Surely our food contains enough minerals?
Plants can manufacture vitamins but cannot manufacture minerals. These need to be in the soil for the plant to take them up through the root system.
Most people assume that their food has all the vital mineral nutrition in it. Sadly this is not the case. To understand this we have to go back to 1930s, a time of eco balance. The Earth provided what we needed and Man returned the same to the Earth.
We need to understand how this was achieved.
Food Choices
Diets in the 1930's were mainly of fresh, free-range meat, locally grown seasonal fruit and vegetables. Mothers were at home and took the time to prepare and cook fresh meals, and these habits were passed on to their children. Processed food and fast-food options were not available.
The nutritional state of the food
• Mineral-rich fruit and vegetables grown in mineral-rich soil
• Rotational farming - crops rotated with grazing animals. Crops remove minerals
from the soil. Animal waste returns them. (No chemical fertilisers and pesticides
to upset the bacterial balance of the soil)
• Most produce used locally and waste returned to local soil
• Meat from grazing free-range animals high in omega 3 essential fatty acids.
All the above provided a solid foundation for eco balance of healthy, mineral rich soil, maintained by manure and natural colonies of bacteria. Healthy plants grew rich in minerals and provided humans and animals with the mineral nutrition they needed for health.
"Minerals in the soil control the metabolism of plants, animals and man. All of life will be either healthy or unhealthy according to the fertility of the soil."
Dr Alexus Carrel, 1912 Nobel Prize Winner
The beginning of the 21st century, lets now come up to date and take a look at what factors have affected the change in our food.
• Birth of intensive farming meant fewer minerals were returned to the soil than
taken out. Growing plants use many minerals and trace minerals but man returns
only 3 to the soil in the form of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K).
The reason for the NPK mixture is that scientists found that these were the three
minerals that encouraged plants to grow quickly. Rapid growth meant bigger yields in
less time, more profit. The nutritional status of the plant was not an important
consideration. But with many minerals taken out and only 3 returned, this inevitably
gave rise to deficiencies of the rest. There is documented evidence to show that on
average the same food was between 45% and 125% more nutritionally rich 60 years ago.
• Pesticides and insecticides further upset the natural pro-biotic eco balance in soil.
The natural pro-biotic (pro= for, bios = life) bacteria are so necessary for
transforming inorganic minerals into an easily, usable form by plants.
• Less bacteria = less inorganic mineral transformation = less minerals in the correct
form to be taken up and used by plants = lower mineral content of the plant = lower
mineral intake by the animals or humans who eat the plants.
• Falsely-ripened produce does not have fully developed mineral potential
• Early cutting and storage of foods. Much produce is cut early and stored. Storage
depletes vitamin content
• The birth of fast and processed food. Foods that have lost most of their fresh value
in terms of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Food processing dramatically reduces the
mineral content of the food. Anything from 20% - 80%, depending on the processing
method and food involved.
• Chemical additives such as colourings and flavourings in food compound the problem.
At worst these are mild poisons, and at best are chemicals that the body does not see
as food. The body needs to use nutrient energy to deal with these.
• Factory farming of animals - animals whose movement is restricted. This changed the
essential fatty acid content of the meat so produced from high omega 3 (in free
range stock) to low omega 3 and high omega 6. Humans began to lose the benefits of
omega 3 EFA nutrition.
• Organic food should be the answer. But although organic food has the great benefit
of being grown according to nature's laws and being free from pesticide and
herbicide residues, there is no guarantee that it contains any more minerals than
ordinary food. Organic farming uses chemical-free methods of fertilisation, but has
not yet been able to replace the minerals that have for many years been removed and
not replaced.
America and England knew what was happening to the food in the late 1930s but they walked away from taking the matter seriously.
In 1936 the USA Senate saw the growing problem of farming and nutrition. Here is a quote from the 74th Congress, 2nd Session.
"The alarming fact is that foods (fruits, vegetables and grains) now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain minerals are starving us - no matter how much of them we eat. No man of today can eat enough fruits and vegetables to supply his system with the minerals he requires for perfect health because his stomach isn't big enough to hold them".
This is why we need to supplement our diets until our soil is healthy again and food contains the full spectrum of the life supporting minerals.