Minerals and Trace Elements 237● defi ne the adverse effects of acute and chronic high
intakes of some minerals and trace elements.
Interest in mineral fortifi cation of foods is higher
than ever before. Governments worldwide are
increasingly tackling the common defi ciencies of
iron and iodine by adding these minerals to widely
consumed staple foods such as cereal fl ours, sugar,
or soy sauce. The food industry in industrialized
countries is manufacturing an increasing number
of functional foods designed to provide the con-
sumer with protection against diseases of major
public health signifi cance, such as osteoporosis,
cancer, and heart disease, and fortifi ed with miner-
als such as calcium, selenium, zinc, magnesium, and
copper. The same minerals are added to dietetic
products, including infant foods, foods for preg-
nant and lactating women, and enteral feeds for
hospital patients, all designed to cover the nutri-
tional requirements of specifi c consumers. This
raises the issues not only of the possible health ben-
efi ts of fortifi cation but also of possible toxicity.
Therefore, there is an ever-increasing emphasis
placed on upper safe levels of mineral intake and
on fortifi cation legislation
● elucidate the impact of single nucleotide polymor-
phisms in the human genome on mineral and trace
element dietary requirements. The key to future
applications of the DNA polymorphisms will be to
mine the human genome for DNA sequence infor-
mation that can be used to defi ne biovariation in
nutrient absorption and use. However, before this
can be accomplished, a vast amount of nutritional
biology research is needed to correlate gene poly-
morphism with nutritional outcomes.
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Bowman B, Russel R, eds. Present Knowledge in Nutrition, 8th edn.
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Sadler MJ, Strain JJ, Caballero B, eds. Encyclopedia of
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1999.
Website
Online Mendelian Genetics in Man (OMIM) website at the
National Institute for Biotechnology Information: http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Omim