100 years ago all food was organic. Farmers used crop rotation and planted various species of plants to protect the crops from invasive organisms as animals roamed freely eating grass.
Then food became industrialized. Chemicals replaced farming practices and the rate of many major health issues began to climb. Today we have a population that in general is getting sicker, younger, than at any point in modern history. Heart disease and Cancer have been the top two killers for the past 60 years, although cancer has almost caught up and will likely surpass heart disease in the near future. Diabetes has exploded with researchers projecting that at current rates, half the population could be at least prediabetic by 2050. Autoimmune issues are sky-rocketing, as are cholesterol, asthma, etc.
Food is now abundant, convenient, easily stored, and has a long shelf-life. Processed foods are inexpensive, stable, good-tasting, and visually appealing. However, nutrients aren’t part of the industrialized food equation.
Fresh foods are also abundant, but nutritionally depleted and loaded with chemicals and toxins. In addition, they are picked before ripening completely to accommodate shipping and store-shelf life, which means they never reach full potency (which isn’t as potent as it used to be…more later).
Industrial Agriculture kills the soil.
3000 chemicals have been added to the food supply.
100,000 chemicals are industrially released into the environment. These don’t degrade typically.
These chemicals, like PCBs, are toxic to the body. The challenge is that chemists are not trained in toxicology. They do not know about how these chemicals, while created with well-meaning, can impact human beings. These chemicals get into our food and then are released into our gut and become toxins. This doesn’t even take into consideration what occurs when the individual chemicals are combined with other chemicals, which essentially create new chemicals (think high school chemistry).
There are major problems from this…
Toxins stick to and interfere with the body’s enzymes. If you think again about high school chemistry, you used a Bunsen burner to heat chemicals in order to create a reaction. The body is essentially one big constant chemical reaction that allows all functions to occur. Enzymes allow this to happen at body temperature. The reason we die if our temperature gets too high is that the enzymes break down and can’t function, which means we cannot function. Vitamins and minerals are called co-enzymes. They work with enzymes to perform all the body’s functions.
Generally, as we age we produce fewer enzymes, but this problem is being exacerbated by the chemicals and the decreasing nutrients in food. Soil depletion and shelf-life depletion mean we have fewer nutrients in the food, and less proper enzyme activity means we aren’t able to use these nutrients efficiently.
Glyphosate, for example, is a primary chemical used in farming. This chemical kills the bacteria in the soil, which essentially kills the topsoil. When we eat food, this chemical becomes a toxin and kills the bacteria in our gut.
Newborn babies already have 40 environmental toxins in their body, and human breast milk would likely not pass as commercial food because of the level of chemicals in it.
Concentrated Animal facilities have thousands of the same species in confined areas. These areas are full of toxic waste. Any disease caught by one, given the close nature of the animals, would wipe out the entire herd or flock. As a result, antibiotics are used to mitigate disease, which also speeds growth. We ingest these antibiotics all the time. We also ingest GMOs all the time.
Organic Food is better, but still not highly nutritive. Many minerals have been virtually farmed out of the soil, and vitamins have decreased as well, with the added impact of dissipation beginning the moment a fruit or vegetable is picked. A USDA study confirmed that over a 30 year period the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables declined by about 50% overall and as much as 80-90% for various vitamins and minerals depending on the type of fruit or vegetable.
It has been proven over and over that higher levels of vitamins and minerals allow enzymes to overcome the problem to a great degree. Nutritional supplements aren’t truly supplements anymore….they are complements. They are a necessary component of a healthy diet, even if you are eating completely clean.
This kind of information is not very mainstream because money controls the mainstream media and information access to a great degree. Pharmaceutical drugs are pushed as the answer in most health situations. While we are fortunate to have them, especially in acute situations and life-threatening situations, they do not solve the root causes of sickness. They are band-aids that allow people to function somewhat normally despite the issue, at a great cost to the body. They are also toxic in general and interfere with other body functions and inhibit nutrient absorption in many cases. It will be a long time before this is publicized as the answer because of patent law. You cannot patent an herb or a plant.
The bottom line is making sure you continue to complement your food intake as much as you can with supplements, avoid processed food as a general rule…no problem having some fun now and again…and make sure you are using high quality, cold-processed, alive supplements that truly work.
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