💎 Back to Food Basics : #5 - Minerals - Magical minerals and where...

To close this first series of articles, shall we dig deep into the secrets of minerals and where to find them.

As their name stipulates, minerals come straight out of the soil, and are indispensable to our body's functions, being a key ingredient to numerous chemical reactions happening inside us.

There are two types of minerals: the major ones and the oligo-elements.

What's the difference between Minerals and Oligo-elements ?

That's a very good question. To keep things simple, minerals come from the soil. We distinguish the major minerals from the oligo-elements based on the amount found in our body. There are smaller quantities of oligo-elements than major minerals.

Major minerals

There are four of them: magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium.

Magnesium

That's the "daddy" of all minerals. Magnesium helps our bones, our immune system and muscular transmission. It helps reduce our stress level, our sugar level (more on that on the article xxx) and blood pressure. Not to say that these are fundamental functions, right?
We do find it in tined sardines, shellfish, cereals, pretty much all nuts, and spinach.

Calcium

This mineral is the most abundant in our system. We can find it in most dairy products, but in vegetables as well. My favorite source of calcium is almonds. Brocolis, cabbage, nuts or legumes are all great sources of it, along with oily fishes.

Potassium

This one can be found in pretty much the same sources than Calcium (how convenient!) with also veggies like avocados, artichokes and mushrooms.
Its job is to helps muscle contractions (knowing that your heart is a muscle, that's a rather good ally towards better health), but also facilitate our nervous systems' transmissions and kidney functions.

Sodium

Sodium is basically salt (well, at least 40% of salt is made out of sodium). Good for us when taken lightly, especially for our muscles and nervous system, we tend to have way too much of it.
How is it possible? Well, salt is a great preservative. We've used it as such since the middle-age, from cured meat, delicatessen and cheese to today's ready meals and sauces.

Oligo-elements

It's not because there are less of them is our system that they're not important. Amongst the multitude of oligo-elements present in our body, there are 3 main ones I want to talk to you about as there are the ones we lack the most.

Iron

That's a lady's best friend, beside diamonds of course!
Found best in most red meat but also in legumes, almonds and spinach, Iron helps the regeneration of red blood cells. Those cells carry oxygen throughout our system, and help prevent fatigue.
Us ladies do loose a fair amount of blood every month (not to get into too much details for the gents reading this), we do need to replenish our stocks on the regular.
Personally, I run on hummus, which is rich in iron as well as protein. To me, that's the bestie to all girls who lift.

Zinc

Immune system, growth and development of our body, this is the mission of zinc. Found mostly in red meat (again) but also in shellfish, cheese and some nuts, it has anti-oxidant properties. If you want to stay young, pack up on these.

Selenium

Not really well know by most of us, selenium has anti-oxidant properties but mainly helps the immune system adn the thyroïd to function. Red meat, seafood and eggs being the main source of it, we also find selenium in brazil nuts.

French Londoner's Advice : Add some Magnesium to your life !!!

No kidding! We do lack magnesium generally.

When talking about our bones, the major thing coming to mind is calcium, but magnesium work alongside calcium. We could say that magnesium relaxes where calcium stresses, which explains symptomatic effects such as migraines, cramps and muscle tensions when we lack magnesium.

So if there is one thing to remember from this article is: Get your inner Popeye out and eat that spinach (at least)!!!