Carbon

Type: Major Element
Periodic Element: (C)
RDA: Not listed, adequate nutritional intact provides sufficient amounts.
Importance- To Body:
A primary component of all organic molecules, which include carbohydrates, lipids (fats), proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbon is known to form almost ten million different compounds, a large majority of all chemical compounds.
Distribution- In Body:
18.5 Approx % Body Mass
Second most abundant element in the human body by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. It is resistant to dissolution or chemical attack, even in the acidic contents of the digestive tract. Consequently, once it enters into the body’s tissues it is likely to remain there indefinitely.
Excess Effects:
Pure carbon has extremely low toxicity to humans and can be handled and even ingested safely in the form of graphite or charcoal. Suspected harm may result from contaminants (e.g., organic chemicals, heavy metals) rather than from the carbon itself.
Deficiency Effects:
Same as starvation as it is in virtually all edible.
Sources Food:
Virtually all food sources contain carbon.
Sources Environmental/Geographic:
Carbon is the fourth most abundant chemical element in the observable universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.
Supplemental information:
Carbon forms a vast number of compounds, more than any other element, with almost ten million compounds described to date, and yet that number is but a fraction of the number of theoretically possible compounds under standard conditions. For this reason, carbon has often been referred to as the “king of the elements”