World wide recognized studies demonstrate that our daily food intake does not contain sufficient amount of basic vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that our organism needs. The people who are believing the media stories, who are not taking supplements, trusting the food they eat to be sufficient, are harming their health. The above statements are of great interest to the economy and the farming industry since this industry primarily relies in pharmaceutically dependent patients.
It’s imperative to stress the importance of education on this topic, as many people are unaware that the food they eat, lacks vital nutrients, and is far under the required daily intake. Even with normal healthy food it is very difficult to achieve the minimum daily eerequirement for vitamins. Once there is a deficiency, it is virtually impossible to rebalance it with normal food.
One of the most shocking studies, demonstrates that over 80% of the world population is deficient in nutrients in the form of minerals, enzymes, or vitamins. We are not talking about third world countries. Shockingly, some of the most civilized nations have the biggest vitamin and mineral deficiencies among their populations. The more civilized the country is, the more deficiency in vitamin intake was discovered.
Scientists list vitamin deficiencies as the main causes of illnesses and premature aging. Some of the symptoms of vitamin deficiencies are: concentration problems, fatigue, skin problems, digestive problems, weakness for infections, general lethargy. The early stage of vitamin deficiency can lead to permanent damage of cells and tissue that in later years results in most serious, eventually lethal diseases.
It is possible to prevent the feeling of constant lethargy, reaching retirement with body pains, and early aging before reaching your biological age. It takes not only a healthy and natural diet, but also intake of supplements that are necessary to optimize the daily intake of all micronutrients. Following the consumption of highest quality nutrients, the cells in our body are given the chance to utilize those nutrients most effectively. However, can we feel confident that the food we eat contains those highest quality nutrients? A common saying, “humans did not need vitamin pills in former times” unfortunately, holds much ground. One hundred years ago, life was quite different. People burned roughly 3000-5000 k/cal daily from simply working 10-12 hours a day cultivating land, working in mines, etc. Therefore they had to eat larger amounts of food in order to function, which often times came from their own garden.
Today’s world is a bit different, because the majority of population works with their head rather than their body. An average of 2300 k/cal is burned daily, so there are less nutrients and food needed, but people still tend to consume as if they were working physically from morning to evening. However, it is not fruit, fish, and vegetables they consume but often empty carbohydrates, and animal fat. As a result more people suffer from diseases caused by obesity unhealthy lifestyles.
How is it possible that today’s food have fewer nutrients than 15 years ago?
We are used to eating fruit and vegetables that are in season. However, the fact that we are able to buy virtually any fruit and vegetable all year round leads one to wonder whether this behavior has any consequences. And the answer to this, is that our demand for a huge and cheap variety puts big pressure on the food industry and lead farmers grow crops intensively and without concern for the natural cycle manufacture mass amounts of produce. Unfortunately, today only 2% of European farmers produce in a biological economical way. Another side to this is that the soils are exhausted from overuse. The use of fertilizers, monoculture, and constant all year round harvest and the planting of more seeds in a smaller area of land have degraded our soils. There is a demonstrated less concentration of magnesium, zinc, iodine and selenium. Under these circumstances the plants do not have the opportunity to absorb enough nutrients and therefore can not give us enough. Selenium for example is responsible for our immunity, and since we receive less of it from the ground, our bodies become more exposed to diseases. The cost for mass food productions and all year round harvesting goes at the expense of quality.
There are also other factors that cause today’s fruit and vegetables to contain lesser amounts of nutrients and vitamins. They include: pollution, intensive livestock farming, maturation of fruit and veggies, and their transport and storage.
Firstly, pollution is substantially heavier than it was before. Ecologic circulation is disturbed with the use of poisonous pesticides and the Acid Rain. Since Acid Rain contains sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, the levels of concentration of pollution in the soil, and in turn in plants, are increased. In result, the minerals in our food get displaced and the enzymes that are important for our vitamin production get slowed down in their effectiveness.
Secondly, intensive livestock farming affects the quality of our foods. Residues from drugs and agricultural poisons as well as Stress hormones affect the quality of meat and groundwater. The overproduction of animal excrements is also a problem for soil and groundwater!
Thirdly, maturation or pre-maturation of foods affects their quality and levels of nutrients they contain. Oranges from Spain, and bananas from Colombia are expected to arrive fresh and in excellent condition so they have to be picked prematurely. Therefore, “Maturation Factories” have become commonplace and green tomatoes are instantly turned red, or green oranges, turned orange. All the prematurely picked fruits and veggies are gassed with acetylene, a substance that destroys the green color Chlorophyll. A fruit develops most of its vital vitamins and minerals in its last stages of natural ripening. Fruit that goes through a “Maturation Factory” is lacking crucial vitamins and minerals as they have not developed. Greenhouses with artificial light and hydration only further the lack of vitamins in fruits and vegetables.
Fourthly, the transport and storage facilities are far from natural, and fruits and vegetables are often exposed to travel over thousands of kilometers. Interestingly enough, it does not matter whether the product is organic or non-organic, because nutrients like Bioflavonoids, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E are immediately destroyed after harvesting during industrial transport and processing. It often happens that the easy spoilable goods are transported over thousands of miles. If stored for several months, they are treated with several chemical substances to stop them from going rotten. The lifetime of the fruit is extended, but its quality is diminished.
Once these fruits and vegetables get to our homes, the longer we keep them, and at a higher temperature, the fewer nutrients are still there. It is essential to keep up the vitamin and nutrients intake because our lifestyles are very different than 20 years ago. We are constantly exposed to negative factors in the environment, such as cigarette smoke, alcohol, environmental pollution, and heavy seated work loads. Our body uses twice as fast all the nutrients, minerals and vitamins, therefore it is of outmost importance to replenish them regularly. The adverse conditions in our environment, our body is prone to produce the so called “free Radicals”, which are substances that are responsible for diseases like cancer and coronary disease. It is the role of antioxidant vitamins to help the immune system in neutralizing the free radicals and strengthening the body’s defence system.
To summarize briefly, the nutrient demand in our bodies grows because of our destructive lifestyles, aging, intense sport, environmental pollution, and stressors such as cigarette smoke, fruit and vegetable toxic preservatives, etc. To balance this disproportion we need a healthy nutrition (the stoneage nutrition of burning 3000-5000) and adding reasonable and good quality supplements (multivitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes).
Fruit and vegetables stay, even in times of decreasing nutrients, of decisive meaning and importance as they provide us with fibre and vegetable matter for a well functioning digestive system and a strong defensive immune system.
