Mineral Elements in Nutrition

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 17, 1 December 1939, Page 2

Mineral Elements in Nutrition

Copper in small amounts appears to be necessary in preventing anaemia e in animals, the food of which nevertheless contains adequate amounts of iron; its role is not concerned with the assimilation of iron but with the mobilisation of iron in the body and with the formation of haemoglobin in 1 the blood. Milk is very low in copper e as in iron, but copper is present in 1 most other foods. Manganese plays no part in haemoglobin formation, but appears to be necessary in foetal c development. Cobalt is in some cases essential to iron metabolism, and o diseases of farm animals in Australia e and New Zealand have shown it to be e an essential element in the cure of s bush-sickness; traces of nickel r possibly supplement deficiency of i cobalt. Zinc does not play any part in iron metabolism; it is present ir. j higher percentages than copper or manganese in human and cow’s milk s and is a constituent of crystalline insulin. Selenium is a harmful element and its presence in soils of the U.S. great plains causes diseases of anie mals which were formerly regarded as * due to the alkali present in the waters *■ of these regions.