while we tend to focus on desirable alkaline minerals here, I suspect that we are missing the boat a bit by not mentioning desirable acids...

For instance, I seem to need additional sulfur...

It is, after all, about an alkaline\acid balance...

Other things I have found that I seem to need include silica...

Both tend to be lacking in foods due to growing practices and the conditions of soils.

Another interesting note on silica is that the issues with aluminum mentioned by so many in other forums has been found (in my research anyway), to be a compound\multi-dimensional issue (isn't everything?) that often includes a silica deficiency.

It is hard to avoid aluminum as it is one of the most abundant minerals on earth, however plant based silica has greatly diminished since commercial farming practices have been implemented.

Also interesting is that I would be willing to bet that the efficacy or rise of "zeolites" as a supplemental "health" aid is due to the silica content.

This is most likely one reason I found benefit with edible clays.

both silica and sulfur are useful for collagen formation and so very many people have issues with joints these days, even kids... that I suspect were born to deficient parents and then remained deficient, getting worse to the point of an aged adult in no time.

Selenium is another one...

Chromium another one...

Boron another one...

Interesting is that whole food state vitamins, such as Innate Response\Mega Foods (same formulations), get their selenium and chromium from seaweed; Dulse.

Keep in mind that in a food state, these elemental "nutrients" are bound and balanced with an appropriate alkaline element... or two in a compound... not to mention the "co-factors" that are being found to be necessary for proper utilization.

Did you know that science is finding that selenium is becoming arguably as important (some say more important) to the thyroid as iodine?

I am sure there are many other elements that are important to thyroid function... like oxygen for one.

Everything works together in a very complex system that we have not even begun to figure out.

The ideal here is the balance between the desirable alkaline elements with acidic elements.

For instance, we would prefer calcium instead of lead which can substitute for calcium in a pinch...

Another interesting aside is that food processing, particularly grain processing is why we do not get these nutrients in any appreciable amount anymore.

Did you know that sometime after the FDA was formed in 1913 as the Bureau of Chemistry (forerunner of the FDA), they went after white flour as a nutritionally void non-food? Why and how their agenda changed to permit it and look the other way I have not discovered yet... however, obviously things went straight down hill from there.

Oh, and BTW - in ALL cases the studies show that food based nutrition is far and away the better form of supplementation... for instance a food based selenium is absorbed at about a rate of 10 to 25% dependent upon food state and individual gut differences, while a supplemental, synthetic form is absorbed at a rate of 1/2 of 1% to 2% in the case of L-selenomethionine.

grz-