Our Soils Are Depleted of Vitamins and Minerals

Bad Nutrition has become sadly common in our modern fast paced lives. This health crisis has been growing at a rapid rate since the early 1900's. Of particular concern are people on weight loss diets.

Chronic diseases caused by bad nutrition have reached epidemic proportions. Most people over 40 will suffer from one or more of these chronic diseases by the time they reach retirement. Diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, and vision loss are usually triggered from a lack of proper nutrition.

For decades the medical community discredited the nutrition experts when they mentioned the importance a balnced healthy diet as a basis of good health.

Then came a real shocker.

In the June 19, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association they announced: "Sub optimal intake of vitamins should be seen as a risk factor for chronic disease, especially in the elderly."

This tells us that today our food contains MUCH LESS nutrition and yet our needs for vitamins and minerals are MUCH GREATER than ever before in human history.

Here are some simple steps to take if you really and truly want to be health:

PLANTS ARE THE ONLY SOURCE OF ALL VITAMINS AND MINERALS FOR ALL LIVING CREATURES. Even animals that eat nothing but meat get the vitamins they need from somewhere down the food chain - from an animal or fish that eats plants.

PLANTS CREATE BODY-READY VITAMINS AND MINERALS FROM NUTRIENTS IN THE SOIL. The richer the soil, the more vitamins and minerals will be found packed into the plants. If vegetables are grown in poor soil they will have far lower levels of vitamins and minerals.

SOILS ARE BECOMING SAND and Are BECOMING DEPLETED AT A VERY RAPID RATE. Commercial farming really started to expand as the ability to transport the produce to new markets increased with trains and then trucks. This was a boon for consumers because they no longer had to grow their own vegetables. They could enjoy produce that was either out-of-season or wasn't able to grown in their own geographical area.

As commercial growers keep using the same fields year after year, the soils are losing more and more of their rich nutrients. As soils deplete, so does the vitamin and mineral content of the vegetables grown in that soil.

Chemical companies have come to their aid by providing chemicals that will force the plants to grow in poor soil.

There are a couple of problems with this:

The vegetables look great but contain far less vitamins and minerals they once did. They also absorb some of these chemicals and our bodies need even more vitamins to compensate for these toxins.

The vegetables we consume today give us far less nutrients than 100 years ago - yet we still need an abundance of them.

Genetic engineers have created vegetables that are more disease resistant, that grow faster, are more visually attractive, and are easier to harvest. For example: a new tomato was developed for growers primarily to take a 5-mile-per-hour impact from the faster picking machines and it has a very tough skin - you've more than likely have had some. Nothing is being done to increase the nutrient levels of the plants - or to enrich the soil.

Some vegetables and most fruits you buy in the store are picked before they're ripe, and often chemically treated so they ripen on the way to the grocer's shelf. This gives the produce a lot longer shelf life - less waste. As you probably know, produce picked at its ripe peak contains maximum nutrients - but spoil quickly. Vine ripened, fresh produce can be quite unprofitable for the grower and grocer.

On top of all this, consider the higher levels of air and water pollution, lower oxygen levels in the air we breath, and our fast paced, fast food societies of today. You can easily see that our wonderfully created bodies are being taxed to the max - and need more protection than ever before.

WHAT DO WE DO TODAY?

1. Make fresh, whole fruits, vegetables, and grains a larger part of your daily diet. These are the absolute best quality vitamins and minerals you can buy. Eat them raw, uncooked as much as possible. If necessary, cook the vegetables slowly at low heat to keep the nutrients at the highest possible levels. Simply put - the less processing the better. Most people do not eat even the minimum recommended amounts, yet we all need much more than that today.

2. Look for organically grown produce at your grocery store or health food store. Generally this produce will contain the much higher levels of nutrients - as they did a century ago - without the chemicals. They will however cost more but there are a LOT MORE nutrients and a much more succulent flavor than commercially grown produce.

3. Grow some of your own produce whether it is in a yard garden, patio pots, or inside the home in window pots. It's fun, very easy, decorative, puts oxygen in the air and the taste and nutrition is much better than store-bought.

4. No matter how perfect our healthy diet is, we ALL need to invest in GOOD nutritional health supplements today. Even nutrition experts, who eat an "ideal" diet, take vitamin supplements. Liquid vitamins are the best as the body more readily absorbs the nutrients.

You'll find good quality nutrtional health supplements at most reputable vitamin or health food stores. Best bet however is to buy online for the best price and selection of high quality vitamin supplements.

If we don't have good health at retirement, nothing else will matter. Nutritional health supplements are, by far, the cheapest health insurance and wisest retirement plan we can invest in.