Mineral Matter

Ranking next to water in the quantity contained in the human body is mineral matter. This constituent, which is also called ash or mineral salts, forms the main part of the body's framework, or skeleton. In the building and maintaining of the body, mineral salts serve three purposes--to give rigidity and permanence to the skeleton, to form an essential element of active tissue, and to provide the required alkalinity or acidity for the digestive juices and other secretions.

The origin and distribution of these mineral substances are of interest. Plants in their growth seize from the earth the salts of minerals and combine them with other substances that make up their living tissue. Then human beings, as well as other living creatures, get their supply of these needed salts from the plants that they take as food, this being the only form in which the salts can be thoroughly assimilated. These salts are not affected by cooking unless some process is used that removes such of them as are readily soluble in water. When this occurs, the result is usually waste, as, for instance, where no use is made of the water in which some vegetables are boiled. As is true of water, mineral matter, even though it is found in large quantities in the body, is usually disregarded when food is purchased. This is due to the fact that this important nutritive material appears in some form in nearly all foods and therefore does not necessitate the housewife's stopping to question its presence.