Minerals

Abstract

Essential minerals must be incorporated through the diet. They have manyfunctions in the body and if not provided in sufficient amounts, deficienciesare manifested through specific and nonspecific symptoms. However the amountprovided by foods not always is determinant for reach the requirements, sincethe bioavailability (the proportion of a nutrient in a food, diet or dietarysupplement that is absorbed and used for normal body functions that are proper)is low. For a nutrient be bioavailable, must be absorbable and thusbio-accessible. Mineral bio-accessibility depends on dietary sources and thepresence inhibitors and promoters ofabsorption. Since low bioavailability is mainly involve in iron, zincand calcium deficiencies?, this chapter will address these three minerals.Effects of food processing, consumer trends, factors related to the host arediscuss. Methodologies for measuringbioavailability in humans, methods using laboratory animals, and in vitro methodologies for estimatingmineral bio-accessibility are comment.