Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base

Albion is committed to sharing the knowledge we have gained over 50 years of research and innovation in the field of mineral nutrition. We believe an informed consumer is better able to make wise purchasing choices.

The knowledge presented here covers varied topics on mineral nutrition at different levels of understanding. These presentations begin with the basics of why mineral nutrition is so important and progress to scientific understandings of the molecular structure of organic minerals called chelates.

It is important to note that our aim here is to inform. We rely on our loyal customer to submit questions to our Q&A section so that we can more adequately present relevant information. We encourage you to submit your questions, comments or suggestions using the “contact us” tab at the top of the page.

Thank you for your search for knowledge and your participation.

Vitamins, Minerals, Chelates - What's the Difference?

There seems to be common misunderstandings in the marketplace as to just what is a vitamin, a mineral and a chelate. Let's start with defining vitamins: A vitamin is an organic compound needed by organisms to keep it functioning and healthy. To further clarify, high school science teaches that the world in general is made up of elements or compounds. Elements are those molecules that are in a fundamental state in the earth as pure molecules with no other ingredients. Elements are represented on the elemental chart which you may remember from your science class, they are the building blocks to ALL other compounds.

Compounds are made up of two or more elements. An example is water, made up of two elements (molecules) of hydrogen and one element (molecule) of oxygen. Vitamins are compounds.

Why Chelated Minerals are Not Created Equal

Once you’ve made the step to understand there is a difference between vitamins and minerals and then made the jump in understanding there is a difference between inorganic and organic minerals, you are ready to make a quantum leap to understand why organic chelated minerals are different.

This is where we must start to get scientific, after all the word chelate is a very specific scientific word that has almost become trendy in the marketplace. Certainly the word chelate is often misinterpreted and then, not surprisingly, misused. Because of this, “chelate” is almost reaching the point of being genericized in reference to nutritional minerals. This is why Albion Human Nutrition feels a strong and compelling need to help educate the industry and consumer in mineral chelates.

The Albion Difference

Albion is a science and research based company. At the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Albion has conducted clinical studies that prove its raw material selection and manufacturing process is 100% proven to form effective, absorbable chelates. Given the above possibilities in process variation, do you think another company could use someone else’s clinical studies and research to prove their process and their product? Can they further use those clinical studies to prove their product is fully reacted or even if an effective chelation process has taken place? Of course not.

It is to the advantage of some industry manufactures to genericize the word mineral “chelate”. It gives consumers a false understanding of what a “chelate” is and implies there is no difference between companies claiming to offer fully reacted chelates.