Howard's End: Is Nutrition The Missing Link?

Putting aside the rights or wrongs of genetic modification for a moment, is the food that we're already eating as nutritious as it could be, and is nutrition the missing link for the explosion of modern degenerative diseases? Is your food killing you slowly? Maree Howard writes.

When we go to the supermarket and see the wonderful displays of fruits, vegetables, and meats from around the world, can we be certain that that food contains the right balance of the 70 minerals and trace elements the human body needs for maximum efficiency to remain healthy?

Why is it that vitamin and mineral supplements - the capsule cure in a bottle - which we gobble up to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each year, are necessary at all?

Put simply, it's because we are in the middle of a failed experiment.

The post-war "crop-in-the-bag" campaign of the American "New Deal" which unleashed chemical farming on an unsuspecting farming community around the world, was not some thoroughly researched and tested scientific advancement.

It was simply about making money when it was discovered that nitrogen produces rapid growth results - and to hell with concerns about whether that would strip the soil of vital minerals and trace elements so essential to sustain a healthy population.

The point to understand about mineral density and health is that it involves 70 different minerals and trace elements, not the 17 minerals usually involved in fertility analysis or the three minerals (N-P-K) contained in the simplistic fertiliser blends pumped on to farmland.

So when you buy that beautiful head of lettuce, that wonderful piece of perfectly looking fruit, or that mouth-watering piece of meat, just how many of the vital minerals and trace elements that you need to remain healthy does it contain?

The simple answer is, you don't, and can't know. So, is you food killing you slowly? Quite likely!

Today, we find ourselves in the midst of a cancer plague, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis to name just some of the degenerative disease rampant in modern society.

It's blamed on eating to much junk-food, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, too much sex, not enough sex, too much sleep, not enough sleep, and even too much rock-and-roll, or anything else which becomes the fashion of the day.

For crying out loud, on the radio this morning we're now told that if we have short legs we're more likely to have heart disease and diabetes.

Get a life!

Yep! - science has sure extended our lives with modern drugs. But, the more drugs you take, the more you need to control your disease.

Nature never remains in a vacuum and viruses and bacteria grow, and they mutate, into super-bugs where nothing in today's armoury of chemicals and drugs is able to stop them. So away we go, back into the laboratories trying to again find the cure in a capsule.

Wouldn't you think that science would ask two simple questions; - What does the human body need to always operate at optimum health and efficiency? and, Are humans getting it from the food they must eat?

Ancient soils were so mineral rich that trees grew at 8 metres each year. And the giant Brontosaurus - a 70-tonne lizard - had the mouth the size of a horse to feed its huge body.

The Brontosaurus grazed on plants growing in soils 30 times higher in mineral content than ours today. This enabled the animal - and many others - to evolve into enormous size with such a limited mouth in-take capacity.

Any good livestock manager will tell you that nitrate-packed hay grown in deficient soils is required in much greater volumes than a high quality, more balanced product, to achieve comparable animal weights.

Clearly, we simply cannot by-pass soil mineral fertility when we consider what fruits, vegetables and meats we buy. But we do!

The Hunza people live high in the Himalaya mountains and it is common for them to reach ages in the 100+ range. The answer seems to be that they grown their food in the mineral rich gravel which they rake each year to the side of the mountain streams.

But plants don't grow well in just river gravel? Actually, they do - and very, very well.

You only have to look at where there was a gold mine on the West Coast and gravel tailings were all that was left. Plant and tree regeneration is so fast that in recent years farmers have planted grass on top of the old gravel mine tailings and the growth really takes off.

Mineral malnourishment of our soils and our deteriorating health and growth in degenerative diseases seems to be the missing link.

You want to know whether the food you're eating is good for you and helping maintain your efficiency and health at optimum level - don't you?

So, the next time you buy fruits, vegetables and meats in your supermarket ask them about pesticides and herbicides and GM if you must, but also ask them for information about the minerals and trace elements they contain. Or your food could be killing you slowly.

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