Why Diet Alone Is Not Enough

In a perfect world, the human body would get all the nutrients it needs from the consumption food. The vitamins and minerals our bodies need to thrive should come from the foods we eat.

However, processed foods have been stripped of much of their nutrient content. Cooking over 120 degrees and the storage of food are also reasons why our food loses more nutrients.

Our toxic environment and toxins in our food, water and air as well as our overstressed lifestyles have increased our nutrient requirements.

Even if we were to eat adequate fruits and vegetables, the nutrient content in them has decreased due to our depleted soils.

Today's soil has fewer nutrients than ever before. When soil has fewer nutrients, so do the things that grow in it.

Agribusinesses plant and harvest produce on a large scale, aiming not for nutritious crops, but for crops that look good and last a long time on store shelves.

Unfortunately, nutrition has been sacrificed along the way. Long gone are the days when farmers rotated crops and mulched their fields, all which preserve minerals in the soil. Now, the fields are overworked and a narrow range of minerals are added back to the soil, instead of letting the land naturally regenerate its nutrients.

According to the 1992 Earth Summit, North America has the worst soil in the world - 85 percent of vital minerals have been depleted from it. As far back as 1936, the U.S. Senate issued Document 246, which said that impoverished soil in the United States no longer provided plant foods with minerals needed for human nourishment.

Modern farming methods use a limited number of nutrients to fertilize the soil - mainly nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. These three nutrients have been found to grow big, beautiful crops. But they are just a few of the dozens of nutrients our bodies need to be healthy.

Many studies show how depleted soil has affected the mineral content of vegetables and fruits. One researcher compared the the data from USDA handbook from 1972 to the USDA food tables of today and found dramatic reductions in nutrient content.

For example:

- Nearly half the calcium and Vitamin A in broccoli have disappeared.

- In collard greens, the Vitamin A content has fallen to nearly half its previous levels.

- Potassium dropped from 400 mg to 170 mg.

- Magnesium fell from 57 mg to only 9 mg.

- Cauliflower lost almost half of its Vitamin C along with its thiamine and riboflavin.

- The calcium in pineapple went from 17 mg to 7 mg.

These astonishing losses in nutrients will have a significant impact on your health.
Paul Eilers is an Independent Member of The AIM Companies™