Below is an excerpt from Part One of

The 2004 Multi-Diet

by Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.

Macrominerals: A Danger

There is a danger in supplementing macrominerals that you need to take very seriously. The danger comes from the fact that the correct amount (approximately the RDI) of each of these minerals is already a fairly large amount. But the maximum amount you can tolerate without eventual toxicity is not that much larger. In other words, if you get "over-enthusiastic" about supplementing macrominerals, you can quite possibly poison yourself.

This poisoning is unlikely to happen with just a few high doses of mineral supplements (unless they're very high) but it will happen with continuous high doses over a period of several weeks. This is easy to do if you don't know any better---or if you don't pay attention to what you are doing.

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Food Nutrient Composition Information

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Database for Standard Reference is the source of almost all references in The Multi-Diet on specific amounts of specific nutrients in specific foods. The USDA Nutrient Database is a world--class resource for food nutrient composition information. It is available free on the Internet at:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp

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The various macrominerals are not identical in their ability to poison you at high doses. High doses of potassium can be very dangerous, the others are probably much less dangerous. We will discuss each mineral and its recommended supplementation technique in the next few sections. (For more discussion of the research and references on macrominerals and their proper supplementation see Part Two: MORE ON... VITAMINS & MINERALS on page 220.)

The amount of food you eat on a diet may give you between one-half and three-quarters of the RDI of most of the macrominerals most of the time, depending on what you eat. This means that if you don't supplement macrominerals at all, you will probably become gradually deficient in some or all of them. (And The Beast will probably be pitching you all sorts of food cravings.)

The goal of macromineral supplementation is therefore to use foods and supplements together to ensure that your total daily intake of each macromineral approximately equals the RDI, but is not much higher (at least not regularly) because this could cause eventual poisoning.

Therefore, supplementing the macrominerals is not quite as easy as simply taking supplement tablets with 100% of the RDI amount of each, as most people can do with the vitamins and trace elements.

The most accurate way make sure you get neither too little nor too much of the macrominerals is to:

1. Record the foods you eat every day.

2. Use a standard food composition table to find and add up the amounts of each macromineral in the foods you've recorded.

3. Take supplements to make up the difference between the food amount and the RDI of each macromineral.

However, realistically speaking, I know you're not likely to go to all that trouble (even though you should:)). So here's a rule-of-thumb to make it little simpler.

Rule-of-Thumb for Supplementing Macrominerals

While dieting, supplement the macrominerals except potassium with about one-half to three-quarters of the RDI of each macromineral.

Supplement potassium with about one-quarter to one-half of its RDI. Periodically use a food composition table or one of the nutritional computer programs to check that this supplement amount together with the foods you normally eat is keeping you reasonably close to the total RDI for each macromineral. If it isn't, adjust the supplement amount accordingly.

There are also commonly used medical tests your doctor can use to check whether your mineral status is excessive or deficient. (See A MEDICAL SAFETY NET on page 229 in Part Two.)