Electrolytes, also called macro minerals, expedite the passage of fluid in and around the cells through a process known as osmosis. All the body's buffer systems that were just explained are fed by these invaluable live ionic minerals and carry a positive or negative charge. The buffer systems help manage and balance these energy producing minerals to keep the blood, other fluids, and surrounding tissues from getting too alkaline, or in most cases too acidic.

Electrolytes are supplied through the diet and of course by adequate absorption of these minerals. The best way to acquire and absorb these mineral electrolytes is in organic form from plant or naturally fed animal sources. Minerals obtained from whole foods are already in ionized electrolyte form, unlike inorganic salts, which need to be ionized in the gut. Basically, plants ingest these inorganic salts or elemental minerals from the soil and convert them into organic ionic form. So, by eating the plants, or the animals that eat the plants, you are getting ionized minerals from your food! This is why minerals derived from whole food sources are superior to their inorganic stepsisters that require protein transporters and sufficient amounts of stomach acid to be absorbed. With that being said, a lot of people, especially as they get older, lack adequate gastric juices to process inorganic minerals, so minerals in this form are not the best choice.

As you have learned, a sufficient supply and reserve of these minerals allow the buffers to mostly neutralize and remove unwanted acids from the system with ease. When you come up short on macro minerals and fall out of balance, which is all too common in modern day society's dissatisfactory diets and high stress lifestyles, the bones and tissues are forced to give up their invaluable mineral stores. This impedes an efficient state of equilibrium or homeostasis in the body. When this emergency situation is allowed to continue, the body cannot expel acidic waste and oxygenate the system properly allowing the overall functioning of body systems to become tired and worn out. This weakens overall immunity and thus the body's ability to deter bacterial and viral infections, ADVANCING the aging process and the initiation of disease!