Top 10 Key Minerals Your Body Needs

Top 10 Key Minerals Your Body Needs

Top 10 Key Minerals Your Body Needs
Top 10 Key Minerals Your Body Needs

Minerals, nutrients, and vitamins, play an important role in our overall health, from helping maintain a healthy heart rate to making hormones, increasing brain power, and strengthening bones. Top 10 Key Minerals Your Body Needs. The body can’t produce them, though, which is why it is so crucial that we eat a healthy diet to ensure we get plenty of the minerals we need to achieve wellness.

So, here are 10 essential minerals that your body needs and the best sources of food where you can get them.

1. Calcium

This mineral is vital for your bones, it also plays a role in helping to regulate cholesterol, and blood pressure, which means it is one of the keys to a healthy heart.

The best food sources of calcium include dairy products, kelp, oysters, leafy green vegetables, salmon, dried figs, sardines, broccoli, turnip greens, and bok choi.

2. Magnesium

Magnesium has an important role to play in maintaining the health of your heart, brain, and kidneys.

You’ll get plenty of it when you eat sunflower seeds, whole grains, legumes, leafy greens, soybeans, beans, nuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and bran cereals.

3. Phosphorus

Much like calcium, the body requires phosphorus to help build strong teeth and bones, as well as creating energy and allowing cells to properly function.

Not sure where to get it from? Try meat, eggs, mushrooms, poultry, nuts, dairy products, and legumes.

4. Zinc

This mineral is an antioxidant, which is essential for healing wounds and building immunity. It also plays an important role in liver function, eyesight, reproduction, and sexual development.

Eat lima beans, black-eyed peas, mushrooms, soybeans, organic eggs, pumpkins (and their seeds), bright fruits and vegetables, seafood, kelp, and whole grains.

5. Selenium

Another antioxidant mineral that is essential to the immune system, preventing cell damage, and the thyroid.

Be sure to eat plenty of seeds, organ meats, garlic, seafood, sesame seeds, dairy products, and Brazil nuts to get a sufficient amount of selenium.

6. Iron

This blood mineral is necessary for the transportation of oxygen and for forming red blood cells. It also provides support to the immune system and helps regulate growth.

There are a variety of food sources for iron, including shellfish, molasses, lean meats, dried beans, liver, nuts, seeds, lentils, chickpeas, and apricots.

7. Sodium

Sodium helps digestion as well as blood pressure. Excellent food sources include apricots, raisins, figs, okra, sea salt, coconuts, kelp, carrots, and beets.

8. Potassium

Not only does it help regulate blood pressure, but it also helps balance fluids and sensory function. Bananas are probably the most well-known source of potassium; however, you can also get it from celery, potatoes, poultry, avocados, fatty fish, tomatoes, cantaloupes, spinach, and citrus fruits.

9. Iodine

Iodine is crucial to the thyroid’s ability to produce hormones and you can find it in spinach, summer squash, seafood, Swiss chard, turnip greens, and kelp.

10. Manganese

When combined with the other minerals it helps build a strong immune system, as well as being crucial in blood clotting, producing sex hormones, and healthy hair, skin, and nails.

Get yours from beetroot, leafy greens, pineapples, avocados, eggs, blueberries, green tea, and kelp.

In addition to these minerals, there is also a wide variety of trace minerals that your body requires to maintain its health. The difference between trace minerals and those listed above is that your body only requires a small amount of them.

However, they do support crucial bodily functions. This includes minerals like fluoride, copper, and molybdenum. Each mineral has its own part to play within the health of your body, so eat a well-balanced diet to get all their benefits.

Top 10 Key Minerals Your Body Needs

Home Health Helsefakta

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