If it looks likes an apple, tastes like an apple, and is sold as an apple, then perhaps you still need nutritional supplements. Although an apple a day may keep the doctor away, this truism depends on the fruit and vegetables we’re sold being packed full of minerals, vitamins and fiber. Years ago this would have been true, but no longer. The last 50 years has seen a decline in the vitamin and nutrient content of freshly farmed food, meaning many people may need nutritional supplements to top up. It is certainly true that the storage methods and transportation techniques knock a lot of the goodness out of America’s “fresh” produce, meaning what we buy in the store has less vitamin content than when it was harvested. However, research shows that even freshly picked fruit is vitamin deficient compared to those eaten by our grandparents. What’s going on? Where is the nation’s vitamin, mineral and nutritional goodness going? And what impact does this have on our health?
Poisoned Ground
“Healthy soil produces healthy food, which in turn makes healthy people.” For fruit and vegetables to produce the vitamins, minerals and nutrients needed for our good health, they must take most of them from the ground. However modern farming techniques are, for a number of reasons, reducing vitamin content, reducing our health, and increasing the need for nutritional supplements.
One thing is certain, the amount of nutrients in US farmland has not increased over the years, but the number of crops per square mile has. Therefore each fruit and vegetable grown is getting less of its fair share of nutrients, and is less able to produce the vitamins we need for optimum health. If this weren’t bad enough, the amount of nutrients in US farmland has actually decreased over the years. Crops rely on soil organisms to pre-digest minerals for them - a kind of natural nutritional supplement for the plant world. These helpful microbes are often absent in modern farmland, due to the condition of the soil and the destructive chemicals used in farming. Pesticides, insecticides, nematicides, biocides and other nasty sounding chemicals are used by farmers to kill animal pests that destroy crops. However, what is poisonous for pests is often also poisonous for the soil’s helpful microbes. The plant’s nutritional supplements are destroyed, meaning you have to take them instead.
According to a research there is a drastic reduction in vitamin and mineral content of fruits and vegetables grown using chemical farming methods when compared to organic (no pesticides, non- intensive) farming methods. Figures showed a 30% reduction of calcium content, 32% reduction in iron content, 21% reduction in magnesium, 11% for phosphorus, and 6% for potassium in crops grown using modern farming methods compared to organic ways. That’s a 30% shortfall of calcium that needs replacing with nutritional supplements - or by buying organic produce. Yet organic produce is not as widely available, and certainly not as cheap as nutritional supplements, so for the moment this remains the preferred option to dealing with vitamin deficient fruit and vegetables.
“Healthy soil produces healthy food, which in turn makes healthy people.” If this is true, then modern farming methods produce unhealthy soil, which produces unhealthy food, and in turn makes unhealthy people. Without replacing the vitamins our fresh crops lose with nutritional supplements, there is no way we can ever enjoy optimal health.
Author Bio:
Mitamins team
bd@mitamins.net
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