I get asked sometimes why commercial mineral blends contain molasses, artificial flavors, or other sweeteners.
The answer is actually pretty revealing about how we’ve learned to override animal instincts instead of trusting them.
Here’s what I’ve come to understand about how mineral sensing works.
The Body Knows
When a mineral is isolated from others, the body can identify whether it needs that mineral by smell first, then taste.
If an animal – or human – is deficient in a mineral, that mineral will smell and taste sweet.
If the body has enough, that same mineral will smell and taste bitter.
I’ve tested this in my own body multiple times with the buffet minerals. When sulfur starts smelling delicious to me, I know to feed myself eggs or cruciferous vegetables for a few days, until sulfur stops smelling so appealing. When I need iron, I cook in cast iron. The nose knows.
This is an innate ability. Animals have it. We have it. It’s just been educated out of most of us.
The Problem with Blends
In a loose mineral blend, all the minerals are mixed together. This means the animal is always consuming minerals it doesn’t need alongside the ones it does.
The result? A bitter taste.
Why? Because at any given moment, a body will be sufficient in some minerals and deficient in others. In my own body, iron and copper trade off – I can confirm this by how each one smells and tastes to me at different times. You can’t always need all of them, since some minerals are essentially antagonists to each other. So in any blend, something will always taste bitter.
Enter the Sweeteners
To get around this, manufacturers add sweeteners to mask the bitter taste and encourage consumption.
In theory, this makes sense. Nutritionists believe they’ve figured out exactly what each species needs, so if we can just get them to eat the blend, they’ll get what they need.
But here’s what we see proven again and again with buffet users: mineral needs vary widely with life stage, environment, feed sources, season, and a dozen other factors. The formulas are averages. Your goat is not an average.
What Plain Minerals Allow
A plain mineral with no flavor enhancers allows an animal to use their innate sensing ability to select what they actually need.
They approach the copper. Sniff. Either eat some or walk away.
They check the sulfur. Maybe today, maybe not.
They’re not guessing. They’re sensing. And they’re remarkably good at it – when we let them. It’s not “woo” or something undefinable; it is pure biology that you can replicate in your own body.
The sweeteners override this system. They mask the feedback loop that would otherwise tell an animal “you don’t need this right now.”
The Deeper Lesson
This is really about trust.
Do we believe animals know what they need? Or do we believe we have to figure it out for them?
I’ve spent over five years on this system watching goats choose minerals, and I’ve come to believe strongly in the former. They know. We just have to give them access to individual minerals and get out of the way.
The same applies to so much of goat keeping, honestly. They’ve been doing this for thousands of years. Our job is to provide options and trust the process.
If you’re ready to stop guessing about mineral balance and let your animals handle their own mineral balance, the mineral buffet is waiting for you here.
