Many people are aware today that they need nutrient
supplementation to augment their daily diets to assure their intake of the
90 essential nutrients but are frustrated in the results they get from the
huge variety of multiple vitamin/mineral programs avail able.
Vitamins are pretty much the same, there are fat-soluble
and water soluble vitamins and they are about equally available in just about
any multiple tablet; minerals, however, are a different story - there are
three basic types of minerals:
1. METALLIC MINERALS
Metallic minerals include egg shell, oyster shell,
calcium carbonate, lime stone, dolomite, mineral salt, sea water and Great
Salt Lake Water, mineral oxides (i.e. - iron oxide, copper oxide, etc.), vortex
waters, sea bed minerals, "soils" which are usually ,lay), sea bed clays and
clays, "rock flours" and various antacids such as Rolaids and Tums
Typically metallic minerals are found in tablets
and powders as gluconate (calcium gluconate, zinc gluconate,etc,), lactate,
sulfates, carbonates and oxides
(iron oxide = rust!!!)
Metallic minerals despite wild claims to the contrary
are only eight to 12 % biologically available to animals and humans; after
attaining the age of 35 to 40 Years the availability of metallic minerals
to humans drops to three to five percent
We know of a man with a "Porta Potty" business in
Grand Rapids, Michigan who finds literally thousands of multiple vitamin/mineral
tablets in the bottom screens when the "Porta potty" is pressure cleaned after
a public event. We asked, "how do you know they are multiple vitamin/mineral
tablets?" and he replied," because the names are still on the coatings (i.e.-
One-A-Day, Theragram M, Centrum, etc.)!! Over the years he has accumulated
a literal mountain of these tablets!!!
A typical metallic mineral supplement either alone
or as part of a multiple is calcium lactate. Calcium lactate can be obtained
in 2,000 mg tablets which breaks down to 140 mg of metallic calcium and 860
mg of milk sugar or lactose. Two 1000 mg calcium lactate tablets do not give
you 2,000 mg of calcium they only give you 280 mg of metallic calcium - at
a 10 %bioavailability rate,
Table 10 - 3. Amounts of Metallic
Calcium in a 1000 mg Tablet |
Calcium gluconate ..................... 90 mg
Calcium carbonate ................... 400 mg
Calcium acetate ....................... 230 mg
Calcium citrate ......................... 210 mg
Calcium lactate ......................... 140 mg
Cows milk (1000 mg fluid).......... 10 mg
|
you get 28 mg of biologically available calcium, therefore to get enough calcium
from these tablets to meet your needs, you would have to take 30 tablets with
each meal or 90 tablets a day and you have 59 more minerals to go (Table 10
-3 above)
2. CHELATED MINERALS
Chelated (Key-late) minerals were created by the
livestock industry in the 1960's to ensure maximum availability of dietary
minerals to animals being fed and fattened for market. The original chelating
agent used was calcium EDTA, a man made amino acid that was invented by the
Germans just Prior to WW II to antidote arsenic and lead exposure in chemical
warfare attacks (calcium EDTA is used today for intravenous chelation therapy
to clean out arterial obstructions).
The term Chelated literally means "claw," but is
used to describe the process by which an amino acid, protein or enzyme (enzymes
are proteins that do work) is wrapped around the mineral molecule which enhances
the bio-availability of the metallic mineral.
Chelated minerals are approximately 40 % bio available,
a significant improvement over the original metallic minerals your septic
tank in the back yard gets the other 60 % (Table 10 - 4).
Chelated minerals are easily recognized on the label
of a multiple vitamin/mineral supplement by the amino acid suffix such as
selenium aspartate, chromium picolinate, or sometimes as an "amino acid chelate."
Table 10-4. Absorption Comparison of Chelated and Metallic Minerals.
` |
Amino Acid Chelate vs.
Carbonates |
Amino Acid Chelate vs.
Sulphates |
Amino Acid Chelate vs.
Oxides |
Copper |
5.8:1 |
4.1:1 |
3.0:1 |
Magnesium |
1.8:1 |
2.6:1 |
- |
Iron |
3.6:1 |
3.8:1 |
4.9:1 |
Zinc |
- |
2.3:1 |
3.9:1 |
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