Minerals

Seventeen of the thirty elements known to be essential to life are metals. These metals act as signal transducers for activation of different DNA expressions (Cousens pg. 311).
Mineral deficiencies cause disease in humans. For example, goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland (in the throat), can be caused by a deficiency of the mineral iodine. When Iodine is added to the diet, the goiter goes away.
Mineral toxicity is widely recognized. The problems in children who eat peeling lead-based paints and suffer lead toxicity is an example. Many historians believe lead poisoning contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire.
Many minerals are rendered useless by cooking. When occurring in food, fluorine is completely different from fluoride which is manufactured by industry. Naturally occurring fluorine, when consumed in plant matter, may benefit teeth and bones and may even help to protect us from germs, but fluorine evaporates from food during cooking. Manufactured fluoride (also known as sodium fluoride or sodium monofluorophosphate), unfortunately, does not evaporate from the boiling of treated water and can cause many health problems in the human body. The research showing the benefits of fluoride was actually done on naturally occurring fluorine and not manufactured fluoride; this is how they have deceived the masses. According to many researchers including Paul Pitchford in "Healing with Whole Foods," sodium fluoride inhibits proper functioning of the thyroid gland and all enzyme systems and damages the immune system. Paul also lists the following disorders that may result from ingesting this toxin: arthritis in its various forms, lupus, and scleroderma. Ultimately, sodium fluoride increases the risk of cancer and other degenerative conditions. Have you ever read the warning label on toothpaste with added fluoride? It is very scary. It reads, "f you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional assistance or contact a poison control center immediately" (emphasis mine).
The Delaney Congressional Investigation Committee (US government agency that monitors additives and other substances in the food supply) came to the following conclusion, "Fluoride is mass medication without parallel in the history of medicine."
I recommend fluoride-free toothpaste and, if fluoride has been added to your water supply as they are doing in many towns and cities, purchasing a filter specially designed to remove this toxic mineral (such as a reverse osmosis, distillation machine, or an alumina fluoride filter).
Eleonore Blaurock-Busch, PhD. states in her book, Mineral and Trace Element Analysis, "Selenium compounds are unstable and loss of the mineral occurs during cooking." Selenium is a very important mineral that our bodies use in many ways. The following is a list of symptoms of selenium deficiency (from the same book): cataracts, calcium deposits in muscle tissue, elevated cholesterol levels, increased susceptibility to cancer, mercury and cadmium poisoning, growth impairment, poor resistance to infection, reduced tissue levels of coenzyme Q10, and necrotic changes in the liver. I eat Brazil nuts for selenium and raw wheat germ can be a good source if the wheat is grown in selenium-rich soil.
Zinc is another mineral that some sources say becomes unstable in and is destroyed by high temperature cooking. Zinc is essential for the proper functioning of more than 300 enzymes (Cousins pg. 311).
According to Florida's Environmental Regulation Agency, the amount of mercury in one dental filling, if put into a ten-acre lake, would pollute that lake so dangerously that the lake would have to be closed to swimming, boating and fishing. The question here is why mercury is routinely used in dental fillings for both children and adults. They call it a mercury-amalgam filling and claim that it is safe. But mercury levels in the bloodstream rise over time as the filling leaches tiny amounts of this toxic mineral. I have had my mercury levels checked before and after replacing my mercury-amalgam fillings, and found that the mercury level in my body dropped to a safe level after removing the fillings whereas before the mercury level was dangerously high. My dental records and mineral test results are evidence of this. For this reason I suggest using composite fillings (white material that looks nice as well).
Many disease conditions caused by mineral imbalances are not commonly known. Providing sufficient minerals for a person is complicated by the fact that every person has a different need for each mineral at any given stage in his or her life. It has been said that 'one man's medicine is another man's poison'. Minerals have been called a double-edged sword because too much of a mineral can be just as harmful as not enough.
Since 1996, I have been working with Trace Elements Inc., a laboratory that determines mineral imbalances in humans (and animals). This laboratory uses sophisticated equipment that dissolves human hair into a solution and then accurately measures the toxic and nutrient minerals that are present in the hair. Hair holds an excellent history of the minerals that have traveled through the bloodstream over the time that it took for a length of hair to grow. Through this process, I have helped many people regain their health by recommending ways for them to balance mineral ratios (body chemistry) through their diet.
The synergistic and opposing relationships between various minerals, and between vitamins and minerals, are complex. Calcium and phosphorus work synergistically in bone formation if the two minerals are in proper balance. However, when either one is consumed in excess of the other, a problem with bone formation can occur. Soda and carbonated water contain phosphoric acid to keep the bubbles in solution. Consumption of these man-made fluids can overload the body with phosphorus and lead to bone-density problems. Animal products are high in phosphorous and can cause this problem as well.
Magnesium can become deficient if an excess of vitamin D exists in the body. According to many experts as well as my own clinical experience, magnesium deficiencies are quite common. Magnesium is crucial for many very important processes in the body, including building bone and increasing bone density. I find that when I spend more time in the sun, my need for magnesium increases. (As explained in the Vitamin section, Vitamin D comes from the sun.) An excess of Vitamin D absorbed from spending time in the sun is antagonistic to the magnesium in your body.
Because of the adversarial relationship between Vitamin D and magnesium, I believe that the consumption of Vitamin D found in enriched cow's milk might lead to magnesium deficiency. Calcium and magnesium also have a synergistic and opposing relationship. Because cow's milk is very high in calcium and low in magnesium, consuming dairy products can lead to a magnesium deficiency. This fact contradicts the widely espoused notion that consuming large amounts of calcium through dairy products is the best way to fight osteoporosis. Whenever you consume large amounts of calcium without including balancing amounts of magnesium (along with other minerals and Vitamin D), as often happens when you consume large amounts of dairy products, you actually risk losing bone density. The Harvard Nurses Health Study (see www.PCRM.org), a twelve-year health study, consisting of 78,000 female nurses, showed that those who drank one glass of cow's milk per day ran a 1V2 times greater risk of hip fracture than those who drank 1 glass or less per week.
Countries with the highest dairy intakes have the highest osteoporosis rates while countries with the lowest dairy intakes have the lowest osteoporosis rates. For example, Finland, Sweden, England and the USA have the highest rates of dairy consumption and also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Black South Africans only consume about 196 mg of calcium per day. African Americans consume much higher amounts but have a nine times greater rate of hip fracture. Calcium intake of people in rural China is V2 that of the USA, but the bone fracture rate of the people in rural China is 1/5 that of the USA. Sixty-five percent of all adults world-wide do not drink cow's milk, and they have strong bones! Phosphates found in milk and cheeses (and eggs) reduce iron absorption. So why do we see advertisements for cow's milk everywhere in the United States? Perhaps the $190 million dollars spent annually by the dairy industry on the milk mustache advertisements has something to do with it. But don't take my word for it. Do some research and see for yourself!
According to the research of Dr. David L. Watts, some minerals have either stimulating or sedative properties. Stimulating minerals include phosphorous, sodium, potassium, iron, selenium, manganese, chromium, and molybdenum. The following minerals have a sedative effect on most people: calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, boron, cobalt, barium, silicon, and vanadium.
For example, many of my clients who suffer from tight and painful muscles and/or constipation are deficient in magnesium. When magnesium is added to their diet, the tight muscles or constipation often vanish! Magnesium relaxes the muscles at the cellular level.
The best sources for minerals that I am aware of are organic fruits and vegetables, especially sea vegetables (see "Ocean-Grown Foods" in chapter 3), with the dark green leafy veggies being the most important. The fastest way to get minerals into your body is to juice the fruits and vegetables and drink the nutrient-rich juice, or to consume powdered cereal grasses such as wheat grass, barley grass, kamut and alfalfa (mixed with liquid). These dried cereal grasses are known as 'super foods'. When I consume them, t hey make me feel.. .Super!
Phytonutrients are nutrients from plant sources. This topic could fill many large books, but I will keep it brief. We should not assume that all the nutritive factors of foods are well known or understood. New nutrients are being discovered all the time. So, when we process or cook the foods that come in perfect form from nature, what else is being destroyed in addition to what is known?
Dr. L. Newman, author of Make Your Juicer Your Drug Store, writes, "One of the major discoveries in nutritional research was that nature never gives us isolated minerals and vitamins. She always gives them to us in combinations. Man [sic] probably does not comprehend one millionth of what still remains unknown in the field. We do know, however, that when we do fair [obtain], these vital elements from the master chemist, we are obtaining, besides the known vitamins, vitamins that have not yet been discovered."
Following are the words on the first page of Prescription For Nutritional Healing, Third Edition, which claims to be America's #1 Guide to Natural Health, and which is probably the most popular and widely used book of its kind in the United States. "One problem most of us have is that we do not get the nutrients we need from our diet because most of the foods we consume are cooked and/or processed. Cooking at high temperatures and processing destroys vital nutrients the body needs to function properly. The organic raw foods that supply these elements are largely missing from today's diet." (Balch and Balch pg. 2)
Many important nutrients exist in plant foods (many of which we have not yet identified) and these nutrients can be destroyed in processing and cooking are two of the many reasons that I believe optimum health requires the consumption of a wide variety of unprocessed and uncooked plant foods.