Define minerals
Definition of minerals, as it applies to food and nutrition usually refers to the elements other than carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen that are present in food. All foods contain minerals in relatively low concentrations. Minerals play key functional roles in health and nutrition of humans. Ninety chemical elements occur naturally in the earth's crust. About 25 of them are known to be essential to life and thus are present in living cells. Since our food is ultimately derived from living plants or animals, we can expect to find these 25 elements in our food. The minerals in foods are usually determined by ashing or incineration. This destroys the organic compounds and leaves the minerals behind.