Essential Nutrients

The Essential Nutrients

The Essence of the Science of Nutrition

All living things need specific substances from their environment in order to live. These are the chemical entities needed for a particular species to grow and reproduce: they are the Essential Nutrients for that species, whether it be an

animal,

plant,

virus or

bacterium.

Humans need essential nutrients. Magnesium is only one of more than forty essential nutrients for humans. We all need an adequate and balanced amount of these nutrients daily for optimal health and to optimize the healing capabilities of the body. These forty-plus essential nutrients are listed below by the categories of the essential nutrients:

vitamins,

minerals,

essential fatty acids, and

essential amino acids (found in protein foods).

In a larger context, these essential nutrients, along with water and energy (calories), are so important to animal life that an entire organ system – the digestive system – is always at work, ready to provide our bodies’ cells with these essential nutrients from the diet we eat.

The elements hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen are so basic to all life that they are not listed in a species’ list of essential nutrients – they are taken for granted as necessary from the environment.

Oxygen could be said to be an essential nutrient, so important that it has its own organ system -- the lungs and respiratory system – in place to constantly deliver precious oxygen to all cells of the body. But Nutritional Science has traditionally limited itself to the study of all a species’ essential nutrients that are provided via the digestive (for animals) or root (for plants) systems.

The Vitamins, Essential for Humans

WATER-SOLUBLE VITAMINS

B vitamins:

Vitamin B₁(thiamin)

Vitamin B₂(riboflavin)

Vitamin B₃(niacin)

Vitamin B₆(pyridoxine)

Vitamin B₁₂(cobalamin)

Biotin

Folic acid

Pantothenic acid

Vitamin C

FAT-SOLUBLE VITAMINS

Vitamin A

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

Vitamin K

Essential Fatty Acids for Humans

Linoleic acid (omega-6)

Linolenic acid (omega-3)

Essential Amino Acids for Humans

COMPONENTS OF FOOD PROTEIN

Histidine (for infants)

Isoleucine

Leucine

Lysine

Methionine – Cystine

Phenylalanine – Tyrosine

Threonine

Tryptophan

Valine

The Essential Minerals for Humans

BULK MINERALS

Magnesium

Calcium

Phosphorus

Potassium

Sodium

Iodine

TRACE MINERALS

Arsenic

Boron

Chromium

Cobalt

Copper

Iron

Manganese

Molybdenum

Nickel

Selenium

Silicon

Vanadium

Zinc

STILL IN QUESTION

Bromine

Fluorine

Lead

Tin

RDA’s are calculated from experimentally measured EAR or Estimated Average Requirement values. An EAR or Estimated Average Requirement is the amount of a nutrient that will meet the daily requirement of about half of the HEALTHY people in a specified age-gender group.

When not enough studies have been done to determine a nutrient’s EAR, an RDA for that nutrient cannot be calculated. In such cases, the AI or Adequate Intake is set, based upon scientific observations of a nutrient’s average intake by a group of HEALTHY persons.

Persons who are ill or have an “out of normal range” blood value DO NOT fall into this “HEALTHY” category.

The following table lists the RDA’s for nutritional magnesium and AI’s for nutritional calcium as determined by the Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Age-Gender Group	Magnesium RDA Milligrams/day	Magnesium AI Milligrams/day	Calcium AI Milligrams/day
0 – 6 months		30 mg	210 mg
7 – 12 months		75 mg	270 mg
1 – 3 yrs	80 mg		500 mg
4 – 8 yrs	130 mg		800 mg
Girls: 9 – 13 yrs 14 – 18 yrs	240 mg 360 mg		1,300 mg 1,300 mg
Boys: 9 – 13 yrs 14 - 18 yrs	240 mg 410 mg		1,300 mg 1,300 mg
Women: 19 – 30 yrs 31 – 50 yrs 51 – 70 yrs Over 70 yrs	310 mg 320 mg 320 mg 320 mg		1,000 mg 1,000 mg 1,200 mg 1,200 mg
Men: 19 – 30 yrs 31 – 50 yrs 51 – 70 yrs Over 70 yrs	400 mg 420 mg 420 mg 420 mg		1,000 mg 1,000 mg 1,200 mg 1,200 mg
Pregnancy: aged 14 – 18 yrs aged 19 – 30 aged 31 - 50	400 mg 350 mg 360 mg		1,300 mg 1,000 mg 1,000 mg
Lactation: Aged 14 – 18 yrs Aged 19 – 30 Aged 31 - 50	360 mg 310 mg 320 mg		1,300 mg 1,000 mg 1,000 mg

Can you take too much calcium? An Upper Tolerable Limit of non-food Calcium has been set at 2,500 mg calcium for all age-gender groups above 1 yr. of age because too much calcium can lead to kidney stone formation, a combination of high blood calcium coupled with low kidney function (known as milk-alkali syndrome) and possible interference with other essential nutrients’ absorption and metabolism.

In general, if one has adequate magnesium nutritional status, calcium supplements can help maximize bone mineralization, but when magnesium status is low, extra calcium may not be properly metabolized, manifesting low blood calcium that cannot be corrected with calcium supplements, only with magnesium supplements.

At the cellular level, a high intra-cellular calcium-to-magnesium ratio has been shown to be associated with all aspects of Metabolic Syndrome X which can manifest as Type 2 Diabetes. See research links:

[Resnick LM: Cellular calcium and magnesium metabolism in the pathophysiology and treatment of hypertension and related metabolic disorders. Am J Med 93:11S-20S, 1992. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=1387762]

[Rosolova H, Mayer O, Jr., Reaven GM: Insulin-mediated glucose disposal is decreased in normal subjects with relatively low plasma magnesium concentrations. Metabolism 49:418-420, 2000. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=10726923]

Whether this aspect of too much calcium in the face of too little magnesium can be shown to be causal at the physiological level awaits appropriate investigation.

Can you take too much magnesium? In general, oral magnesium supplements are quite safe, especially when ingested by people with healthy kidney function. Upper Tolerable Limits of non-food Magnesium have been set for the following age groups when mild diarrhea or gastric cramps appear in any individual of that gender-age group:

1 – 3 yrs: 65 mg magnesium

4 – 8 yrs: 110 mg magnesium

Above 8 yrs: 350 mg magnesium

It’s confusing that the tolerable upper limit for magnesium (350 mg) is lower than the RDA for several gender-age groups. This occurs because the tolerable upper limit has been defined as the level where ANY INDIVIDUAL experiences even mild stomach or intestinal distress. Very high levels of oral magnesium (up to 10 times higher than the 350 mg tolerable upper limit, and even higher) have been shown to be tolerated with no permanent adverse effects; however, some individuals have gastro-intestinal cramping, distress or diarrhea when an oral magnesium dose as low as 350 mg (65 mg – 110 mg in some children) is ingested. According to the definition of “Tolerable Upper Limit”, these few individuals’ reaction, no matter how mild, need to be the set point for nutritional magnesium’s tolerable upper limit as set by the Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes of the Food and Nutritiona Board at the Institute of Medicine.

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