I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. 

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OK Micronutrients explained.......

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These are the opposite of macro, micro means small (incase you didn't know)

 

Here we deal with the tiddlers on the digestive scale – Micronutrients are basically the posh word for vitamins and minerals.

Micronutrients are essential elements needed by life in small quantities.

They include microminerals and Vitamins. Microminerals, or trace elements, include at least iron, cobalt, chromium, copper, iodine, manganese, selenium, zinc, and molybdenum.

There are dietary minerals needed by the human body in very small quantities (generally less than 100mg/day) as opposed to macrominerals which are required in larger quantities.

Vitamins are organic chemicals that a given living organism requires in trace quantities for good health, but which the organism cannot synthesise, and therefore must obtain from their diet.

These substances enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development. As tiny as the amounts are, however, the consequences of their absence are severe. Iodine, vitamin A and iron are most important in global public health terms; their lack represents a major threat to the health and development of populations the world over, particularly children and pregnant women in low-income countries.

 

Where do you get micronutrients from?

Plenty of fruit and veg in your diet will provide many of these and it may be advisable to add in a good multivitamin from a professional source – not high street chain – for the quality and guarantee you will cover all bases that food could miss out on.

 

With the aggressive farming strategies in place it is now quite common for foods to have much less nutritional content than they did several decades ago due to depletion of these elements in the soil.

A good overview can be found below –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronutrient