Nutrients are compounds in foods essential to life and health, providing us with energy, the building blocks for repair and growth and substances necessary to regulate chemical processes
Calcium is an essential element needed in large quantities. The Ca2+ ion acts as an electrolyte and is vital to the health of the muscular, circulatory, and digestive systems; is indispensable to the building of bone; and supports synthesis and function of blood cells. Read
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Copper proteins have diverse roles in biological electron transport and oxygen transportation, processes that exploit the easy interconversion of Cu(I) and Cu(II). Copper is essential in the aerobic respiration of all eukaryotes. Read
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Iodine is an essential element for life and, at atomic number Z = 53, is the heaviest element commonly needed by living organisms. It is required for the synthesis of the growth-regulating thyroid hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine (T4 and T3 respectively, named after their number of iodine atoms). Read
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Iron is required for life. The iron-sulfur clusters are pervasive and include nitrogenase, the enzymes responsible for biological nitrogen fixation. Iron-containing proteins participate in transport, storage and used of oxygen. Read
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The important interaction between phosphate and magnesium ions makes magnesium essential to the basic nucleic acid chemistry of all cells of all known living organisms. Read
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Manganese is an important element for human health, essential for development, metabolism, and the antioxidant system. Read
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Potassium is the eighth or ninth most common element by mass (0.2%) in the human body, so that a 60 kg adult contains a total of about 120 g of potassium. Read
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Although it is toxic in large doses, selenium is an essential micronutrient for animals. In humans, selenium is a trace element nutrient that functions as cofactor for reduction of antioxidant enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidases[80] and certain forms of thioredoxin reductase found in animals and some plants Read
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In humans, sodium is an essential mineral that regulates blood volume, blood pressure, osmotic equilibrium and pH. Read
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Zinc(also known as <b>spelter</b>) is required for the function of over 300 enzymes and 1000 transcription factors, and is stored and transferred in metallothioneins. Read
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