The nutritional value of our food has declined dramatically due to soil depletion. A report presented at the 1992 Earth Summit showed that the average US farm soil had lost 85% of the nutrients it had 100 years ago, and it's far worse now. And it shows in the declining nutritional value of our produce:
Many other studies also show the decrease in nutrients from our foods over the last few decades.
The impact on trace minerals and other phytonutrients is even worse. The solution? Drink lots of weed juice, eat lots of freshwater algae and seaweed, and drink lots of sprout + grass juice.
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If food is grown in truly healthy soil, no disease or insect will touch it and it will last much longer then most produce today because it will dehydrate but not rot. This is all dependent on the brix rating of the food, which is a wonderful tool to measure how nutritious your produce is.
If food is grown in truly healthy soil, no disease or insect will touch it
A lot of people I've talked to (mainly gardeners or farmers) seem unable to believe this, probably because they think that their soil is very good yet their produce still falls prey to bugs + diseases. They don't want to believe that their soil is actually far from ideal, but numerous doctors, scientists and farmers have done the tests that prove it. If you're used to gardening in so-so soil (even if you think it is good soil), you will be absolutely amazed at the yield + flavor of crops grown on truly fertile soil.
A lot of people I've talked to (mainly gardeners or farmers) seem unable to believe this, probably because they think that their soil is very good yet their produce still falls prey to bugs + diseases. They don't want to believe that their soil is actually far from ideal, but numerous doctors, scientists and farmers have done the tests that prove it. If you're used to gardening in so-so soil (even if you think it is good soil), you will be absolutely amazed at the yield + flavor of crops grown on truly fertile soil.
I had a massive amount of parasites on my brassicas this year, and my soil is quite good; Lots of compost and worm castings. Cabbage fared well, save some nocturnal chomper, but the kale got hit the worst, second were the brussel sprouts. Rhubarb did real well, it has been growing in this location for several years.
I let the bugs run their course. I didn't grow any brassicas last year. I'm expecting a six-fold increase in hornets next year.
__________________ I'd rather meander for the prevention than race for the cure.
Another very important thing to keep in mind is that today people need more nutrients then ever before due to massive amounts of stress + pollution. So even if you only eat fresh produce straight from the garden/farm, you'll still be deficient in nutrients. But how many people do that? Even if you eat lots of unadulterated produce, it was likely picked days, weeks or even months ago, when it was unripe, and shipped hundreds of miles to your store. By the time you put it in your shopping cart the majority of the few nutrients it had in the first place will be gone. And then if you go home and cook it...well...what nutrients? Cooking does increase the availability of some nutrients such as lycopene, but overall it is far more harmful then beneficial.
* You would have to eat 53 peaches in 1991 to get the same amount of vitamin A as you could have gotten from 2 peaches in 1951! Undoubtedly even worse now. (Christian J. Charts: Nutrient changes in vegetables and fruits, 1951 to 1999)
* Green beans refrigerated after harvest lost more than 90% ascorbic acid following 16 days of refrigeration; broccoli lost about 50% of both ascorbic acid and beta-carotene
following 5 days of storage. (Howard LA, Wong AD, Perry AK, et al. B-carotene and ascorbic acid retention in fresh and processed vegetables. J Food Sci. 1999;64(5):929-936)
* Following cold storage for 8 days in the light, spinach lost 22% lutein; in 8 days of dark cold, spinach lost 18% beta- carotene (Kopas-Lane LM, Warthesen JJ. Carotenoid photostability in raw spinach and carrots during cold storage. J Food Sci. 1995;60(4):773-776)
* Storage of whole heads of lettuce or endive in the cold dark for 7 days resulted in total flavanol glycoside losses from 7-46% (DuPont MS, Mondin Z, Williamson G, et al. Effect of variety, processing, and storage on the flavonoid glycoside content and composition of lettuce and endive. J Agric Food Chem. 2000;48(9):3957-3964).
Even more, back in the day, more people simply ate food that was more fresh. Pre-distribution era (i.e.department stores), when people had to get their food from the butcher and farmer, food was mostly fresh.
It will only be generations from now where we will see the true effects of processed food.
I am reminded of the movie, idiocracy... such a bad movie, but it's base point for a plot is scary because of how true it can become.... are we all getting dumber as a result of our diet?
It will only be generations from now where we will see the true effects of processed food.
We're seeing horrible effects now (bad diet is one of the main causes of most modern diseases), but yes, it will get much worse if we continue to eat like this.
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are we all getting dumber as a result of our diet?
Absolutely, and there's plenty of evidence to prove it. Excitatory neurotoxins (excitotoxins for short) cause devastating brain damage and many other health problems, and fluoridated water does dumb you down. But even if you ignore all of the chemicals in processed food that are making us dumber (far far too many to list here), just the lack of nutrition leads to dumber and weaker people in every way. Omega-3 fatty acids are well known, but did you know that the DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid) in your brain is replaced every 2 weeks and that if there isn't any available at that time your brain structure + functions actually alter because it is missing an essential building block? it isn't as dramatic with other nutrients, but many dozens of nutrients are essential for proper brain function, and most people today are deficient in most if not all of them. Selenium, for example (formerly thought to have nothing to do with the brain), has now been found to be very important for proper brain function. Selenium deficiency can cause depression and confusion From the study: "The lower the level of selenium in the diet the more reports of anxiety, depression, and tiredness, decreased following 5 weeks of selenium therapy."
Even just refined sugar makes you dumber because of the massive amounts of free radical damage it causes in your brain, as well as the glycation of proteins.
Faulty diet doesn't just lead to a decrease in intelligence, either, but can cause violent mood swings, most neurological diseases, and just being imbalanced mentally. People with good nutrition are seldom angry, depressed, or upset in general, but rather happy most of the time and very friendly to everyone.
I think it is when we started to learn to hunt properly and gain the massive amounts of protein that we, as humans, started to evolve larger brains. I am no expert but my point is our diet is what helped us evolve into smart, tool-using mammals.
And it will be our diet, that will cause us to de-volve (my own word) into dangerously stupid creatures that can't control their own population.
Perhaps some of us will wake up when the average life span is reported as being shorter. I believe this will happen in my life time.
* Oklahoma Children's Center did a study where they removed the high-fat, high-sugar junk food from the children's diet. There was a 43% reduction in serious crime among those on the modified diet.
* A study was done on the prison systems in 5 different states, looking for various nutritional deficiencies among the prisoners such as magnesium, zinc, folate, vitamin b6 and others. The results: violent offenders (in all 5 states) had the most deficiencies of all the prisoners - 5 to 9 [and of course many more that they didn't think to check, but 5 to 9 deficiencies vs societal norms - with the entire society already very nutritionally deficient - is particularly bad]. THE MORE VIOLENT, THE MORE DEFICIENCIES.
* The Alabama prison system did a study where they changed the diet of some of the prisoners for the better, and kept the rest on the standard prison diet.
- There was a 42% reduction in criminal events when they changed these prisoners diets
- After one year there was a 61% reduction in "antisocial behavior".
Barbara Reed Stitt, while a probation officer in Ohio, noticed profound changes when she changed the diets of those on probation, replacing junk food with whole food.
* 56% of those on bad diets broke their probation by committing an "antisocial act" like robbery, violence, etc.
* if changed to a healthy diet, only 8% of them broke their probation.
* 47% still eating a high-sugar junk food diet continued to use narcotics while on probation
* only 13% on the better diet violated probation by using narcotics.
* Also dramatic reduction in suicides for those switched to the better diet.
Perhaps some of us will wake up when the average life span is reported as being shorter. I believe this will happen in my life time.
The average life span is already shorter - the only reason it doesn't seem like it is because there are far less infant deaths now then there used to be, but for those who live to be adults the life span now is shorter then it was decades ago.
* Oklahoma Children's Center did a study where they removed the high-fat, high-sugar junk food from the children's diet. There was a 43% reduction in serious crime among those on the modified diet.
* A study was done on the prison systems in 5 different states, looking for various nutritional deficiencies among the prisoners such as magnesium, zinc, folate, vitamin b6 and others. The results: violent offenders (in all 5 states) had the most deficiencies of all the prisoners - 5 to 9 [and of course many more that they didn't think to check, but 5 to 9 deficiencies vs societal norms - with the entire society already very nutritionally deficient - is particularly bad]. THE MORE VIOLENT, THE MORE DEFICIENCIES.
* The Alabama prison system did a study where they changed the diet of some of the prisoners for the better, and kept the rest on the standard prison diet.
- There was a 42% reduction in criminal events when they changed these prisoners diets
- After one year there was a 61% reduction in "antisocial behavior".
Barbara Reed Stitt, while a probation officer in Ohio, noticed profound changes when she changed the diets of those on probation, replacing junk food with whole food.
* 56% of those on bad diets broke their probation by committing an "antisocial act" like robbery, violence, etc.
* if changed to a healthy diet, only 8% of them broke their probation.
* 47% still eating a high-sugar junk food diet continued to use narcotics while on probation
* only 13% on the better diet violated probation by using narcotics.
* Also dramatic reduction in suicides for those switched to the better diet.
Do you have a reference link for this?
I wonder if any studies have been done comparing the nutritive value of a hybrid plant vs an heirloom plant when both are grown in organic well nourished soils under proper conditions.
__________________
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." Marcus Aurelius
Someone already asked me that on the first page: "Barbarra Stitt's info comes from her book Food & Behavior: A Natural Connection, and is also mentioned in the below lecture. For the prison and school info, look into Stephen J. Schoenthaler. This article talks about most of the studies, without the scientific mumbo-jumbo Also read the links at the bottom.
It's also referenced in a very good lecture by Dr. Russell Blaylock, Nutrition and Behavior."
This link has some of the above studies and some other ones as well. Lots of great info in this link.
There's actually been a lot more, similar studies, but I haven't had the time to post them.
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I wonder if any studies have been done comparing the nutritive value of a hybrid plant vs an heirloom plant when both are grown in organic well nourished soils under proper conditions.
Not to my knowledge, although I'll look into it when I have the time. I do know that hybrid plants tend to have a wide variation when it comes to mineral levels, whereas non-hybrids had a much more stable, similar level. The mineral concentration in the hybrid broccoli in the second study I mentioned right before your post varied by 2x - which means one day you could buy broccoli that has 4 mg of calcium per serving, another day the broccoli you buy might only have 2 milligrams. Even if it comes from the exact same field grown right next to each other. Eating hybrids is like playing nutritional Russian roulette.
Barbarra Stitt's info comes from her book Food & Behavior: A Natural Connection, and is also mentioned in the below lecture. For the prison and school info, look into Stephen J. Schoenthaler. This article talks about most of the studies, without the scientific mumbo-jumbo Also read the links at the bottom.
It's also referenced in a very good lecture by Dr. Russell Blaylock, Nutrition and Behavior.
Studies also show that most all inmates have mild hypoglycemia, which causes all sorts of mental + physical problems. One such study. Protein, fat, and chlorophyll all guard against hypoglycemia and keep blood levels steady, and one particularly good supplement is chlorella, a green algae that is very effective at stabilizing blood sugar. I've also seen that lots of green juices are very effective for this purpose. Study on nutritional supplementation improving inmate behaviour - also talks about inmates + hypoglycemia.
Why we're all deficient in nutrients
Also read the links at the bottom.
Hybrid Mode
