Evolution

Is our food really food? As many books and articles on natural health can attest, food is much less nutritious than it used to be decades ago. The sole focus of the food industry is to make as much profit as possible, and fertilizer, pest control, choice of produce varieties, and the picking of produce before it is ripe are chosen to this end. Soils are depleted due to lack of crop rotation, and synthetic fertilizers often contain only the bare minimum of minerals and nutrients necessary for life - the plant's life, not ours. A plant can grow with only three elements - nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). These are often the only nutrients in commercial fertilizers. A commercial plant will thus contain little more than these nutrients that it takes in. However, we need much more than these three elements for life. It is estimated that up to 98% of Americans are deficient in one or more of the vital minerals. Without added synthetic vitamins, what we eat may not even qualify as food! In addition, probably 80% of the food in the average supermarket is highly processed, the only exceptions being produce, meat and milk. However, even meat is so tainted that a person who regularly eats meat may be getting as much as a glassful of antiobiotics and steroids per year! Processing further destroys and depletes nutrients to the point that manufacturers must add synthetic nutrients to some products so the product will qualify as food! Did you know: Apples and cucumbers are coated with a wax similar to car wax so they will look pretty and shiny in the bin. Oranges are dyed orange so they will fit the consumer idea of what a ripe orange looks like. Cows in feedlots are fed grain that is so pesticide-laden that their droppings will not even attract flies. Powerful and toxic pesticides such as DDT, banned for decades for use in this country, are shipped to other countries, which use them on foods and are then shipped back to us. Your milk and meat may come from cows which have been given bovine growth hormone (BGH), which helps increase milk production and calf growth. We are ingesting powerful hormones and substances designed to increase weight with our food. Nuclear radiation and chemical preservatives are used to reduce or eliminate spoilage. Think about it. If even bacteria can't live in a food, what good is it to us? We know things are pretty bad when we need to be protected from our own food! So is the solution to take synthetic supplements? Supplements are often promoted as a way to make up for the deficiencies in our food supply. Supplements usually consist of synthetic isolated nutrients, alone or in combination. However, nutrients do not work in isolation. They are synergistic, or interdependent. An excess or deficiency of one of them will affect the function of others. For this reason not only the absolute amount but the balance is important. No nutrient can substitute for another. And what about the nutrients that make nutrients work? What goes around comes around We have nearly come full circle in our attitudes about food and supplements - foods to devitalized foods to supplements and back to nutritious foods, or Superfoods, as shown in the following graphic. Toxic Time Line The Evolution of Nutritional Supplements Healthcare Medicinal and dental herbs and homeopathics, home are, food, rest Petrochemicals Pharmaceuticals Wonder drugs Bloodletting Back to the basics Mercury fillings Stainless steel, nickel Nutritional compen-sation High dose orthomolecular Synthetics Nutraceuticals Pharmacologic results Phytonutrients Botanicals Synthetic vitamins and minerals Antioxidant revolution Super foods Balanced support Deteriorating food supply Family farms Rotate crops Rest soil every 7 years Refined grains flour Hydrogenated oils Dust bowl NKP Co-op farms Corporate farms and ranches Animal composted fertilizer Non-rotation depletes topsoil Petrochemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides Antibiotics and steroids for animals 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000