Minerals

Main article: Dietary mineral
Dietary minerals are the chemical elements required by living organisms, other than the four elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen that are present in common organic molecules. The term "mineral" is archaic, since the intent is to describe simply the less common elements in the diet: heavier than the four just mentioned; including several metals; and often occurring as ions in the body. Some dietitians recommend that these be supplied from foods in which they occur naturally, or at least as complex compounds, or sometimes even from natural inorganic sources (such as calcium carbonate from ground oyster shells). On the other hand, minerals are often artificially added to the diet as supplements, the most famous being iodine in iodized salt.

Macrominerals

Many elements are essential in quantity; also called "bulk minerals". Some are structural, but many play a role as electrolytes.[3] Elements with recommended dietary allowance (RDA) greater than 200 mg/day are the following, in alphabetical order (with informal or folk-medicine perspectives in parentheses):

• Calcium, a common electrolyte, but also structural (for muscle and digestive system health, builds bone, neutralizes acidity, clears toxins, helps blood stream)
• Chlorine as chloride ions; very common electrolyte; see sodium, below
• Magnesium, required for processing ATP and related reactions (builds bone, causes strong peristalsis, increases flexibility, increases alkalinity)
• Phosphorus, required component of bones; essential for energy processing[4]
• Potassium, a very common electrolyte (heart and nerve health)
• Sodium, a very common electrolyte; not generally found in dietary supplements, despite being needed in large quantities, because the ion is very common in food: typically as
• sodium chloride, or common salt
• Sulfur for three essential amino acids and therefore many proteins (skin, hair, nails, liver, and pancreas)
  

Trace minerals

Many elements are required in trace amounts, usually because they play a catalytic role in enzymes.[5] Some trace mineral elements (RDA <>

• Cobalt required for biosynthesis of vitamin B12 family of coenzymes
• Copper required component of many redox enzymes, including cytochrome c oxidase
• Chromium required for sugar metabolism
• Iodine required for the biosynthesis of thyroxin; needed in larger quantities than others in this list, and sometimes classified with the macrominerals
• Iron required for many enzymes, and for hemoglobin and some other proteins
• Manganese (processing of oxygen)
• Molybdenum required for xanthine oxidase and related oxidases
• Nickel present in urease
• Selenium required for peroxidase (antioxidant proteins)
• Vanadium (Speculative: there is no established RDA for vanadium. No specific biochemical function has been identified for it in humans, although vanadium is found in lower organisms.)
• Zinc required for several enzymes such as carboxypeptidase, liver alcohol dehydrogenase, carbonic anhydrase