Dietary Minerals: Good and Bad Source

Dietary supplements are used by millions of people each day but many lack the knowledge of how they are made. There are two forms of minerals, one is natural and the other one is synthetic. Learning how to tell the difference between natural and synthetic minerals will help you choose a dietary supplement that is worth your money. In general, dietary supplements that have amino acid chelated minerals are good sources of minerals.

How to tell which forms of mineral is better:

• Calcium: Good source is from calcium amino acid chelate. Bad sources are from coral calcium, calcium hydroxyapatite, bitartrate, calcium gluconate and calcium carbonate. Coral calcium is not a good source of calcium because it usually has the highest in lead content.
• Copper: Good source is from copper amino acid chelate and bad source is from copper gluconate.
• Iodine: Good source is from kelp and bad source is from potassium iodine.
• Iron: Good source is from iron amino acid chelate. Bad sources are from ferris sulfate, iron fumarate and iron gluconate.
• Magnesium: Good sources are from whole grains, nuts and other fruit and vegetables. Bad sources are magnesium gluconate and magnesium oxide.
• Potassium: Good sources are potassium citrate and whole foods. Bad sources are potassium chloride and potassium gluconate.

The most common types of minerals used in dietary supplements are forms of mineral salts. These minerals hasve suffix such as sulfate, chloride or carbonate (i.e. chromium chloride). Mineral salts usually cause gastrointernal distress and are poorly absorbed. Dietary supplements with mineral oxides are also not good sources of minerals because mineral oxides are even less well absorbed by the body. Mineral oxides are usually listed with the suffix “oxide” at the end. The best forms of minerals are chelated minerals because these minerals are attached to amino acids and other synergistic components. By not extracting their synergistic components, minerals are more absorbable and easier to use by the body. Chelated minerals have suffix such as chelavite, chelazome or chelate at the end.

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