yeah, so, what i was saying is that food in general almost entirely air. checking out the corrected fullmetal alchemist recipe in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_the_human_body#... we see 65% oxygen, 18.5% carbon, 9.5% hydrogen, 2.6% nitrogen, adding up to 95.6%. those all get into food from air more or less directly
of course, the humans mostly aren't cannibals, but their food composition is similar to that of their bodies
the next element is calcium, 1.3%, which is mostly in bones, which are not food (the humans don't eat the bones when they eat meat) and which have a very long half-life. the recommended daily intake of calcium is about 1 gram per day, under 0.1% of the food. then we have phosphorus (not phosphor!) at 0.6%; sulfur at 0.3%; potassium, sodium, and chlorine at about 0.2% each; and magnesium at 0.05%. your entire cobalamin content is measured in milligrams, and cobalt is about 4% of cobalamin, so your entire body content of cobalt is down in the micrograms
so about 97% of your food is made of air, and the other 3% is made of rocks and soil
you are entirely correct that it's a very important 3%
fluorine isn't required at all, not even for plants. chromium isn't known to be, but might be. nickel might be too. boron is essential to plants but probably not animals. thanks for the reminders about zinc, copper, and iodine! and i didn't realize it, but you're right, manganese and molybdenum are essential to humans!
of course, the humans mostly aren't cannibals, but their food composition is similar to that of their bodies
the next element is calcium, 1.3%, which is mostly in bones, which are not food (the humans don't eat the bones when they eat meat) and which have a very long half-life. the recommended daily intake of calcium is about 1 gram per day, under 0.1% of the food. then we have phosphorus (not phosphor!) at 0.6%; sulfur at 0.3%; potassium, sodium, and chlorine at about 0.2% each; and magnesium at 0.05%. your entire cobalamin content is measured in milligrams, and cobalt is about 4% of cobalamin, so your entire body content of cobalt is down in the micrograms
so about 97% of your food is made of air, and the other 3% is made of rocks and soil
you are entirely correct that it's a very important 3%
fluorine isn't required at all, not even for plants. chromium isn't known to be, but might be. nickel might be too. boron is essential to plants but probably not animals. thanks for the reminders about zinc, copper, and iodine! and i didn't realize it, but you're right, manganese and molybdenum are essential to humans!