Ionically bonded minerals - salts, etc.

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rawfood [ <rawfood >

rawfood ]

On Behalf Of redlunarmoon

Saturday, August 12, 2006 11:03 AM

[Raw Food] Re: cravings / hungry

 

interesting I would like to gain more understanding on this, if the minerals in

salt are ionic

and our bodies do not digest them can you tell me in what form are vegetable

based minerals, and

what form the minerals in our cells are? I'm just curious what the term is so I

can do a Google

on it.

Thank you

__________

What I am about to write contains some oversimplification -- so for those who

know the

chemistry, I admit that up front. And I have oversimplified matters a bit when I

stated in such

absolute terms that we cannot use ANY ionically bonded minerals. This is not

100% correct. But

with respect to sodium chloride, and also with respect to most of the other

minerals present in

some of these super-salt products, what I have written is indeed substantially

correct.

 

If you look in a periodic table, you'll observe two " towers " on the ends and

several rows

linking them. These rows contain the " transition metals', as they are called in

chemistry. These

metals have what is termed " low electronegativity, " and they attract strongly to

certain other

elements with " high electronegativity " . The resulting bonds are electrostatic

(chemical) in

nature, meaning they are very strong bonds. Sodium chloride (table salt) is only

one of many

compounds so bonded.

 

Shakespearean aside ... For anyone wishing to explore further, the other

common

class of bonds is called " covalent " . In general, ionically bonded compounds

are

in the domain called " inorganic chemistry " , and covalently bonded compounds

are in the domain called " organic chemistry " . Note that the use of " organic "

here

has absolutely nothing to do with agriculture and/or the marketing of foods.

 

Plants, specifically green leaves, are well designed to digest, that is, to

break down, such

tightly bonded (ionically bonded) mineral compounds. The result is the element

itself, one atom

as an ion (electrically charged, ready to bond with something, i.e., from a

metabolic

perspective, ready to use).

 

So, for example, we find in fruits and especially in green leaves significant

quantities of

solitary ions (i.e., not bonded) in solution in water. Celery and tomatoes, for

example,

typically contain nice quantities of sodium ions. Bananas and dates contain

potassium ions

(among other things), and so on. These we use readily, they are small enough,

and their

electromagnetic properties are such, that they match receptors on cells in the

cell lining, of

the digestive tract, and then elsewhere throughout the body, can cross various

membranes, and so

forth.

 

There are no " super-foods " . There are no " super-salts " . There are only organisms

and the foods

they are designed to eat; everything else is foreign matter, from the

perspective of any given

organism.

 

Hope this is a bit helpful,

Elchanan