There was a time in the past where vitamins were vitamins, and if you wanted to get more than just a vitamin or a B complex at any given time, you would need to take a whole roster of pills and supplements. Eventually, though, people started inventing multivitamin pills that contain numerous vitamins. Eventually, they added in minerals as well, to make MVMs, or Multi Vitamin and Mineral supplements.
MVMs incorporate both a selection of vitamins and an array of minerals called trace minerals. If you have a healthy dose of skepticism about the health and wellness industry, however, you may be wondering a few things. Questions such as:
- What are trace minerals?
- Do you need trace minerals?
- Should you take trace minerals in a multivitamin?
I frequently encounter these questions when discussing supplements, so it's about time I write a thorough guide to help you all understand what these minerals are and why they are – or aren't – important. Ready? Let's dig in.
Table of Contents
What Are Trace Minerals?
The food we eat is composed of nutrients. The big nutrients, called macronutrients, are the ones you hear of all the time: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. They're called macronutrients because they make up the bulk of what you eat. Fiber is also frequently considered a macronutrient.
Other nutrients are micronutrients. These are present in much smaller quantities in the food you eat, but they are no less important. These include vitamins and minerals. Minerals themselves also come in both macromineral and trace mineral (or micromineral) groups.
Macrominerals are the minerals you need a decent amount of in your diet to remain healthy. These include minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium.
Trace minerals are minerals like iron, copper, and zinc, which are found in minute quantities in food, and are used by the body for a variety of processes. They're only present in very small amounts and the recommended daily intake for them is usually described in micrograms.
Trace minerals are generally grouped into two categories.
- Essential minerals. These are minerals your body needs to function properly. Without them, you start to suffer from a deficiency and can develop life-altering medical conditions.
- Nonessential minerals. These are minerals that have no known benefit to the body and, generally, are toxic enough to avoid. Consuming them in any amount is generally harmful and can be deadly.
One important note is that even the essential minerals can be toxic at higher levels. That's important, and I'll come back to it later.
Do You Need Trace Minerals?
Yes.
It's important to keep trace minerals in balance. Too much of them can lead to toxicity, while too little of them will lead to deficiency. The exact ranges vary from mineral to mineral, with specifics determined by various experimental and observational studies over the past 80 years since the concept of recommended daily intakes was invented.
Trace minerals serve many different roles in the body. For example:
- Cobalt is required as part of the processing of vitamin B12.
- Iodine is critical for thyroid function and for a variety of organ functions.
- Iron is required for hemoglobin production and many enzymes.
If you are deprived of trace minerals for too long, certain biological processes cease to function, which can cascade to other systems and impact your overall health in vastly detrimental ways.
How Much Trace Minerals Do You Need?
As mentioned above, the specific recommended daily intakes vary from mineral to mineral. Let's go through them.
Chromium
Chromium is also an odd trace mineral. As of yet, we haven't identified how it works or what symptoms there may be from a chromium deficiency. However, it used to be considered essential with recommended intakes ranging from 11 mcg in children up to 25-35 mcg in healthy adults, and as much as 45 mcg in breastfeeding women.
These recommendations have since been cautiously retracted, not because chromium is bad, but because the evidence for those recommendations needs more testing and validation and has not yet been fully proven. Basically, because there are no observed signs of deficiency, it can't necessarily be considered essential, but there's still a lot of research that needs to be done to prove either way.
Copper
Copper is one of the most well-understood trace minerals. It's critical for the bodily processes that produce energy (your metabolism), that generate connective tissues and blood vessels, as well as your immune system, nervous system, and brain development. It's also part of the process that activates genes and controls gene expression.
Recommended copper intake ranges from 200 mcg for infants up to 900 mcg in adults, with higher amounts for pregnant and breastfeeding women. It's also a common nutrient found in nuts, wheat and whole grain products, mushrooms, potatoes, and shellfish.
Copper deficiency can cause exhaustion, high cholesterol, and connective tissue disorders, as well as brittle bones, loss of balance, and increased risk of infection.
Fluoride
Fluoride is occasionally considered controversial, particularly among the same groups of people who consider pasteurization and vaccines to be controversial. It's also commonly added to municipal water in the United States, primarily as a way to help combat osteoporosis and tooth decay. This is because fluoride primarily benefits bone density and growth, as well as inhibiting tooth decay and even helping to remineralize teeth.
For most people, they should not supplement with extra Fluoride.
Iodine
Iodine is critical for the production of thyroid hormones, which are then used in many different functions throughout the body. It's especially critical for women during pregnancy and in children during infancy, as it's used in the development of the brain. Iodine deficiency used to be a lot more common until the global adoption of iodized table salt addressed the problem. That deficiency can cause permanent harm to a fetus, including intellectual disability. In adults, it can cause a goiter, as well as a range of thyroid and hormonal problems.
The recommended daily intake for iodine ranges from 110 mcg for babies to 150 mcg for adults, but as much as 220-290 mcg for pregnant and breastfeeding women.
MicroVitamin contains 112.5mcg of Iodine.
Iron
Iron is one of the most well-known trace minerals, which means it might surprise you to learn how little of it you actually need. Iron is used for the creation of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs throughout your body. It's also used in hormone production.
The trick is that dietary iron comes in heme and non-heme forms, which is essentially the difference between iron from animal sources and iron from plant sources. This means vegetarians and vegans typically need twice as much iron in their diet as omnivores because non-heme iron is much more poorly absorbed. If you're interested in learning more, I have an entire guide on iron intake and supplementation here.
Throughout life, your iron needs are around 8-10 mcg per day, though pregnant women need closer to 27 mcg.
Manganese
Manganese – not to be confused with magnesium – is used in metabolism and to protect cells from damage. It's also part of bone health, blood clotting, and immune system function. Deficiency means weak bones, skin rashes, mood changes, and other symptoms, but like most trace mineral deficiencies, is very rare in the developed world due to fortified foods.
The recommended daily intake for manganese is only 0.6 mcg for infants, but doubles to 1.2 mcg for children, and rises to around 2 mcg for adults.
Molybdenum
This trace mineral is used to process proteins and manage DNA and is also used as part of your body's natural detoxification processes and in breaking down drugs and medications.
Infants only need 2 mcg, but as you get older, you need more. Children are recommended to get between 17 and 34 mcg, while adults need around 45 mcg.
This can easily be achieved from a healthy diet.
Selenium
Selenium is critical for thyroid function, reproduction, DNA synthesis, and protection from infection and damage from free radicals. Deficiency is rare in the developed world and usually occurs because of dialysis, HIV, or environmental factors that reduce available selenium in local foods.
The recommended intake of selenium ranges from 15 mcg at birth to 55 mcg for adults, with slightly higher levels of 60-70 mcg for pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Zinc
Zinc is also a well-known trace mineral and is used in immune system function, DNA production, and protein synthesis. It's also required for childhood development and wound healing.
The recommended daily intake is 8-11 mcg for adults.
Ultratrace Minerals and Boron
There are also a set of minerals called ultratrace minerals. This category has significant overlap with the nonessential minerals, and includes minerals like silicon, nickel, boron, cadmium, lead, and lithium. The general recommended daily intake of these minerals is zero, because they can be toxic in extremely small amounts, but some studies have been looking into whether or not they may be beneficial despite that.
A primary example of this is Boron. Numerous studies over the last few years have been demonstrating the potential benefits of boron in our diets, including functions such as:
- Improving bone health and growth.
- Improving wound healing.
- Improving brain function.
- Improving insulin management.
- Improving energy metabolism.
- Improving immune system function.
- Improving the function of steroid hormones, including estrogen, testosterone, and vitamin D.
So, why is boron not classified as an essential mineral? While we've seen studies that seem to demonstrate benefits to consuming small amounts (usually less than a single microgram) of boron, science has not yet identified the specific enzymatic or molecular pathways the element uses. As such, governing bodies like the Food and Nutrition Board and the World Health Organization have not determined a recommended intake. MicroVitamin contains 1mg of Boron per serving.
Why Are Trace Minerals Added to Vitamins?
In broad terms, trace minerals are readily available for people who aren't restricted in their diets, suffering from a genetic condition, or otherwise limited in their intake or processing of those minerals. A healthy diet provides all you need and then some.
However, it's possible for gaps in your diet to lead to a deficiency in certain trace minerals, particularly iodine, iron, and zinc.
Many supplements, particularly MVMs, try to cover all the bases and give you enough of the various vitamins and minerals your body needs to ensure you're never at risk of a deficiency. While they can overshoot the mark with some, trace minerals generally have very low requirements but are relatively high in comparison levels where they become toxic. So, by putting some small amount in a multivitamin and mineral supplement, you can be assured of getting enough.
And, of course, it's a marketing thing. Supplement manufacturers want to sell you on the benefits of their products, so the more they can pack in that has some benefits, the more claims they can make about what it does for you.
What to Watch for with Trace Minerals in Vitamins
My biggest concern with supplementation, in general, is megadosing. Megadosing is when a supplement you take includes much, much more of an ingredient than your body actually needs. Sometimes, that's fine; for example, there's no real upper limit to Vitamin B12, which is why energy drinks can pack in 20,000% of your recommended daily allowance without issues.
The problem is that some nutrients are harmful in larger amounts. Trace minerals almost all become toxic at megadose levels. You can't get that much from diet, but supplements can easily go well over the limits. As such, you need to make sure that you aren't getting a supplement with hundreds of times more than you need of these trace minerals.
It's not a bad thing to have trace minerals in a supplement. In fact, for my very own MicroVitamin, I include several trace minerals, including iodine, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, and even a tiny amount of boron. I do this to make sure I've covered all of my bases on top of my healthy diet, but of course, just because I take it doesn't mean it's right for you.
Sources:
- Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk – Trace Elements: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218751/
- Dietary Trace Minerals – PubMed: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6893782/
- ARUP Consult - Trace Elements – Deficiency and Toxicity: https://arupconsult.com/content/trace-minerals
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025: https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans-2020-2025.pdf
- Vitamin B12 Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-Consumer/
- Biomonitoring California Cobalt Fact Sheet: https://biomonitoring.ca.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/CobaltFactSheet.pdf
- Chromium Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/chromium-Consumer/
- Copper Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Copper-Consumer/
- Fluoride Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Fluoride-HealthProfessional/
- Iodine Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iodine-Consumer/
- Iron Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-Consumer/
- Manganese Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Manganese-Consumer/
- Molybdenum Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Molybdenum-Consumer/
- Selenium Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Selenium-Consumer/
- Zinc Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-Consumer/
- Nothing Boring About Boron: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4712861/
- Boron Fact Sheet for Health Professionals: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Boron-HealthProfessional/
- New Insights into Boron Essentiality in Humans and Animals: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9409115/
- The Physiological Role of Boron on Health: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29546541/
