Minerals

Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. The term "mineral" encompasses not only the material's chemical composition, but also the mineral's structure. Minerals range in composition from pure elements and simple salts to very complex silicates with thousands of known forms. The study of minerals is called mineralogy.
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Good diet nutrition is essential for optimum health - including efficient metabolism and stable blood sugar levels, both of which affect weight control and how fast we lose weight. For example, a number of chemical reactions are required to convert food into energy or fat. These are controlled by enzymes, which are influenced by vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients. Any vitamin or mineral deficiency may harm our ability to convert glucose into energy (instead of fat) resulting in slower weight loss or more difficult weight control.
All minerals are important, and most work together. The most important vitamins for weight control and metabolism include: Chromium, Manganese and Zinc.
Dietary minerals are the chemical elements required by living organisms, other than the four elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen which are present in common organic molecules. The term "mineral" is archaic, since the intent of the definition is to describe ions, not chemical compounds or actual minerals. Furthermore, once dissolved, so-called minerals do not exist as such, sodium chloride breaks down into sodium ions and chloride ions in aqueous solution. Some dieticians recommend that these heavier elements should be supplied by ingesting specific foods (that are enriched in the element(s) of interest), compounds, and sometimes including even minerals, such as calcium carbonate. Sometimes these "minerals" come from natural sources such as ground oyster shells. Sometimes minerals are added to the diet separately from food, such as mineral supplements, the most famous being iodine in "iodized salt." Dirt eating, called pica or geophagy is practiced by some as a means of supplementing the diet with elements. The chemical composition of soils will vary depending on the location, obviously.
Vitamin are not minerals, they are principally organic compounds that can contain heavy elements such as iodine, cobalt, and sulfur. The dietary focus on "minerals" derives from an interest in supporting the biosynthetic apparatus with the required elemental components. Appropriate intake levels of certain chemical elements is thus obviously required to maintain optimal health. Most commonly, the requirements are met with a conventional diet. Excessive intake of any element (again, usually as an ion) will lead to poisoning. For example, large doses of zinc are not really harmful unto themselves but will lead to a harmful copper deficiency (unless compensated for, as in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study).