Minerals Deficiency
Defects in mineral nutrition are capable of producing severe impairment of health. Three elements are mainly involved: calcium, iron and zinc.
Others known to be indispensible may be added to the list, but insufficient information is available to permit an evaluation on a worldwide basis.
Calcium malnutrition in the form of rickets affects infants, children and adolescents.
A similar disturbance, osteomalacia, is a potent source of pain and disability of women is many developing countries although both rickets and osteomalacia intrude into developed countries in the form of unexpected and frequently unrecognized epidemics.
Rickets is an ancient illness, having been depicted in tomb paintings in ancient Egypt dating to 4000 BC.
Anemia due to iron deficiency was recognized in ancient Greece.
However, zinc deficiency has been identified as an important cause of faulty nutrition in animals and humans only within the past half century.
Calcium, iron and zinc together with others of the trace metal group, share physical and chemical properties, including solubilities and the ability to react with complexants, that affect their availability as nutrients.
For this reason deficiencies may involve more than one element. Low concentrations of the nutritionally important metals may exist in soil and produce regional deficiency.
Yet, calcium, iron and zinc are among the most abundant and widely distributed elements.
It is surprising , therefore that low concentrations of calcium drinking water may unfavorably affect cardiovascular status.
Plants have an extraordinary capability to extract metals from soils. As a result the content of minerals in a plant growing in deficient soil may not differ much from that of plant growing in soils well supplied with nutrients.
Minerals Deficiency
