Where Have All the Minerals Gone?

Traditionally, eating fresh grains, fruits, and vegetables grown in nutrient-rich soil have been the primary source for the essential minerals the body requires to operate optimally.  These minerals are called organic because the plants have absorbed the minerals from the soil and converted them into organic minerals, unlike inorganic minerals such as calcium from coral or other inorganic compounds found in the soil and sea.
Unfortunately in today's world, naturally occurring, nutrient-rich soil is becoming a thing of the past. Eons of vegetation growth and aggressive modern farming techniques have degraded many of the soils. Synthesized fertilizers are routinely applied to farms and fields depleting minerals further. Man-made fertilizers provide only enough mineral substance to support basic plant life while pesticides are degrading the soil of naturally occurring bacteria. Without the fertile soil the plants cannot uptake the minerals to then be converted into organic material in the plant. Many plants, fruits, and vegetables are now largely devoid of the minerals necessary and essential for every chemical reaction in the body.
To function optimally, the body requires over 90 essential nutrients (essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, essential vitamins, and essential minerals). They are called essential nutrients because the body cannot produce them itself, these essential nutrients must be consumed from outside the body. 60 of these 90 essential nutrients are minerals.  Numerous trace minerals so essential to human life are never replenished. The body’s billions of chemical reactions cannot occur optimally without these essential minerals. Minerals can be viewed as the “spark plugs” of the bodies, without their presence in the body everything slows down until it stops.

Why Is Absorption so Important?
You cannot benefit from minerals unless you can absorb them. The absorption of minerals primarily takes place within the small intestines. As food matter passes through the intestines, minerals transfer into the blood stream through the walls of the intestines. Although stomach acid helps ionize the minerals in foods, a mineral supplement should contain already naturally ionized minerals to be fully absorbed. Organic minerals have been converted from their inorganic state by the plants photosynthesis process and are in a highly absorbable state.
Mineral: Naturally occurring inorganic elements having a characteristic crystalline structure and chemical composition. Minerals or macro-minerals are those minerals which the body requires more than 100 milligrams of per day for proper maintenance of health. Micro or trace minerals are those minerals which the body requires less than 100 milligrams of per day.
Ionic: Of, containing or relating to an ion or ions. Some of the most essential minerals and trace minerals have shown a dependency upon being ionic in order to be absorbed in the intestinal lumen and/ or to be physiologically valid.
Through digestive processes, some of which are dependent upon sufficient stomach acid, the body is able to break down some other forms of organic or inorganic bound minerals and trace minerals to their ionic form so they can be absorbed.
Colloidal, Inorganic and Organic Minerals: The Difference is in their Absorption
Minerals can generally be found in two forms, organic and inorganic. One type of inorganic state is that of a colloid, where minerals are suspended in a stable form. In this stable form, the minerals are evenly distributed throughout the medium in which they are suspended. Minerals in this colloid state are held in large, organized patterns, whereby they remain in suspension without settling out. Colloidal minerals are not readily absorbed by the body due to the absence of an electrical charge and their relatively large size, unlike other mineral forms. In fact, one definition of a colloid is as a substance that when suspended in a liquid phase, will not easily diffuse through a living membrane.
Some manufacturers claim that supplements made from these colloids are more balanced than other mineral supplements and are in a natural form that is easier for the body to use. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Dietetic Association, no scientific evidence supports these claims. Commercial colloidal mineral products are derived from clay or humic shale deposits and there is a tremendous amount of promotional claims for colloidal mineral products. There is no reliable medical evidence to support using these products.
Organic minerals, on the other hand, are easily transported across the highly selective cell membranes of the human digestive tract. Because organic minerals have already been broken down and incorporated by plants, the body has to employ less energy in order to absorb these minerals. Colloidal minerals and inorganic minerals must be dismantled, into smaller parts, and obtain an electrical charge in order to cross the intestinal membrane and even after undergoing these processes; the body utilizes not all of the colloid mineral form, just as not all foods eaten are completely utilized.
Importance of Organic minerals
Minerals are found both in their single, unlinked form (such as a solitary potassium ion) and their ionic form in which they have joined with another atom to make a charged mineral particle. The large majority of minerals are found bound in some form or another, which is important for their utilization in human physiology. When the body absorbs ionized or electrically charged minerals, they can be readily absorbed through our selectively permeable intestinal membranes. In fact; the membranes lining our intestinal tract maintain their own specific electrical charge in the form of ionic receptors. The body maintains this charge on the lining of membranes in order to facilitate the absorption of food nutrients. Different receptor areas maintain different charge qualities, allowing for the attraction of the multitudes of diverse nutrients that pass through the intestinal tract. Because of this charge, organic ionic minerals are easily taken in to the cells lining the intestinal tract, whereby they may be readily employed as the “spark plugs” in the billions of physiologic activities of the body.