America is sick. In fact we are malnutritioned. According to the CDC in their 2009 report, only 14% of adults and 9.5% of teens are eating the daily recommended fruits and vegetables, 25 million Americans have diabetes and on any given day 46% of people will not eat one fruit, 24% not one dairy product and 18% not one vegetable.
In 1977, Dr Mertz, U.S. Department of Agriculture in a 1977 Statement to Congress said, “ In the future, we will not be able to rely anymore on our premise that the consumption of a varied balanced diet will provide all the essential trace elements, because such a diet will be difficult for millions to obtain.” The future is here.
Soil mineral depletion has left the efforts of those who try to eat well, lacking. The companies that make the most toxic chemicals are growing our food. Herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, with a substantial dose of chemical fertilizer have made pretty but dangerously deceiving food. Lacking in vitamins and minerals, the crop yield may be 80% higher in product but equally lower in nutritional value. And don’t even get me started on GMO foods! That’s already been ranted about in my article about this growing form of Frankenfood. The sad truth is….
Farmers get paid by volume, not nutritional value.
So there lies the problem. It all looks normal but totally lacking in nutritional value. Retarded in its ability to feed our body, we eat but are still starved. If this isn’t an incentive to try to grow some of our own food, I don’t know what is!
While high scale gardening is not possible for most Americans, what can we do?
- Eat locally grown food from organic farmers. Organic farmers fertilize naturally, using composted matters, manure and living by-products. Next time you catch a whiff of manure in the air, don’t curse the farmer for making the air stink, but thank him for feeding his soil, naturally.
- Shop at your local Farmer’s Markets. Call your county Extension office to locate one near you. If you can’t find organic food, locally raised is best. Small hobby farmers tend to use more natural approaches using manure to fertilize and more benign forms of pest control. This goes for produce, meats and dairy products, as well. Ask before you buy.
- Provide your body with minerals and nutrients through supplements. Only two vitamins, Vitamin D and B12 can even be obtained outside what we eat, and even with that, you need to have the other nutrients in healthy measure to stimulate the ability to assimilate them all. Since most vitamins and minerals cannot be stored, some leaving within hours and some in a day or so, supplementing directly is the only other option. Skip any of the vitamins you can buy retail, off the shelf. Companies that sell through direct selling or network marketing put a lot of money into research and make the very best product they can so that you become brand loyal. One company, who has more patented products than any other company and who’s supplements have been applauded by JAMA stated the over the counter brands were worthless and most are eliminated whole and challenged any of them to prove them wrong. To this date, not one has. Not one peep, lawsuit or defense. Email me for information on this wellness company.
Two time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling stated that “You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.”
It is this understanding and the pioneer spirit that made me a backyard homesteader. It’s time to be well and it’s not as complicated as you might think.
Happy Homesteading, S