Manganese

Manganese may be one of those minerals that you've never even considered for how important it is for the human body.  While calcium gets all the attention regarding bone health, manganese is also very important for bone formation.  In fact, there are 18 different nutrients required for the body to build healthy bone.  For more on that see my earlier post regarding calcium (Calcium Blog ).

Manganese is also important in the formation and activation of enzymes that metabolize oxygen, carbohydrates, amino acids, and cholesterol.  And perhaps even more critical is that manganese is required to detoxify our body from any naturally produced ammonia.  Ammonia is poison to the body, so it must be removed.

The blood, liver, immune, musculoskeletal, nervous, and reproductive systems all utilize manganese.

There are lots of food sources of manganese.  It is prevalent in nuts and seeds (almonds, peanuts, pecans, walnuts), legumes (garbanzo beans, green peas, lima beans, navy beans, pinto beans), grains (brown rice, wheat germ, oats, rye), vegetables (beets, broccoli, carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes), cloves, liver, nutrtional yeast, pineapple, and raspberries.