Mineral Exchanges of Man

Abstract

A method for determination of mineral intake in human metabolic experiments has been described in detail. The method has been applied to determine the amount of nitrogen, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, chlorine and iron in, a) high calcium diet, b) low calcium diet. The mineral content of the high calcium diet was determined during eleven consecutive metabolic periods of 6 days each, and of the low calcium diet during ten consecutive periods of 6 days each. Statistical methods have been employed in an attempt to determine the magnitude of the technical errors of the procedure and to differentiate between such errors and actual variations in the mineral content of the food mixture. The implications of the statistical analysis of the data have been discussed in the text.