Our bodies are designed to work with the natural elements found in our food. Plants create vitamins and pull minerals from the soil to serve specific functions, like protection from disease or energy production. We then repurpose these nutrients after we consume them. Minerals are an interesting case. They are inorganic elements found in the earth’s crust, but these often must be combined with organic molecules to become usable by the human body. Many are toxic in the forms found in soil, but absolutely essential in the forms created for us by nature in order for us to survive.