Moringa oleifera - power packed with essential nutritional minerals

Moringa oleifera is not only power packed with the essential vitamins needed by the body. It is also power packed with all the necessary minerals that the body needs to stay healthy and strong. These minerals are also needed by the body to synthesise with the vitamins to produce essential nutrients needed for the body's internal organs (the body's factories) to stay healthy so that these internal organs can function in an optimum fashion, like getting rid of the body's waste and toxic matters, keep the bones strong and so on.

The fresh leaves of Moringa oleifera contains the equivalent of (when compared on a gram to gram basis):

• 4 times more calcium than milk
• 3 times more potassium than bananas, and
• 4 times more iron than spinach

And in addition to calcium, potassium and iron, it also has appropriate amounts of copper, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, selenium and zinc......all needed by the human body to stay healthy and to keep the body's immune system in tip-top condition.

So, why are these minerals so important to the human body? I shall explain all these to you over my next few blogs....but let's start with calcium first.

Calcium:

Basically, calcium has two biological roles:

·   calcium salts provide rigidity to the skeleton; and

·   calcium ions play a role in many metabolic processes like neuromuscular function, many enzyme-mediated processes and blood-clotting.

Calcium deficiency may cause osteoporosis. However, this must be diagnosed against other factors like vitamin D deficiency, sodium and animal protein impairment to calcium absorption.

·   Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption. The lack of vitamin D will reduce the amount of calcium absorption by the body;

·   Sodium has been known to compete with calcium for re-absorption by the body and therefore, can reduce the amount of calcium absorption by the body;

·   Consumption of animal protein has been known since the 1960s to reduce the amount of calcium absorption by the body.

Calcium is needed by the human body at every stage of human development.

·   From infant to puberty, it is needed to facilitate phenomenon skeletal growth;

·   For adults and ageing male adults, it is needed to keep the skeleton in good condition;

·   For menopausal women, it is needed to reduce the incidence of osteoporosis;

·   For pregnant women, it is needed to replace whatever is lost for fetal development;

·   For lactating women, it is needed to replace what is lost from breast feeding their babies. Human milk has higher calcium-phosphate ratio than cow milk and it may be a factor in the higher absorption of calcium from human milk compared to cow milk.

I shall explain the importance of iron and potassium in my next blog.

Here are some of my recommendations for you to try out:

Gluten Free Low Glycemic Cookbook for Diabetics & Allergy Sufferers
The Lazy Raw Foodists Guide