We use minerals for many things in addition to eating them in the form of nutrients in foods. The gold or silver in jewelry and the iron and copper in cookware or tools are the same minerals that are in food that we eat. That is why you may have heard that cooking in a cast iron skillet is a good source of iron. When you cook food in an iron skillet a little bit of the iron comes off and mixes with the food. When we eat it, we can absorb and use it just like iron that is already in food.
Minerals are the most permanent part of living things.
They do not burn, and, in fact, they can be found in the ashes of something that has burned. There are two groups of minerals, major minerals and trace minerals. A milligram is a very small amount. It is one thousandth of a gram, and there are 28 grams in an ounce. The major minerals are calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, potassium, sodium, and chloride.