• What are minerals? • Functions of Minerals • Dietary Minerals with charts • Did you know?

1. Minerals

2. ● Minerals are inorganic substances meaning that they
occur naturally in non-living things such as water, rocks
and soil.
● Plants get minerals through the soil and water.
● Animals ingest minerals from eating plants and from
drinking (water).
● Humans ingest minerals from the food that we eat and
from drinking fluids.

3. Functions of Minerals
● Minerals are basic and essential raw materials in our
daily lives.
● They are vital for economic, social and technological
development.
● They are important for your body to stay healthy, for
many different jobs, including building bones, making
hormones and regulating your heartbeat.
● They are important for building strong bones and teeth,
blood, skin, hair, nerve function, muscle and for
metabolic processes.

4. Dietary Minerals
Sodium, Chloride,
Potassium, Calcium,
Phosphorus, Iron
Magnesium,
Sulphur, Zinc,
Chromium, Cobalt,
Copper, Flouride,
Iodine, Manganrese,
Selenium,
Molybdenum.

7. Did you Know?
● Salt intake makes you thirsty as it makes your blood more concentrated and
so we drink more water/fluid so that excess salt can be processed by your
kidneys and passed out through your urine.
● Chlorine is actually a green gas which is poisonous, but when it is combined
with sodium (a soft metal), the combined chemical is known as sodium
chloride.
● Food labels which give you the sodium content of the food are not telling the
full story? Sodium appears in food labels instead of salt itself so when
reading sodium on a food label you have to multiply it by 2.5 times to get the
actual salt content.
● Phosphorus is found in relatively high amounts in high-protein animal
products (meat and fish), high protein diets such as the Atkins Diet could
build up phosphorus levels if sustained for a long time.
● It is also important to note that excessively high intakes of minerals can be
toxic (harmful).