Facts About Trace Minerals
Minerals
are absolutely essential for good health. Despite their known importance to the body, 95%
of Americans are lacking in at least one major mineral. In 1936, Senate Document No. 264
identified that the soils used to grow fruits and vegetables were seriously deficient in
needed minerals. This document warned Americans that continuous cropping and the ravages
of pollution were even then robbing the soil of the minerals needed to sustain life –
and that was more than 60 years ago!
A Dire Warning: "The alarming fact is that foods (fruits,
vegetables and grains) now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer
contain enough of certain minerals are starving us – no matter how much of them we
eat. No man of today can eat enough fruits and vegetables to supply his system with the
minerals he requires for perfect health because his stomach isn’t big enough to hold
them."
"The truth is that our foods vary enormously in value, and some of them
aren’t worth eating as food…Our physical well-being is more directly dependent
upon the minerals we take into our systems than upon calories or vitamins or upon the
precise proportions of starch, protein or carbohydrates we consume."
Senate Document No. 264, 1936
To understand why this alarming problem exists, we must look at the foods we eat.
Millions of years ago our food was much different than it is today - richer in nutrients
and with no chemicals or processing agents. The most important group of these nutrients
was the major and trace minerals from prehistoric plant matter. As time passed and our
earth underwent changes, our soil became depleted of many of these minerals.
However, in some parts of the world, the earth retained its major and trace mineral
composition. Through silt, sand and volcanic lava flows, a portion of this prehistoric
plant matter was compressed and sealed under thousands of feet of rock formations until
the forces of Mother Nature lifted it up to become part of a mountain range. These trace
minerals are now found in the mountains of Utah.
Excerpt from lecture by Dr. Steven Whiting, Director, Institute of
Nutritional Science
Reproduced with permission.