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Page 1 of 3  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.
Understanding this ‘element and compound’ concept is key to understanding what nutritional minerals are and how living organisms use them. Nutritional minerals are elements and can be found on the elemental chart. The major minerals (also called "macrominerals") that are important for life are, in alphabetical order, Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), and Sodium (Na). Another grouping of minerals based on intake requirement is ‘trace minerals’: Boron (B), Cobalt (Co), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iodine (I), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mo), Selenium (Se), Vanadium (V), and Zinc (Zn). The requirement for trace mineral intake is lower than for macrominerals. Please note that like any rule there are exceptions. Nature has exceptions to general mineral intake requirements but for the sake of understanding we will not address these exceptions. |
Thursday, 11 March 2010