SOIL DEPLETION
THE REASON WE NEED SUPPLEMENTS
There was a time when all the vitamins and minerals we needed were available in the food we ate. There was no need to go out and buy vitamins in order to obtain the vital nutrients we need for our health and longevity. They were all there for us, in the organically grown, minimally processed foods we were able to readily obtain at any market. This began to change during the early part of the last century.
In 1939, Dr Weston Price wrote that during the previous 50 years, there had been a reduction in soil capacity in many parts of the United States. - from as much as 25% to 50%. In the 1930's, he wrote, it would have cost about $50.00 per acre to replenish the supply of phosphorous in the soil. Instead of working to replenish it, farmers were abandoning the soil. Studies of skeletons in various generations show progressively worsening skeletal deformities, suggesting a progressive increase in soil mineral depletion. At that time, only 45% of U.S. land was available for agriculture due to soil depletion.
A few small farmers took care of their fields. They allowed a field to lie fallow between crops. They rotated their crops. They used natural fertilizers. They grew wholesome food! Then,along came the heavily capitalized and industrialized factory farm, driving the small farmer out of the picture. Only a few of them are left today, and those that are, should be treasured by us, for they still, mostly, produce food that actually nourishes us fully. The modern day factory farm uses chemicals to produce crops, pushes the soil beyond its capacity to produce anything resembling wholesomeness in food, and destroys the natural fertility of the soil. Add to that the insult of the pesticides sprayed on the food we ultimately consume and we can stop wondering about the prevalence of illness and the advent of previously unknown diseases. Soil fertility today is largely something out of history.
WHAT IS SOIL FERTILITY
AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Soil fertility is a dozen or so chemical elements in mineral and rock combinations in the earth's crust. These chemicals are slowly being broken out and sent to the ocean. On the way, these chemicals become part of the soil and nourish all life forms. The fertility of the soil determines the quality of the plants that grow in it. Fertile soil contains plants that provide growth and reproduction ability to the animals that eat them. Depleted soil provides only fuel and fattening elements and are of little, or no use, to the animals that forage there.
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
WHAT WE EAT DEPENDS ON SOIL FERTILITY
Top soil, where the fast growing plants and grasses grow, is normally held in place by the roots of these plants. When these plants are removed the wind and rain and flood waters carry away top soil and the remaining soil becomes depleted of its minerals. Depletion occurs through use as well! Whether the product of the soil is ultimately used as wheat for bread, milk and meat for foods, or wool and hides for clothing, every pound of these products represents a depletion of soil for pasturage or for grain production. The problem of soil depletion may seem unimportant to us either through ignorance of the problem or because we're under the mistaken impression that replenishment is easy
. In order to feed cattle properly, you need a good supply of young grass in a state of rapid growth. These grasses, especially wheat and rye grass, carry an abundant supply of minerals and digestive proteins. Milk production requires a high level of nutrients. When comparing these grasses with the cattle feed made of processed grain concentrates, it was found that the calves of grass fed cows were decidedly healthier than those of commercially processed grain fed cows. These grasses need well balanced, mineral rich soil.
OUR MORTALITY IS AFFECTED
The highest human mortality levels have been found in the longest occupied states - East Coast, Great Lakes, and Pacific states, especially New England. The soil depletion here has been caused by heavy rains and wind, loss of timberland, and dust storms. The soil reveals clear patterns of national strengths and weaknesses.
More recently, artificial fertilizers with heavy nitrogen content has enabled the grower to harvest one crop after another without needing to allow the land to lie fallow for a single season. Land lying fallow encourages the multiplication of soil organisms, which in turn, release soil nutrients in direct tempo with the need of plants growing in that soil.
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FARMING
THE ULTIMATE SOIL DEPLETION
Modern farming techniques continue to deplete the soils of their essential minerals, including the very vital trace minerals we all need. Manure, compost, and other organic materials, which normally contribute abundantly to these elements have been replaced with chemicals. High crop yields demanded by the large farming conglomerates require the use of inorganic fertilizers, most of which are totally devoid of trace minerals and drastically disturb the soil mineral balance. Repetitive use of ammonia, for example, reduces the soil concentration of trace minerals even further. The result in terms of our health? Well, one is that lowered or non-existence of manganese causes bone abnormalities in grazing animals. We cannot be getting off unscathed!
The goiter belt in the midwest shows that foods grown in iodine deficient soil are also iodine deficient. Low selenium soil can produce grass staggers in horses and cattle as revealed in an unsteady gait, twitching and muscle spasms. Overuse of nitrates, phosphates, and potassium salts as fertilizers also causes deficiencies in grazing animals. Many of these are our food! In the Florida Everglades, the soil is low in copper. Domestic animals grazing there develop deficiencies resulting in bone fractures. These days, if we are only as strong as our soil, we're in trouble! Which is a very compelling reason for taking supplements. But...there's a caveat...
Over 95% of Anti-aging and Supplement programs do not work! Either because they are not scientifically formulated, are incomplete or, they contain inferior ingredients. In some cases due to poor manufacturing processes many products do not even contain the stated ingredients at all! Learn more by clicking here.
NATURAL vs SYNTHETIC
Food Controversies and the Vitamin D Story
Seventy five years ago, diet and nutrition topics were as controversial as they are today. The only difference is that the focus then was not as heavily placed on weight loss. Then as now, many people advocated plant based diets, and the proportion of vegetarians in the general population was about the same. Some folks avoided all animal foods, while others favored the all meat and potatoes type meals.
Then, highly processed foods began to be introduced. White flour became ever more refined, processed, and chemical laden. White bread, like Wonder Bread® came along, heavily advertised and touted as being a healthful and desireable component of any diet. Canned goods and highly processed jams and jellies were popularized and hyped as being just as good and healthful as fresh produce and whole grains. They were convenient and didn't spoil as fast. And Corn Flakes®, Rice Krispies®, and other cold cereals didn't require cooking. Skimmed milk, now called "non-fat" milk was being sold along with regular milk and a lot of people believed the skimmed variety was just as nutritious as whole milk containing cream.
At about this time, Dr Weston Price, a dentist, was developing a contrarian viewpoint. He wondered why tooth decay and dental problems were becoming increasingly prevalent among his patients. And he began to see a correlation between dental problems and modern diets. He decided to examine the issue further.
Dr Price and his wife embarked on a worldwide journey, studying the lifestyles and dietary customs of many primitive and isolated peoples. What they discovered was that those who consumed local foods and lived like teir ancestors were healthy and free of dental problems. Those who had been introduced to the modern processed foods shipped in from "civilized" places were developing rotten teeth and were contracting tuberculosis and other diseases.
Dr Price took to calling certain ingredients in food activator factors. These qualities, he contended, were in all foods and were also very important facets of all vitamins and minerals that made them work properly. Some of these activator factors were a big part of the vitamin D picture.
Under the conditions of the time, a group of scientists created a form of vitamin D and synthesized it in the laboratory. This was right after World War I. They called this synthetic form of Vitamin D ergesterol, which also became commercially known as viosterol,, or calciferol. They then treated this substance with ultraviolet rays and for nearly twenty years, synthetic vitamin D or irradiated ergosterol was assumed to control mineral utilization in humans, and especially in the utilization of calcium and phosphorus. A patent was granted covering the entire production process of activating drugs and food substances by irradiation.
Children with bone distortion called rickets had their bone problems easily corrected with ultraviolet light, either directly from the sun or from an artificial source. Scientists expected irradiated ergosterol to work just aswell in human fetuses to prevent rickets before they occurred.
Accordingly, a group of pregnant women were given tablets containing activated ergosterol and minerals. The results were tragic. Some babies were still born, others died shortly after birth. Either way, they were born with birth defects including kidney stones, skull abnormalities, and calcification in their arteries and other organs. Even the placentas contained pocketsof calcification. During the years this product was used, many other clinical reports proved it to be woefully inadequate, at best.
Dr Price wrote of Vitamin D: There is a misapprehension that humans may obtain enough of the Vitamin D group of activators from our modern plant foods, or from sunshine. This is due to the belief that viosterol or similar (synthetic) products derived by exposing ergesterol to ultraviolet light offers all of the nutritional factors involved in the Vitamin D group.
The scientists involved had in fact created Vitamin D2, which is a non-activating substance, lacking factors essential for the proper utilization of calcium and phosphorus They thought they had created Vitamin D3, the active form of Vitamin D. Vitamin D3 is really activated cholesterol, not any of the synthetic products that had been developed.
Dr Price himself was of the opinion that the activators were most prevalent in the fast growing grasses of spring and summer. The cattle eat these grasses and the cows produce, milk, and cheese of high nutritive value. The meat from grass fed cows would also contain these activators, according to Dr Price.
Presumably the Vitamin D the cows absorb is converted, in humans, to Vitamin D3 by the cholesterol produced in the liver. Vitamin D3 is also obtainable in some supplements and an exceptionally good form of it is available here.
Vitamin D3 in the form of Vitamin D is responsible for proper mineral utilization.
AND THIS BRINGS UP THE QUESTION: DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO USE STATIN DRUGS TO INTERFERE WITH LIVER FUNCTION?
