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| Essential Nutrients | |||
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Our bodies require a constant supply of essential nutrients to build and support health. Each nutrient differs in form, function and amount needed by the body. However, they are all vital for our growth, repair, renewal and physical well-being. These nutrients must be obtained from our diet because our bodies cannot make them.
For each essential nutrient, there is an optimum daily requirement. However, this amount differs for different individuals and depends on a number of physical, mental and environmental factors, such as: gender, growth, aging, physical activity, pregnancy, stress level, presence of chronic or acute illness, pollution, etc. Deficiency of even one essential nutrient may impair the body's normal functions and lead to a "deficiency syndrome", characteristic of the nutrient lacking. Deficiency of more than one essential nutrient leads to a mixture of "deficiency syndromes", which makes it more difficult to identify. However, when lacking nutrients are reintroduced in optimum quantities, the "deficiency syndromes" can be reversed. Malnutrition The modern American diet is far from providing optimal nutrition. As a nation, we are overfed but seriously under-nourished. We consume an excess of calories but the calories are too often devoid of real nutritional value. Our high-tech world has placed new demands on our bodies, exposing them to a multitude of environmental insults and psychological stresses that continuously deplete our tissues of protective and regulatory nutrients. Nutrient deficiencies are widespread in our society mostly because the food growing, manufacturing and preparation industry revolves around convenience and profits rather than health. Major Sources of Nutrient Deficiencies 1. Our diet is nutrient deficient because our soil is nutrient deficient: There is an important relationship between soil, plants and human health. Plants are an intermediary by which certain elements of rocks, decomposed vegetation, minerals, oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen are assimilated and built up into proteins, sugars, starches, fats and organic cells. The quality of the foods we eat reflects the quality of the soil in which the foods were grown in. Soil can vary in nutrients from city to city, state to state and country to country. **See the following diagram** Reasons for Soil Deficiency Artificial Chemical Fertilizers More than 25 years ago French scientist Alexis Carrel said, that chemical fertilizers indirectly contribute to the change of nutrient value of foods, by increasing the abundance of crops without replacing all the exhausted mineral elements in the soil. Also, when chemical fertilizers are used, the earthworms literally leave the soil. Many of these chemicals kill the earthworm and also alter the nature of the microbes, which may become virulent instead of beneficial. The earthworm is one of the most important considerations in terms of a nutrient rich soil. Continuous Cropping Continuous cropping make the soil deficient after using the same land over and over. For example: Oats and buckwheat have been analyzed for their mineral content over a 10 year period and the potassium level dropped 2/3 over that 10 year period. Organically grown foods are much richer in essential nutrients than the "look alike" commercially grown products. Organically Grown vs. Commercially Grown The following data comes from the Firman Bear Report, based on research conducted at Rutgers University. The study concludes that while weight, color and texture appear similar, there are significant nutritional differences. Organically grown foods are richer in minerals than the "look alike" commercially grown products. In fact, by comparison, there are 87 percent less minerals and trace elements in today's commercially grown vegetables as illustrated in the following chart.
Over half of the calories in the typical American diet come from processed and refined foods, from which much of the mineral, vitamin, essential fatty acid and fiber content has been removed. The following table shows the percentages of essential nutrients that are lost when whole wheat grain is turned into white flour.
1971-1974 - "Health and Nutrition Examination Survey" 1977-1978 - "The Nationwide Food Consumption Survey" These government sponsored surveys measured intake of 13 out of 45 essential nutrients in tens of thousands of people. The following are the results of those surveys: *Of the 13 essential nutrients, only sodium was present in adequate amounts. Actually many people suffered symptoms from excess of sodium, resulting from the over use of salt. *Research also found that high percentages of people were getting less than the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of essential nutrients. RDA was defined as the amount of an essential nutrient that is sufficient to keep most healthy adults from developing deficiency symptoms. See the following table:
Results *Research concluded that 15 out of 21 deaths involved nutritional deficiencies. *Excesses and/or imbalances of fats were involved in more than 70 percent of deaths in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||