Food and good health:

The mineral connection
 

by Kesara Pandittesekera

A common recommendation made by most medical doctors is that, in order to get all the nutrients necessary to maintain health you must, on a daily basis, eat food from each of the four basic food groups (ie., meats and proteins, fruits and vegetables, breads and grains and dairy products).

This standard belief is false, when it is practically impossible to get all the nutrients (especially the minerals) necessary to prevent disease by eating from the four basic food groups. Granted that you may be able to get the proteins (amino acids), essential fatty acids, and vitamins from a well cultivated diet all the essential minerals and trace minerals may NOT be available.

Essential minerals and trace minerals amount to 60 different rare earth minerals that must be processed by plants to be non-toxic and bio-available to the body according to nutrition guru Dr. Joel S. Wallach. These essential trace minerals are not readily available to plants, due to their lack in agricultural soils.

These soils being used year after year for decades, become depleted of the rare earth trace minerals. Dr. Joel Wallach, known as the 'mineral doctor' from San Diego, California, advices that any loss of vital trace minerals can result in various diseases. For example, the diabetes epidemic maybe traced to the lack of two minerals - chromium and vanadium. When the human blood concentrations of these two minerals decreased, an increase in the incidence of diabetes in populations have been noted, in studies.

Another example is the development of gray hair as we age, which according to mineral doctor Dr. Wallach is a result of the deficiency of the mineral copper in our diet. The body lacking in the vital nutrient starts to utilize the readily available reserves of copper in our body - our hair.

The lack of copper and the resulting graying of hair is not only a cosmetic problem, but a more insidious problem because the lack of copper also reduces the elasticity of the arteries and veins leading to the possibility of rupture and ensuing stroke.

The basic functions of life itself (such as) respiration, digestion, absorption, circulation, growth and reproduction cannot be performed without the presence of minerals in the body. Minerals take a major part of these bodily functions or provide catalytic co-factors. No biological process is exempt from this basic necessity of minerals. The biochemical processing of RNA, DNA and sub-cellular activities, and digestive enzymatic reactions, and hormonal functions all take place only when one or more minerals are present as co-factors.

Human beings ideally are to get minerals by eating foods such as vegetables, fruits and grains. However, such foods are grown in soils which are now massively deficient in minerals, a fact which is documented by the findings reported at the 1993 World Eco Summit in Rio De Janeiro.

One way out of this dilemma is through proper mineral supplementation using sources such as ash, chelated minerals and colloidal mineral supplements so as to maintain the vital trace mineral levels in the body.

The quality of our food and its trace mineral content are pivotal factors which must be considered to ensure a life free from diabetes, heart disease and the premature graying of hair and a host of other ailments.