed for muscle, heart, and digestive system health and assists in blood cell function.

 

Phosphorus is a component of bone cell development and energy processing.

 

Potassium and Sodium assist the body in proper regulation of fluids. Of course, as you know, we need to be very careful of our sodium intake. Most of us consume much more sodium than we need. High consumption of sodium has been linked to hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease. It is recommended that we limit our sodium intake to less than 1500 milligrams per day.

Iron (needed in trace amounts, but still essential) is necessary for red blood cell production.

From the list above of minerals, you’ll note I only mentioned a few with details. We need these others on a daily basis, too! Below is a brief summary of the benefits of minerals.

  • Bone growth and maintenance
  • Muscle growth and maintenance
  • Blood cell production
  • Heart health
  • Digestive health
  • Energy production and metabolic function
  • Regulation of body fluids

The best sources of minerals?

Yay! You guessed it! It’s those fruits and veggies!

Eating a good variety of fruits and vegetables such as leafy greens, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans and lentils, carrots, avocados, oranges, bananas, and prunes provide many of our necessary minerals.

Adding low fat dairy products, lean meats, fish, and whole grains will cover the rest! If you don’t consume dairy products, canned salmon (with bones), leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and tofu are good choices to provide calcium.

So…again, the key point for getting minerals, and all our other essential nutrients, is to eat a variety of foods prepared in a healthy way, while being careful to keep sugar intake and unhealthy fat as low as possible.

Please bear with me for a brief summary. Our body requires six nutrients (listed below) on a daily basis. For the ones highlighted, I’ve linked a previous blog that provided more detail. I omitted water from this recent discussion because a previous blog (which I have linked) provides greater detail. Just a reminder, though–WATER is an essential nutrient. Try to drink at least eight glasses of water each day.

Wishing you a bright and sunny (and hopefully, springlike) week!

AND, healthy eating!