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Rethinking Mineral RDAs: Personalized Nutrition for Better Health
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Read Time 7 min
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) are nutrition guidelines set by the U.S. government. You may see them called Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs) or Dietary Reference Intakes (RDIs), located on the Supplement Facts panel of supplements and food products. They all basically mean the same thing: they tell you how much of a nutrient you should eat in a day.
RDAs are a good idea of the bare minimum a person needs to survive. But most of us want to do more than survive—we want to feel and perform our best, and for that, RDAs are not a good measure of what you need, especially when it comes to minerals.
Here’s a look at why RDAs can be misleading and why you may need more, or sometimes less than is recommended, when it comes to minerals.
Recommended Dietary Allowances Don’t Account for Genetics or Epigenetics
Let’s start with YOUR body, and most importantly, what you came into this world with. Each person comes with a set of genetic code and 95% of that DNA is associated with minerals. Your genetic code uses minerals to give proteins their three-dimensional structure. Your DNA can greatly affect many aspects of how your body’s biological processes, which in turn affects the amounts and types of elements YOUR body needs to support a balanced ecosystem.
Epigenetics, which is how your DNA expresses itself, is equally important and can have huge impact on how you support your body with supplementation and replenishment. Effective mineral replenishment is a cornerstone for supporting healthy epigenetics or gene expression.
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Recommended Dietary Allowances Don’t Account for Lifestyle
Part of the problem with RDAs is that they don’t consider lifestyle.
An intuitive example of this is protein. The RDA for protein is a modest 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. [ * ] For reference, that would be 56 grams of protein a day for a 150-lb person.
But if you work out, you likely already know that 56 grams of protein is nowhere near enough. You likely won’t even preserve your existing muscle, much less build more. If you want to support an active lifestyle, you’re better off with twice the protein the government suggests, and maybe even more than that.
This principle is true of minerals as well. To continue with the exercise example, working out increases your mineral needs in multiple ways:
Exercise majorly depletes electrolytes, which means you need higher levels of magnesium , potassium , sodium , and calcium to maintain mineral balance. [ * ]
Your mitochondria work overtime when you exercise, producing extra energy to power your muscles and lungs. Mitochondria are greedy when it comes to minerals—they use up a ton of magnesium , zinc , selenium , and iron , [ * ] which will leave you in a deficit if you’re only meeting your RDAs.
Muscle recovery further increases your mineral needs. Protein synthesis, the process of repairing and building muscle, demands high amounts of magnesium and sulfur . [ * ]
And it’s not just exercise that increases your mineral needs. There are a lot of lifestyle situations where it’s good to get extra minerals, including:
Managing stress . Stress is one of the biggest causes of mineral depletion, particularly when it comes to magnesium, and zinc. [ * ][ * ] If you’re in a stressful job or life situation the RDAs for these minerals won’t be nearly enough.
Aging well . While RDAs may keep you alive, you’ll need a lot more than the recommended minimum if you want to age gracefully. Studies show that getting extra minerals helps reduce cellular oxidative stress, the main driver of aging. [ * ]
Increasing fertility . Research shows that the odds of a successful pregnancy increase significantly when both the man and the woman get more minerals than the RDAs suggest. [ * ][ * ]
If you exercise, deal with stress, want to age better, or are hoping for a child, you’ll need a lot more minerals than the minimum and you’ll need to replenish them in a balanced way for them to be effective. These are just a few of countless examples of how lifestyle influences your mineral requirements—and how, when applied to real people’s lives, RDAs fall short.
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RDAs Don’t Account for Your Current Health Situation
There are many health challenges that impact the bioavailability of most minerals in your body, including:
The status of your digestive enzymes – are they going to be effective at breaking down the mineral supplementation product(s) you are using
The overall balance of your gut microbiome – do you have a proliferation of candida, or other non-beneficial organisms
The health of your gut lining – are you experiencing CIBO, IBS, Crohn’s, Celiac’s, glyphosate toxicity or other inflammatory gut issues
Malabsorption issues - Whether or not you have parasites living in your gut
The health of the lining of the cells in your body – this can greatly affect overall cell permeability.
To replenish the full spectrum of minerals the body needs in an effective manner, it is important to assess these elements and find replenishment solutions that will support overall health of the body as an ecosystem of microbiomes.
Do RDAs Address Mineral Deficiency?
Finally, there’s the matter of mineral deficiency. RDAs are designed to keep the average person alive, assuming they don’t have any shortages of specific minerals.
But that’s a big assumption to make, considering the most recent national study from the CDC found that 97% of Americans have at least one mineral deficiency . [ * ]
If you’re among that 97%—and you almost certainly are, because crops have been getting increasingly mineral-poor over the past 70 years and almost nobody gets enough minerals from diet alone [ * ]—you need extra minerals to correct the deficiency. And, most importantly, you need those delivered in ways that support overall mineral balance in the body.
Meeting the standard RDAs won’t address overall mineral balance in the body and in fact, taking single mineral supplements at RDA levels can cause mineral imbalances, further exacerbating deficiencies and depletion symptoms.
How to Replenish Minerals Effectively
Effective mineral replenishment requires a paradigm shift, one that takes into account the body’s natural replenishment system. This means providing minerals to your body in a way that supports balance. The good news is it’s easy to increase your mineral stores to an ideal level.
Our full-spectrum liquid mineral supplements make mineral replenishment simple. They contain every essential mineral your body needs, in the right ratios. The minerals are also bound to flavonoids in a highly absorbable liquid form, which means you absorb nearly 100% of what you take—that’s several times more bioavailable than the average mineral supplement.
Best of all, BEAM Minerals supplements are an easy upgrade. You don’t need a kitchen cabinet full of pills and powders or a list of ideal milligrams per mineral. All you do is take a one-ounce shot of liquid each morning (don’t worry. It tastes like water).
If you want to enhance your body and brain in 30 seconds a day, give BEAM Minerals a try. You’ll be surprised by the difference you feel.
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FAQs
Can I take BEAM Minerals with my other supplements?
Yes, in fact, BEAM Minerals will enhance the bioavailability of all your other supplements.
What is the difference between Micro-BOOST™ and Electrolyze™?
Electrolyze™ is primarily composed of Fulvic Mineral Complexes . Fulvic complexes are small molecules that provide inter-cellular transport for nutritional elements into the cells and carry bio-waste out of the cells. Fulvic complexes are flavonoids , which provide many benefits in the body.
Micro-BOOST™ is primarily composed of the Humic Mineral Complexes . Humic complexes are large molecules that are extra-cellular, meaning they do not enter the cells but stay outside the cells. They are highly-charged molecules that attract, through their electrical charge, bio-waste, free radicals and heavy metals. They ultimately carry bio-waste out of the body. Thus, we call them “Nature’s Janitor”.
How many milligrams (mg) of an electrolyte (Potassium, Magnesium, Sodium, Calcium, etc.) is there in BEAM Minerals?
The quantities of each element in BEAM Minerals products are measured in “parts per million” (ppm), rather than the “milligrams” (mg). Here is the information which usually helps to understand the difference:
Milligrams (mg) vs parts per million (ppm)
In comparing our products to other supplements, people want to know how much of an electrolyte is in our products (like potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium). Usually they are looking for an amount in milligrams (mg).
We have a hard time answering that question, because the electrolytes (and other elements) in BEAM Minerals products are measured in parts per million (ppm). So how can consumers compare?
The answer is a little complex, but here’s the high points.
The electrolytes in BEAM Minerals products are provided in “trace” amounts that are completely dissolved and thus 100% bio-available, immediately introduced into your circulation when you consumed them and will produce and active effect.
When you take a 320mg pill of magnesium, your body is only able utilize about 12-20% of it as it takes some time because your body has to digest it first. Whatever is not dissolved gets processed out of your body.
When you take a capful of liquid Electrolyze™ and/or Micro-BOOST™, you receive approximately 5.22 ppm of magnesium in which 100% of the magnesium is immediately available to your body. In addition, an important to know is that the magnesium in BEAM Minerals products stay in your system much longer building up healthy levels as you continue to take it daily.
