4 IMPORTANT LITTLE MINERALS (AND
WHERE TO FIND THEM)
Minerals of all kinds help your body function; it’s why you need balance in
your diet and another reason it makes sense to take a daily multivitamin.
Be sure to get these four:
Copper: You only need a little, and your multivitamin delivers. So do
oysters, cashews, kale, mushrooms, and clams.
Iron: After age fifty, women need less iron, and multis for this age group
reflect that. But you don’t have to stay away from iron-rich foods like tofu,
spinach, and lentils.
Selenium: Most Americans get adequate amounts of this mineral from
food. Brazil nuts are brimming with it (eat no more than three a day to
avoid overload), and it’s also found in cod, shrimp, tuna, and salmon.
Zinc: Get it from oysters, beef, sesame seeds, cashews, pumpkin seeds,
spinach, and chickpeas. Extra zinc can be helpful when fighting a cold, but
too much of it can work against you and may eventually create a copper
deficiency. If you take a multi with zinc, stick to one zinc lozenge every
two to three hours at the onset of cold symptoms. A bonus: This mineral is
needed to help us taste, so I often administer it to surgery patients who say
they’ve lost their sense of taste.