Chromium is an essential micronutrient or trace mineral required for proper insulin function, healthy blood-sugar levels, and carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism. The typical North American diet is deficient in chromium because of over-consumption of simple carbohydrates and refined sugars that are lacking in chromium.
Soil depletion is also playing a role in chromium deficiency. Continue reading “5 Excellent Reasons to Consider Chromium”
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Iodine is next in our series, A to Zinc. Iodine is found in nature bound to other minerals in a “salt” formation. It appears naturally in soil as a trace element. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, soil contains insufficient quantities of iodine and so it is added to salt to prevent iodine deficiency.
Our bodies use iodine in the production of thyroxin, an important hormone that increases metabolic rate and regulates growth. Taken into the body as a water-soluble mineral in food, it is stored in the thyroid gland, where it is bound into active thyroid hormones: T-2, T-3 and T-4. Iodine also seems to be active in regulating estrogens. Continue reading “Trace Minerals: Iodine”
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Next in our series A to Zinc, we look at trace minerals. Trace minerals, or microminerals, are required in far smaller amounts (less than 100 mg/day) than macrominerals. Each has a specific biochemical function in the human body. There are 17 microminerals, and arguably the most well-known and supplemented is Iron.
Iron plays a key role in the formation of hemoglobin and myoglobin, a protein which takes oxygen from hemoglobin and stores it in the tissues until it is needed. It also assists in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is essential for cellular energy and proper cell functioning; Continue reading “All About Trace Minerals, Starting With Iron”
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