The human body contains at least 20 minerals that play roles in everything from building bone to carrying oxygen in your blood. These split into two categories: macrominerals, which your body needs in larger amounts, and trace minerals, which are required in only tiny quantities. Together, minerals make up roughly 4 to 5 percent of your total body weight, with calcium and phosphorus accounting for the bulk of that.
The Seven Macrominerals
Macrominerals are the minerals your body stores and uses in the largest quantities. There are seven: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and sulfur.
Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body, making up about 1.5% of your total body mass. In a 150-pound person, that’s roughly a kilogram of calcium. The vast majority sits in your bones and teeth, where it combines with phosphorus to form a crystal called hydroxyapatite, the hard mineral that gives your skeleton its strength. Tooth enamel is about 97% hydroxyapatite by weight, making it the hardest substance in your body. Beyond structural support, calcium is essential for nerve signaling, muscle contraction, and blood clotting.
Phosphorus is the second most plentiful mineral. It’s a building block of DNA, RNA, and cell membranes, and it’s central to how your body produces and stores energy. Every cell in your body uses a phosphorus-containing molecule called ATP as its primary fuel source.
Magnesium works as a helper molecule in over 300 different enzyme systems. It’s involved in energy production, blood sugar regulation, and the transport of calcium and potassium across cell membranes. That last function matters because it directly affects how your muscles contract and how your heart keeps a steady rhythm.
Sodium and potassium operate as a pair. Sodium sits mainly outside your cells, while potassium concentrates inside them. Your cells constantly pump sodium out and potassium in to maintain the electrical charge across their membranes. This charge is what allows nerves to fire and muscles to contract. Sodium also plays a role in absorbing nutrients like amino acids and sugars from your digestive tract, while potassium is specifically critical for heart function and smooth muscle contraction.
Chloride partners with sodium (as sodium chloride, or table salt) and helps regulate fluid balance and blood pressure. It’s also a component of stomach acid, which you need to digest food. Sulfur rounds out the macrominerals. Your liver relies on sulfur-containing compounds for detoxification, breaking down drugs and other foreign substances. Sulfur also helps your body produce glutathione, one of its most important natural antioxidants.
The Essential Trace Minerals
Trace minerals are needed in much smaller amounts, sometimes just micrograms per day, but they’re no less important. The essential trace minerals include iron, zinc, copper, selenium, iodine, manganese, cobalt, fluoride, chromium, and molybdenum.
Iron is probably the best-known trace mineral. It’s the core component of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to every tissue in your body. Iron deficiency is one of the most common mineral deficiencies worldwide and a leading cause of fatigue and anemia.
Zinc acts as a cofactor in hundreds of enzymes and is deeply involved in cell replication, gene expression, and immune function. It also affects your senses of taste and smell. Low zinc can dull both. Copper supports bone growth and helps form myelin, the protective sheath around nerves that allows signals to travel quickly. It also contributes to iron metabolism, which is why copper deficiency can sometimes mimic iron deficiency with symptoms like fatigue and anemia.
Selenium supports thyroid function and acts as part of your body’s antioxidant defense system. Iodine is essential for producing thyroid hormones, which regulate metabolism throughout the body. Manganese contributes to wound healing, bone formation, and skin health. Chromium helps regulate blood sugar by influencing how your body responds to insulin. Cobalt is a component of vitamin B12, linking it to red blood cell formation and neurological function. Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel and helps resist decay.
Ultra-trace Minerals: Still Under Study
Beyond the well-established essential minerals, several elements appear in the body in extremely small amounts. Boron, silicon, nickel, vanadium, and arsenic have all shown beneficial effects in animal studies, with deficiencies causing problems with growth and development in multiple species. However, the National Academies of Sciences has not set recommended intake levels for any of them. The collective evidence hasn’t yet established a clear biological function for boron or silicon in humans, and data remain insufficient to determine how much (if any) of these elements people need. They remain an active area of research rather than confirmed essentials.
Where Minerals End Up in Your Body
Minerals don’t just float around in your bloodstream. They concentrate in specific tissues based on their function. About 99% of your calcium is locked in bones and teeth. Phosphorus similarly concentrates in the skeleton, though significant amounts also exist in every cell. Potassium is overwhelmingly an intracellular mineral, meaning it lives inside your cells rather than in the fluid surrounding them. Sodium does the opposite, concentrating in the fluid outside cells. This distribution isn’t random. Your body actively maintains these gradients using specialized pumps embedded in cell membranes, and the energy cost of running those pumps accounts for a meaningful portion of your daily calorie burn.
Your bones serve as a mineral reservoir, not just a structural frame. When blood calcium drops too low, your body pulls calcium from bone to restore the balance. This is why chronic low calcium intake doesn’t always show up as low blood calcium on a lab test. Instead, it shows up years later as weakened bones.
What Affects Mineral Absorption
Eating a mineral-rich food doesn’t guarantee your body absorbs all of it. Several compounds in plant-based foods can bind to minerals and reduce how much actually makes it into your bloodstream. Phytic acid, found in legumes, grains, and seeds, is the most significant. It chelates (grabs onto) calcium, zinc, and iron, dramatically reducing their intestinal uptake. Polyphenols in tea, coffee, and certain fruits can do the same, as can dietary fiber.
On the other hand, certain nutrients boost mineral absorption. Vitamin C enhances iron absorption, which is why pairing iron-rich foods with citrus or peppers is a practical strategy. Vitamin A deficiency can impair iron absorption and mobilization, while adequate vitamin A improves the effectiveness of iron supplementation. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) also enhances your body’s response to iron, and riboflavin deficiency may actually be an underrecognized cause of anemia in some populations.
The form a mineral comes in also matters. Minerals from animal sources tend to be more bioavailable than those from plants, partly because animal tissues don’t contain the same binding compounds. This doesn’t mean plant-based diets can’t provide adequate minerals, but it does mean the total amount listed on a nutrition label doesn’t tell the whole story.
Signs of Mineral Deficiency
Because minerals are involved in so many different processes, deficiency symptoms can be vague and overlapping. Fatigue is one of the most common complaints, linked to low levels of iron, iodine, selenium, copper, or cobalt. Trouble concentrating or remembering can stem from low iron, iodine, copper, or phosphorus. Brittle bones point to insufficient calcium, copper, or phosphorus over time.
Some symptoms are more specific. Changes in hair color or texture can signal low copper or zinc. Skin rashes may indicate manganese or zinc deficiency. A dulled sense of taste or smell is a hallmark of zinc deficiency. Slow wound healing can result from low levels of several minerals, including zinc, iron, copper, and manganese. In children, mineral deficiencies can have more serious consequences, including developmental delays, growth faltering, and rickets.
Most people eating a varied diet get enough of most minerals. The deficiencies that show up most often globally are iron, zinc, and iodine, particularly in regions where diets rely heavily on a narrow range of plant foods with high phytate content.