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Dr. Linda Hadley, N.D., D.Sc., Ph.D.

  THE TRUTH ABOUT MINERALS IN SUPPLEMENT 

Robert J. Thiel, Ph.D., N.M.D.

ANMA Monitor, Third Quarter, August, 2002

Abstract:  Even though health professionals acknowledge that humans are not supposed to consume clay or other forms of soil, most seem to overlook this fact when mineral supplementation is involved.  This paper explains some of the biochemical reasons that food minerals are superior for humans.  It also explains what many of the commonly supplemented minerals actually are, as well as listing many of their industrial uses.  Furthermore, it explains many advantages that minerals in foods have compared to commonly used industrial mineral salts and manufactured mineral chelates. 

  Introduction     5

When it comes to nutrition, plants and humans differ: "a typical plant makes it own food from raw materials….  A typical animal eats its food" [1].  For plants, these "raw material" include soil-based mineral salts [2]. 

Plants, with the aid of enzymes and soil-based microorganisms (which sometimes are depleted in the soil through synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides [3, 4], can take in mineral salts (from soil) which they have an affinity for [4].  After various metabolic processes, when these minerals no longer exist as mineral salts, they become complexed with various carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins present in the plant, as part of the living organism [5].  Thus for nutrition, humans eat plant (and/or animals which eat plants), whereas plants can obtain their nutrients from the soil [4].  This process is commonly referred to as the "food chain" [5]. 

Dietary Guideline number 18 of the Weston A. Price Foundation (an organization devoted to consuming real foods) is "Use only natural, food-based supplements" [6].  One of the standards of naturopathy agreed to in 1947 was, "Naturopathy does not make use of synthetic or inorganic vitamins or minerals" [7].  Why would naturopaths have mentioned minerals since they are (or can be) 'natural'?  Because even back then, most naturopaths knew that the inorganic minerals being placed into supplements were often simply industrial rocks, and not foods. 

Little has changed in the 45 years since.  This paper will document sources and some of the chemical differences between minerals found in foods and the industrially processed mineral salts which are found in most 'natural' mineral supplements. 

  Chemical Differences    5

The basic difference between minerals found in foods and those found in processed rocks (industrial mineral salts) is chemical.  The other major difference is that humans are not supposed to directly consume soil components [1]. 

Minerals are normally found in food and in the body attached with some peptide [8, 9].  When humans eat plants (or animals) they are consuming minerals in those forms.  With the exception of sodium chloride (common table salt), humans do not normally consume minerals in the chemical forms known as mineral salts (when they do, it is considered to be a disorder called 'geophagia' or 'pica' [10, 11].  Even though they are aware of this, many health professionals advocate supplementing with processed soil components. 

It is a fact that mineral salts are often called "natural", but they are not food minerals.  Mineral salts are molecular compounds that look like rocks [12].  Mineral salts are a compound containing a mineral element (which is the mineral normally listed on a supplement label) and some other substance it is chemically bound to.  Mineral salts are either rocks (e.g. calcium carbonate exists as rock commonly known as limestone) or they are rocks which are chemically-altered.  Mineral salts are natural food for plants (which can chemically change and detoxify them [13]), they are not natural food for humans. 

A chemical analogy might be appropriate here to better explain the difference.  If there is hydrogen present with oxygen, the hydrogen will burn if heated to its kindling point.  However, when hydrogen binds with oxygen and becomes the chemical compound known as water, it will not burn, no matter what the temperature.  Even though water contains hydrogen, hydrogen bound in water does not react the same way as unbound hydrogen.  Minerals bound in mineral salts simply are not treated the same way in the body as minerals found in food.

  Most Minerals in Supplements are Industrial Chemicals    5

There is a relatively easy way to tell if minerals are industrial chemicals.  With the exception of chromium GTF (which stands for glucose tolerance factor) which is food if it is from nutritional yeast, but is chemically synthesized if it is not from nutritional yeast [17], whenever there are two-words on a label describing a mineral, it is logical to conclude that the substance is an industrial mineral product and not 100% food!  Humans, of course, are supposed to eat 100% food. (NOTE:  Standard Process Cataplex GTF is made from Chromium Yeast)

Chelated minerals, as a rule, are generally crushed industrial rocks processed with one or more acids.  Probably the biggest difference in minerals now compared to 45 years ago is that some companies have decided to industrially produce human-made versions of minerals attached to peptides.  Essentially they take a rock or industrial mineral salt, chemically alter it, and attempt to attach it to the mineral.  This results in a mineral that is different from normal mineral salts, but does not turn the substance into a food.  Examples of this include the various mineral ascorbates, picolinates, aspartates, glycinates, and chelates.  It needs to be understood that since there is not a universally accepted definition of the term 'chelate', when this term is used on a label, one generally does not know if the chelate is amino-acid based or some type of industrial acid. 

It should be noted, for example, that the addition of "citric acid and picolinic acid do not appear to enhance zinc absorption" [21].  Please also understand that chromium picolinate is a human-made substance, created by Gary Evens [22] – it is not natural food.  Picolinic acid is used in herbicides [16]; furthermore "picolinic acid is an excretory or waste product.  It is not metabolized by or useful to the body" [23]. 

Jay Patricks claims to have originally developed procedures to manufacture all seven of the mineral ascorbates [23]; thus it would seem highly appropriate to call supplements with ascorbate attached minerals 'food'. 

Actually, it does not appear that any of the minerals marketed as 'chelated' are food concentrates (though there are foods which contain naturally chelated minerals, but these are normally marketed as food minerals).  Even though there may be some theoretical advantages of industrially-produced mineral 'chelates' as compared to inorganic mineral salts, these chelates are not natural food. 

  Bioavailability is Not the Same – Minerals in Foods are Superior    5

It is well known among nutrition researchers that most essential minerals are not well absorbed (some are less than 1%) [24].  "bioavailability of orally administered vitamins, minerals and trace elements is subject to a complex set of influences….In nutrition science the term 'bioavailability' encompasses the sum of impacts that may reduce or foster the metabolic utilization of a nutrient"[25].  University studies (which may or may not conform to peer-review standards) show that the bioavailability of mineral containing foods is greater than that of isolated inorganic mineral salts or mineral chelates [e.g. 26-37].  These studies have concluded that natural food minerals may be better absorbed, utilized, and/or retained than mineral salts. 

Furthermore it needs to be understood that minerals used in most supplements do not contain protein chaperones or other food factors, needed for absorption into the cell.  In 1996, the Nobel prize for medicine was awarded for discovering that minerals need protein chaperones to be absorbed into cellular receptors.  Here is how one laboratory describes what happens when mineral salts without protein chaperones are consumed, "It is after digestion when other mineral forms {mineral salts} have their mineral cleaved from their carriers.  In this situation, these minerals become charged ions, and their absorbability becomes in jeopardy.  These charged free minerals are known to block the absorption of one another or to combine with other dietary factors to form compounds that are unabsorbable" [38].  A question to consider is, should people on a daily basis consume a dozen or more chemicals which are not naturally included in any human food?  If not, should multi-mineral products for health maintenance be consumed which contain industrial mineral salts/chelates or should only those which contain mineral dense foods? 

Foods used in supplements that commonly provide significant quantities of essential minerals include dulse, horsetail herb, kelp, nutritional yeast, rice bran, and water thyme.  These types of foods have been shown to contain not only minerals in natural food forms, but also important protein chaperones such as ATXI and ceruplasmin [39-40].  So in addition to being chemically different, industrial mineral salts do not contain the protein chaperones or other food factors needed for proper mineral absorption.  Furthermore, some foods also contain factors which reduce the probability of certain minerals to be toxic to the body [41-43] – industrial mineral salts and chelates are simply not that complete. (NOTE:  You will always find Standard Process products containing the one or more of the essential minerals listed above)

In addition to not containing residue chemicals that the body must discard, there are quantitative differences in food versus non-food minerals.  The following chart lists some of them by mineral.                        

There are also other benefits.   In addition to having higher antioxidant ability, one study found that food selenium is 123 times more effective in reducing nonenzymatic protein glycation (a potential contributor to Alzheimer's) than a selenium mineral salt [31].  A seven week study found that food calcium (from nutritional yeast) was able to reduce diastolic blood pressure by 8.2%, whereas the mineral salt calcium used resulted in no significant change [28].  Food chromium has been shown to be 2.80 times more effective in reducing blood glucose levels than inorganic chromium [29, 30].  Foods, almost by definition, are not toxic, and as mentioned earlier, can have protective factors to prevent certain potential mineral toxicities [41-43]. 

In spite of all this research, some have felt that if they take, for example, twice as much of an industrial rock (called mineral salt) than a food mineral, then it will be just as effective in the body.  That is not true.  An analogy might be appropriate here.  Let's say two people want to build a computer.  One has 100% of all the parts (like in food nutrients) and the other has 94% of all the parts (lacking other food factors), but the parts are a lot bigger (like in USP rocks, because they contain non-essential mineral attachments), which computer will work correctly?  The one with all the parts!  Most minerals are cheap (or not so cheap) industrial imitations of food minerals – they are not food!

Industrially processed rocks can have some positive nutritional effects (as well as unnatural residues), yet they are not food for humans.  Unlike humans, plants have roots or hyphae which aid in the absorption of minerals.  Plants actually have the ability to decrease the toxicity of compounds by changing their biochemical forms [13].  Plants are intended to ingest rocks; humans are not [1].  Real foods, and not industrial imitations, are the preferred source of minerals by those who believe in the principles of basic, traditional naturopathy. 

References:

1. Jenkins DJA, Wolever TMS, and Jenkins A. Diet Factors Affecting Nutrient Absorption and Metabolism.  In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 8^th ed. Lea and Febiger, Phil.:583-602, 1944

2. Thiel, RJ. Combining Old and New: Naturopathy for the 21^st Century. Whitman Publications, Warsaw (IN), 2000

3.  Shils ME, Olson JA, Shike J. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 8^th ed. Lea and Febiger, Phil., 1994

4. Turner G. Spectral Data Services. Tests conducted Feb. 1993

5. Vinson J, Bose P, Lemoine L, Hsiao KH. Bioavailability studies. In Nutrient Availability: Chemical and Biological Aspects. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge (UK) 1989:125-127

6. Ha SW. Rabbit study comparing yeast and isolated B vitamins (as described in Murray RP. Natural vs. Synthetic. Mark R. Anderson, 1995, p:A3). Ann Rev Physiol, 1941;3:259-282

7. Vinson J. Human supplementation with different forms of vitamin C. University of Scranton, Scranton (PA)

8. Vinson JA, Jan J. In vitro and In Vivo antioxidant effect of a citrus extract and ascorbic acid on normal and hypercholesterolemic human subject. J Med Food, 2001:4(4):187-192

9. Vinson JA, Hu S, Jung S. A citrus extract plus ascorbic acid decreases lipids, lipid peroxides, lipoprotein oxidative susceptibility, and atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic hamsters. J Argic Food Chem, 1998;46:143-1469

10. Vinson JA, Howard TB, Inhibition of protein glycation and advanced glycation end products by ascorbic acid and other vitamins and nutrients. Nutr Biochemistry, 1996;7:659-663

11. Macrae R, Robson RK, Sadler MJ. Encyclopedia of Food Science and Nutrition. Academic Press, NY, 1993

12. DeCava JA. The Real Truth About Vitamins & Antioxidants. A Printery, Centerfield (MA), 1997

13. Understanding Vitamins and Minerals, Rodale Press, Emmaus (PA), 1984

14. Jacob RA. Vitamin C. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 9^th ed. Williams & Wilkins, Balt., 1999:467-483

15. PDR for Herbal Medicine, 2^nd ed. Medical Economics, Montvale (NJ), 2000

16. Pederson M. Nutritional Herbology: A Reference Guide to Herbs, 3^rd ed. Whitman Books, Warsaw (IN), 1998

17. Guyton AG, Hall JE. Textbook of Medical Physiology, 9^th ed, W.B. Saunders Co., Phil., 1996

18. Amberson JB, Gray GF, Adrenal pathology. In Adrenal Disorders. Thieme Medical Publishers: New York; 1983:13-36

19.  Specific nutrients aid in high-performance activity. Nutr Week, June 4, 1994:7

20. Null G. The Clinician's Handbook of Natural Healing, Kensington, NY, 1998

*This article is presented here in its entirety and none of the above information has been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.