Trace Elements

Trace Elements, sometimes also called microminerals/micro minerals or micronnutirents are needed to maintain life, but they are only needed in very small quantities. Trace Elements include compounds such as minerals and vitamins. Essential trace elements for the human body include iron, copper, iodine, chromium, manganese, selenium, zinc and molybdenum. Microminerals in the body exist in very small amounts and can be added through dietary intake.

If these important trace elements for the human blood are missing trace elements deficiency can occur. A trace element deficiency can have serious results such as blindness, maternal death and retardation. Examples of microminerals deficiency are: Vitamin a deficiency (result blindness), iron deficiency (result maternal death) and iodine deficiency (result mental retardation). Zinc, Vitamin E and manganese deficiencies also cause severe health problems to the body.

In developed countries such as the United States and Western Europe micronutrient malnutrition is practically unknown. The fact that fortified foods, supplements and healthy balanced diets exist, make a low level of micro minerals in the body almost impossible.

Trace elements and ascorbic acid can go hand in hand working on th body, but in some cases they can also inhibit each others actions. Studies are still working on proving if ascorbic acid and trace elements of several kinds are a good combination for the human body.

Very good examples of microminerals in nutrition are fish. Seafood is usually rich in the amount of trace minerals and almost any kind of trace mineral needed can be obtained by including seafood in the daily diet.

Daily dietary needs can be covered by food produced by the modern agriculture. Food growing in our fields usually contains the following nutrients: major nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, minor nutrients such as calcium, chloride, magnesium, iron, sodium, and sulfur, trace elements monitored and maintained in agricultural soils such as boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum and zinc as well as trace elements added later on to our nutrition such as iodine in table salt, cobalt in salt licks for cattle and sheep and selenium in fortified chicken feed.

Not only are these minerals necessary for the human life, but also for all plant life and plant growth. This is the reason why all fertilizers are rich in the trace elements necessary. But also strict regulations on the amounts in fertilizers are given since the enter in some form or another the human body.

Further detail about trace elements and other minerals can be found on the pages of the international Mineralogy society as well as the government information in the United Sates.