The Importance Of Vital Nutrients And Real Health
Growing up in the suburbs of a small southern Michigan town in the 60’s, my mom found the one and only health food store. My mom, Margie, became fascinated with health and wellness – the idea of preventing illness. Her interest was stirred by working in a hospital and seeing people ill from what she considered preventable health conditions.
As a young boy with three other sibs, we began to see funny looking capsules appear at breakfast and dinner. They automatically came with an explanation. Often our response was, ”you want me to swallow that?” or “What is it?” We became my mom’s test lab for her health and wellness education.
Mom also became an avid vegetable gardener. No pesticides or chemicals were ever used. She grew a wide variety including sweet corn, broccoli, green & yellow beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, potatoes and watermelons.
When I was 17, my parents moved to a small 40-acre farm. Goats and chickens became permanent residents with beef cattle having periodic stays.
Our Breakthrough, Your Benefit.
When my daughter was 18 she received a dire diagnosis. After being medically written off we looked elsewhere to rebuild her health. For the next 12 years we struggled and gradually found the health information and support my family needed.
A big part of her health recovery was the breakthrough nutritional resources & wellness education we uncovered. This gave us the understanding we needed to make changes.
We cleared out our cupboards, we read labels, we bought organic / non GMO foods and we asked lots of questions. In the process we learned what it took to transform our health. This empowers you.
We discovered the transformative power of cellular health through a line of professional grade nutritional supplements. Our health recovery proved to us that taking the right super nutrients, our bodies have the innate ability to heal themselves.
So for fun...here's a pop quiz question...
True or False. You Get All The Vital Nutrients You Need For Optimal Health From The Foods Available To Us Today...
The Declining Nutrient Value of Food
Most of us don’t live on a farm. Our food shows up on grocery store shelves. If we like how it looks, we buy it and take it home. We want our oranges to be orange, our tomatoes to be red and meat to be pink in the package.
Years ago, some seasonal foods just weren’t available all year round. Now we get strawberries in Michigan in the middle of winter! Do they taste like strawberries grown locally in June? Nooo.
With less farm land available, commercial farms are producing more of our food than years ago. What exactly is done to our food to give it the desired color and uniform size?
What is done to our food so it is available in big box store quantities all year round?
Here's a clue...Have you ever noticed in the produce section that fruit flies hover over the organic berries and not over the berries that are non-organic? (sprayed) Do the fruit flies notice something we don’t?
Is it possible our food might not have the same nutrient value today as food did 50 to 75 years ago?
In an editorial on the Bionutrient Food Association’s website, the following information sheds light on the dwindling nutrient value of food.
American agribusiness has given us one of the cheapest, most abundant food supplies in the world. However, our commercial/industrial food system is not serving us well when it comes to the nutrient value of food. We have quantity, but not quality.
Science reveals this mass-produced commercial food is cheap in price and cheap (low) in nutrients.
Here are some things we know at this point in time:
- Over the last 50 years the amounts of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C in conventionally grown fresh fruits and vegetables have declined significantly. We know this thanks to rigorous analysis of USDA nutrient data by biochemist Donald Davis of the University of Texas.
- Wheat grown 100 years ago had TWICE as much protein as today’s modern varieties. In other words, today we have 50% LESS protein in today’s wheat compared to 100 years ago.
- Major declines in protein and several other nutrients have been documented in modern corn varieties
Want to make sure your immune system is in top condition? Got low energy, fatigue, brain fog, or get sick often? Do you have concerns about your health?
Here are two ways we can help you with your wellness questions or concerns.
1. Take this FREE health assessment and give yourself a mini-checkup.
2. Schedule a Free Wellness consultation call with Patty, RN.
Some causes for the decline in nutrient value of food:
- Environmental Dilution Effects.
Scientists know high fertilizer use and irrigation can lead to higher crop yields, but sometimes at the expense of nutrient density in the food we eat. For example, when farmers apply nitrogen to crops in excess of what occurs naturally, it causes plants to take up more water, resulting in high yields, but giving us foods that have lower nutrient density.
- Genetic Dilution Effects
As plant geneticists developed their version of improved crop varieties (GMO’s-genetically modified organisms) to give farmers higher yields, they inadvertently caused food nutrient values to decline.
Consider calcium levels in broccoli: Widely grown varieties in 1950 had about 13 mg/g of calcium, but today’s varieties provide only about 4.4 mg/g of calcium. This is a 66% decline!
Similar declines are also being documented in meat, eggs and dairy products.
Compared with industrial food products, foods from pastured raised animals are consistently richer in vitamins A, D and E, beta-carotene and beneficial fatty acids. In stores labels read ‘grass fed’ and ‘pasture raised’.
Prominent biochemist Bruce Ames argues that many Americans are not getting enough essential vitamins and minerals, and the health consequences of these dietary deficiencies — increased cancer and accelerated inflammation & aging are not to be ignored.
- Improper Crop Rotation
What is the purpose of crop rotation?
- Rotating crops helps build the vital nutrients in the soil. If you plant a nitrogen feeding plant, like corn, you would plant a nitrogen replacing plant, like beans, in the same spot next year.
- Crop rotation helps keep bugs and disease at bay. Certain diseases and bugs often go dormant in the soil over winter. When the next growing season comes, they die off because the plant type that attracted them is gone.
- Crop rotation avoids depleting the soil of vital nutrients.
If Crop Rotation Isn’t Practiced:
- Planting the same crop in the same area year after year will deplete the soil of vital nutrients.
The crops produced will have declining nutrient food value from the depleted soil.
- Diseases flourish
- Weeds flourish
- More chemical pesticide, herbicide and fungicide use is needed to protect crop yield.
On top of the reduced nutrient value in foods, we experience all sorts of increased stress from circumstances outside of our control, the environment and ineffective thinking patterns. Developing a healthy lifestyle is series of daily habits learned over time.
Grab a free wellness education appointment with Patty, RN.
Keep learning: sign up to our Real Health Newsletter.
To your vital health,
