How does chelation help transport nutrients?

Chelation is needed to help distribute nutrients within our bloodstream, to our different organ systems, and to keep nutrients stored in the right place. It is a process that goes on constantly and is required not only for living things but also for formation of the earth itself. Minerals and other nutrients depend on chelation for their transport in the soil as well as in bodies of water.

“Chela” in Greek means “claw,” and there are literally millions of different compounds in food, in our bodies, and in our environment that act as claws and bind with other substances. Chelation goes on continuously in all of these places. In food, a chelating agent may be as simple as a sulfur atom in a protein. Or it may be more complicated and come in the form of an organic acid like picolinic acid.

Sometimes a molecule works especially well for chelating one type of nutrient. That is why specific chelators are sometimes used in therapies to help remove toxic levels of heavy metals such as lead from the body. Chelators specific to lead are ingested or injected. These chelating agents bond with the lead and allow the metal to be excreted through the urine.

Proteins are a major group of chelators. A protein called metallothionein is particularly good at chelating zinc. Another protein called ceruloplasmin is an expert chelator of copper. Because the heating of food makes changes in proteins and other nutrients, cooking can cause changes in chelation. In fact, one of the main reasons we’re opposed to overcooking is because we don’t want to disturb the way that nutrients are naturally “woven” into food. But we also know that minimal cooking can be helpful, and in some cases (like phytic acid and its chelation of trace minerals), absorption of these minerals may actually be increased after heating of the food. The bottom line? Cook appropriately (which usually means minimally) and trust the natural balance of chelators to do the rest!

If we are exposed to a lot of toxins, however, chelators can also latch on to these toxins, transport and store them in our tissue. The solution to this problem isn’t to do away with the chelators, however. We need the chelators to stay healthy. The solution is to reduce our exposure to the toxins.