The metals we’re mostly aware of are gold, silver, and platinum, which don’t affect health but instead the economy. However, other precious metals are necessary for good health. These essential metals are so crucial for our bodies that living without them is impossible. Each metal has a role to play in various body functions.
Your body doesn’t require large amounts of metals to function. However, having too little or too much can upset the perfect and delicate balance in the body. Many metals in the body are needed to activate enzymes, which have essential functions in the body. Metals have other crucial bodily roles, each metal playing a different role.
Your body doesn’t manufacture essential minerals but can get them from your diet. These minerals come from the soil, rocks, and water. They’re absorbed into plants as they grow and can also be found in animals when they eat plants. Even though most fresh foods contain these precious metals, you can also find them in a few processed foods, like breakfast cereals, which may be fortified with minerals.
It’s also common to see that many pills and powders contain these precious metals to help you keep their balance in your body. So, you don’t have to rely entirely on your diet to give you these metals. This is especially important for people following a diet that eliminates some food groups necessary for providing these metals.
What are the various metals needed by the human body and their functions?
Essential minerals are divided into two main categories: trace minerals and major minerals. Major minerals are the ones the body uses and stores in large quantities. These include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulphur, and chloride. Trace minerals, on the other hand, are equally crucial to our health, but we don’t need them in large quantities like we do major minerals. Trace minerals include copper, chromium, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc.
Calcium
The body needs calcium to build strong teeth and bones. Calcium also activates enzymes throughout the body and helps regulate blood pressure. It also aids in helping muscles contract, blood clots, and nerves send messages. Calcium is often present in dairy products, fortified juices, tofu, and leafy green vegetables like kale and broccoli.
Iron
Our bodies are unable to make blood cells without iron. Iron activates enzymes and makes essential amino acids, hormones, collagen, and neurotransmitters. It also helps make the oxygen-carrying chemical in the body’s red blood cells (hemoglobin) and myoglobin, a protein in muscle cells. The best sources of iron are lentils, red meat, turkey, and beans.
Magnesium
Magnesium works hand in hand with calcium to build bones and teeth. It also helps blood sugar blood pressure, and sends signals to the brain. Magnesium also helps muscles contract, blood clots, and nerves to send messages. Dietary sources of magnesium include green vegetables, almonds, seeds, peanut butter, soybeans, whole-wheat bread, and milk.
Potassium
Potassium is necessary to balance body fluids and maintain a steady heartbeat. Similarly to calcium and magnesium, potassium also helps build bones and regulate blood pressure. Dietary sources of potassium include bananas, beans, broccoli, spinach, oranges, and potatoes.
Chromium
This metal helps regulate normal blood sugar levels. Besides that, it also allows cells to draw energy from blood sugar. Some good sources of chromium include mussels, broccoli, grape juice, brazil nuts, meat, and whole wheat.
Copper
Copper makes red blood cells, helps with metabolizing fuel, regulating neurotransmitters, and mopping up free radicals. Foods rich in copper include shellfish, whole grains, nuts, beans, potatoes, and organ meats (like kidney and liver).
Manganese
Manganese helps with the metabolism of fat and carbohydrate. It also helps the body form connective tissues and bones. It also helps with blood clotting factors and sex hormones. Manganese also helps regulate normal brain and nerve function. You can find it in grains, seeds, and nuts.
Molybdenum
It activates a number of enzymes responsible for breaking down toxins and preventing the buildup of sulfites in the body. It also helps process proteins and genetic material like DNA. It also aids in breaking down toxic substances and drugs.
Sodium
Sodium helps with the balancing of fluids in the body. It also sends nerve impulses and helps make muscles contract. It also helps in the maintenance of plasma volume, acid-base balance, and normal cell function. You can find sodium in celery, milk, and beets.
Zinc
The immune syste needs zinc to function properly. It’s also good for cell division, wound healing, cell growth, and the breakdown of carbohydrates. It also helps blood clots make proteins and DNA. Foods with zinc include poultry, red meat, and oysters.
How to balance your metals
When you indulge in a balanced diet that is full of a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy products, lean proteins, and unsaturated fats, you’re consuming all the healthy minerals your body needs. You don’t have to pay attention to your daily intake if you have a balanced diet.
However, although it may seem easy to get these metals in your diet, some minerals are hard to obtain in the right amounts. These include:
- Iron: Most women suffer from iron deficiency because they lose blood during their menstrual cycle. Obesity can also cause iron deficiency, especially in premenopausal women. When one is severely obese, it is associated with low-level inflammation, which reduces iron absorption in the body.
- Potassium: Many older adults take about half to three-quarters of their required daily potassium intake. When you indulge in a low-potassium, high-sodium diet, you increase your chances of high blood pressure.
- Calcium: Most older adults suffer from calcium deficiency, especially women and those on a dairy-free diet. When you have a deficiency in calcium, you raise your chances of suffering from brittle bones and fractures.
- Magnesium: When you frequently suffer from diarrhea, you tend to have less magnesium. Diarrhea is often caused by food intolerance, and you can solve this by taking an Intolerance Test, which will help you know your trigger foods and avoid them. This can also happen when you consume diuretics to treat blood pressure, as it causes you to excrete magnesium in urine.
What is heavy metal poisoning?
This type of poisoning occurs when your body has been exposed to a high amount of heavy metals affecting normal bodily functions. Some heavy metals include arsenic, mercury, and lead. It’s rare to have heavy metal poisoning, and it only occurs as a result of diet, lifestyle factors, and medications. It is possible that your environment can cause you to have this type of poisoning.
So, the metals we’re discussing here can’t cause heavy metal poisoning. However, you must be aware of specific interactions between these various metals. For example, sodium and potassium impact each other. Since a typical Western diet contains too much sodium, potassium can help reduce sodium levels.
Too much zinc can cause copper deficiency, affecting your body’s ability to metabolize iron. It’s easy to have excess copper when you keep supplementing it. Excessive calcium can also interfere with your body’s ability to absorb magnesium. Most metal interactions mostly happen when you don’t balance their intake.
Final thoughts
Metals are a critical part of a healthy diet; you need them in the right amount for your body to function properly. Learning about these metals and foods to find them in will help you indulge in a healthy balanced diet that ensures you dont suffer from deficiencies. If you have food intolerance symptoms, take an Intolerance Test, which will help you figure out which foods are problematic. You don’t have to consume problematic food. However, you can eliminate it from your diet in favor of a different food that’s adequately nutritious and has the suitable metals you need for good health.
