This is a most excellent read... there may be a controversial point or two for most everyone, but do not let that sway you to the value of this article...
(NewsTarget) We humans are designed to take in trace elements. How does it work? Plants feed off of minerals in the soil. They will take up only those minerals they need for their growth and development. The plants digest these minerals by adding a carbon atom. When we consume these plants we eat whatever mineral traces they still contain (trace elements) plus the carbon atom. The minerals find their way into our system and we breathe out the carbon. Plants in turn use carbon as oxygen. This is simple carbon chemistry and it’s how we form a natural cycle with nature and plants.
While the full dose of minerals may be good for the plant it’s not good for human consumption because carbon chemistry is not part of our digestive process. Though sea salt contains no less than 84 elements it’s nevertheless a bad idea to put sea salt directly in or over your food. Instead, it’s better to eat plants that contain lots of trace elements. Doctors who put people on a salt-free diet never tell their patients not to eat a celery stick. Yet a celery stick contains roughly the same amount of salt you would normally put in your food. This is because the celery uses carbon chemistry to predigest the various salts. Besides sodium chloride (table salt) there are other mineral salts, among which contain magnesium, calcium and potassium. These are all completely harmless for human consumption provided they have been predigested by plants, not when taken directly in the form of sea salt.
I can’t think of a better argument for growing plants in mineral-rich soils. Modern agriculture is based on the NPK method, referring to Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). Commercially grown vegetables and fruits available in supermarkets may look nice from the outside but they are grown with only three elements. What’s worse, these elements are also synthetic, i.e. scientific approximations of the real thing. Compare that to the natural, organic and mineral-rich compost used in organic or, better still, bio-dynamic farming and you’ll see why crops grown in this way are favorable. Though recognizing the superior flavors people are not always willing to pay for them. But which would you rather pay with, your wallet or your health? Besides, you save a lot of cash if you buy these products directly from local farms or farmers markets.