The same considerations exactly apply with the vitamins’ fellow particles the minerals. The fundamental difference between vitamins and minerals is that vitamins come from the world of living things—from plants and bacteria and so on—and minerals do not. In a dietary context, minerals is simply another name for the chemical elements—calcium, iron, iodine, potassium, and the like—that sustain us. Ninety-two elements occur naturally on Earth, though some in only very tiny amounts. Francium, for instance, is so rare that it is thought that the whole planet may contain just twenty francium atoms
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