However, once the body is thrown out of perfect balance it cannot operate at optimum levels. Weakened, it becomes succeptible to breakdown, cell mutation and infestation by other organisms. As we eat mineral-deficient food our bodies miss required nutrients and are unable to eliminate metabollic and environmental toxins. More importantly, weakened, nutrient-deficient vegetables do not contain the correct energy properties that we need.
We further complicate the problem with pharmaceuticals which block mineral absorption..... antibiotics and chlorine in water which kill off healthy intestinal micro-organisms required to break down and digest food for assimilation.....meat and animal products that contain hormones, steroids and huge amounts of adrenaline.....work habits which deprive us of natural sunlight required for metabollic function.....alcohol, smoking and stress which increase the body's nutritional requirements.....water purification methods which render water devoid of all minerals and make it energetically dead..... and age which increasingly diminishes the efficiency of our digestion and assimilation processes. Add to that over 3,000 chemical additives, dyes and preservatives now present in food, and our preference for sugar and processed, refined, hydogenated, fatty, irradiated, pasteurized and over-cooked foods which hinder the body's immune system, contribute to mineral depletion, and lack any food value or enzymes whatsoever. The ideal environment for disease is created.
We have grown up believing that we can draw all of the nutrition we require from our food. But, soils have become so depleted from continual farming that very little minerals and trace elements remain. In 1948 spinach yielded 158 mg. of iron per 100 grams. By 1965 it contained about 27 mg. of iron. Today, the same amount contains barely 2 mg. of iron! You now have to eat 80 cups of spinach to get the same amount of nutritional value contained in 1 cup only 50 years ago!
Each crop saps the earth of more of its natural elements. Fertilization replaces nitrogen, phosphorus and pot ash to make plants grow, but it does not re-introduce minerals to make them healthy. As a result, plants are enzyme deficient and weakened, making them succeptible to parasites, bacteria and competition from other plants. Weed killers and insecticides must then be used to protect them, creating a health hazard.
Food refining and genetic alteration prevents spoilage. But, if foods don't spoil, they are not very nutritious. The more minerals are present, the more delicious food and water tastes. It even weighs more by comparision.
There are many building blocks needed synergistically for the body to maintain optimal health. We require in excess of 100 nutrients for nourishment and chemical action.....12 tissue salts, about 63 trace minerals, 16 vitamins, 12 essential amino acids, 3 classes of enzymes, and 3 essential fatty acids. Although trace minerals make up only 4% of our body, deficiency in one of them can cause serious damage! The amount we need of each element is not necessarily in proportion to its crucial role.
Nutritional supplementation is no longer a lifestyle option. After extensive research, the U.S. National Defence Council Foundation concludes that they could save $6.3 billion annually on medical bills for heart disease, cancer and immune disorders simply by introducing nutritional supplements. Further reseach shows that impaired mental function, behavioral disorders such as ADHD, emotional disorders, addiction and cravings, eating disorders and violence results from nutrient deficiency. Altered brain chemistry can result from the absence of just one nutrient!
It is our choice to begin to implement those lifestyle changes and nutritional choices which will help to promote more vibrant health. If we address the problems before we have started to manifest serious degenerative diseases, we can experience substantial healing. Early warning signs that your diet is not as healthy as it should be are food allergies, indigestion, constipation, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, memory loss, lethargy, weight gain, sinus infections, colds and flu and reccurring illness. Food cravings are another good indication that your body is lacking specific nutrients.
Although you can't fix everything at once, you can start with the weakest link and build from there. There are many non-invasive diagnostic techniques available to help you discern problem areas
As deficiencies begin to affect metabollic function, the body first tries to draw from less important areas to maintain itself. Hair, skin and nails are the primary targets. Facial Analysis and Organ/ Skin Correlation Analysis examine the superficial clues that appear when nutritional deficiencies are still relatively minor. Skin tone, colour and texture, lines, shadows and wrinkles, eruptions, and the areas in which they appear, all pinpoint specific problems. Hair Analysis may then be used to confirm the apparent indications. Hair provides a static picture of the elements present in the body over an extended period of time.
A simple pH test with litmus paper can determine whether you are calcium deficient. Calcium levels are indicated by the degree of alkalinity within your body. Because acidic conditions have to be present for disease, cell mutation, parasites and bacteria to invade the body, calcium deficiency alone is responsible for more than 150 degenerative disorders, including cancer, heart disease and arthritis. Muscle cramps and twitches are an early warning sign.
Minor health problems can also indicate specific defiencies. Loss of taste and smell result from insufficient Zinc. Greying hair, wrinkles, varicose veins, and sagging skin all show lack of copper. Salt or sugar cravings, or blood sugar imbalances indicate Chromium/Vanadium deficiency. Liver spots, an early warning for cardio-myopathy, can be remedied with added selenium. Male pattern baldness and even deafness results from tin deficiency. Sodium Chloride/Potassium imbalance causes water retention.
So why doesn't your doctor look for these indications? He can't tell you what he doesn't know! Nutrition is an elective in medical school. Most physicians receive less than 16 hours total education in this highly complex area of study. More importantly, information and research that is supplied to traditional medicine's governing bodies is primarily sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, which have a considerable vested interest in the business of illness. Their ambition is to promote and distribute their own remedies. This is often at cross-purposes with a philosophy of wellness. Medical professionals are taught to eliminate the symptoms or manifestation of disease rather than seek its actual underlying cause. In this way they can affect a more immediate response--an apparent cure.
Additionally, if doctors are not looking for simple answers like nutritional deficiency, they are not going to test for it. Tradititonal medical blood work and urine analysis can miss many elemental deficiencies. However, live-blood analysis is specifically designed to discover and analyze nutritional aberations. Computer-based galvanic skin response testers such as the Omega or Interro systems analyze up to 14,000 different bodily functions, nutritional deficiencies, environmental sensitivites, and toxic accumulation. Muscle Response Testing, known as Applied Kinesiology will similarly pinpoint these problems.
Obviously, the best way to avoid any serious health problems is to supplement your diet. But keep in mind that your body requires more than just nutrition to stay healthy. Probiotics are required in the digestive tract to break down food for nutrient assimilation. Five different digestive enzymes are also needed to assist in this process, especially after the age of 40. We also optimally require about 75% alkaline foods to maintain an ideal body pH.
And we need considerably higher levels of oxygen than most people currently inhale. Oxygen metabolizes food, kills micro-organisms, and cleanses the cells of toxic accumulation. The atmoshere now contains about 38% less oxygen than was present in pre-historic times. Almost 50% less oxygen is present in the air around large cities.
Vitamin and mineral supplements are available in many forms. Although some argue that synthetic are equal to natural, this is not the case. Energy properties of food and supplements are equally important to the nutritional value. They cannot be replicated. As tissue salts within foods and water are dissolved they break apart into charged particles carrying a positive or negative electrical charge. This initiates biochemical functions throughout the body and maintains cellular fluid balance.
Food DNA also directly impacts us, transferring codes to our own DNA. This causes concerns for those foods created by genetic alteration, since they are gradually being shown to cause aberations in human cells, particularly the reproductive organs. We really are what we eat!
Gradual changes are always best in any health program, whether you are dieting, exercising, detoxifying your body, or becoming a vegetarian. Prepare your body first, and you won't suffer the consequences. Realize that food is really only 20% of the nourishment your body needs. You also need emotional nourishment, mental stimulation, physical activity and spiritual inspiration. That's a nice way of saying "Get a Life!".
When it comes to food, you don't have to have a strict or restricted diet. You just have to lay a strong foundation. Most people omit foods from their diet rather than augmenting it. That's a sure way to end up resenting food, craving goodies, and suffering from deficiencies. Instead, consider ADDING a few things to your diet. ....
Fresh juicing provides organic water, live enzymes, and electrolytes. It tastes great, too. Use seasonal, local fruits and vegetables if possible, because they're generally fresher, are probably not genetically-altered to make them last during transport, and your body is attuned to the same climate, soil conditions and seasonal patterns. Add a little ginger for even greater digestability and flavour.
Next, suppliment your diet with digestive enzymes and acidophilus. The enzymes will help your body digest food much more readily. Acidophilus will replenish the good bacteria in your intestinal tract. You'll derive greater nutrition out of less quantity. You'll also have less gas, constipation or digestive upset. Your immune system will show some improvement.
Finally, add a whole food nutritional supplement to your diet. Our soils are now so depleted that it is imossible to derive what our bodies need from meals alone, even if we ate an ideal diet. We actually require at least 90 different minerals, vitamins, essential amino acids and essential fatty acids. Most vitamin pills have less than 20 of the necessary elements, and we only absorb about 3% of their value. If you do take a supplement, make certain it is colloidal, chelated, homeopathic, or a whole food of some kind.
Colloidal means that the trace elements have been broken down so microscopic that they are suspended in liquid. The body will assimilate them directly on a cellular level, absorbing about 23% of the value. Homeopathic mineral supplements work the same way. Quite often they are administered under the tonque, where they are absorbed directly into the system. Chelation binds the mineral to another substance which can be readily assimilated and used by the body. About 11% of the minerals will be absorbed this way.
There are a wide variety of whole food "green" drinks now available. These are generally powders that combine several different green food elements. They can be mixed into juice or sprinkled on food. Often called "super foods" they contain a synergystic blend of our most-required nutrients in live foods. They are extremely high in readily assimilable concentrates of vitamins, minerals, cell salts, enzymes, vegetable protein, amino acids, hormones, fibre, chlorophyll, and herbal detoxifiers that are not lost in digestion. Because they are live, they also contain important energy qualities. Liquid botanical concentrates also do essentially the same.
Sea vegetation such as blue-green algae is also a superior supplement. Harvested from unpolluted waters still very high in trace elements, the nutrient content per weight is unparalleled by any other single food on earth, and because of its synergistic complexity, cannot be synthetically duplicated. 95% assimilable, it provides all the essential amino acids in an ideal combination, and a complete and balanced spectrum of minerals, trace elements and vitamins. It has an ideal balance of sodium and potassium for cellular balance, oxygenates and detoxifies the blood, creates an alkaline environment, enhances the immune system, and is the best natural source of digestible plant protein and vitamin B-12 available. The most superior is freeze-dried, flash-frozen Klamuth Lake Blue-green Algae.
Algae is so potent, it must be introduced grad-ually to the body in increasing dosages. The use of digestive enzymes and acidophylus before trying the algae will help to prepare the body and increase assimilation. Otherwise, light-headedness, headache or a dull feeling may be temporarily experienced as the algae quickly detoxifies the cells. Depending on the brand, processing method and dosage, an immediate marked increase in energy, mental clarity and well-being is reported by users. It is one of the few natural substances to be officially recognized as an actual cure for cancer.
You can also make your own "green drink" by mixing equal amounts of spirulina, dulce, kelp and alfalfa powders with an equal amount of lecithin and bee pollen or Royal Jelly. Place a couple tablespoons into 2 cups of water/ice or fresh squeezed juice such as watermelon or grapefruit. Add white grape juice, honey, an apple or banana to enhance the flavour. It is a fraction of the cost of prepared mixtures and therefore worth the search to find the ingredients.
Be sure to include seeds and sprouts in your diet. They are extremely high in nutritional value and contain the nutritional potential to sustain a whole plant. They're also easy to digest.
Elemental mineral supplements are only 8-12% assimilable. Alkaline in nature, they require stomach acid to digest them. Once they have passed through the stomach, the intestinal tract is alkaline, so they cannot be absorbed. Inorganic elements cannot be readily broken down so they must be bound to other elements such as an amino acid to aid their absorption. This is called chelation. While the amount that can actually be absorbed by the body increases to about 40%, half of the solution is the binding agent. So, out of a 500 mg. dosage only about 100 mg of actual mineral is absorbed!
This means you must ingest at least 5X the suggested dosage to get even the minimum recommended allowance. The RDA is the barest minimum we need to maintain health. It is not the optimal amount we really need. In addition, most supplements provide you with only one or at best a few of the more than 100+ nutrients actually required.
Colloidal minerals have been broken down into sub-microscopic particles so they can be carried in solution. Plants convert metallic and inorganic substances into this form. Approximately 1 billion of these particles can fit into a cube 4/100 of an inch. Electro-magnetically charged, they can be transported to and absorbed by the cells up to 98%. However, they must first undergo many chemical transformations in order to actually be utilized.
Ionized or crystalloid minerals exist in an assimilable state. Positively charged particles carried in suspension, they have already undergone the electrical transformation necessary for the body to absorb and use them immediately. In nature this process occurs when water tumbles over rocks, picking up minerals from the soil as it becomes energized. Coral calcium and electrolyte solutions are ionic.
Homeopathic minerals or tissue salts, too, are similarly absorbed. Broken down to minute trace elements and chelated to highly assimilable fructose or lactose sugars, they become ionically charged in the process. Although only trace amounts of the minerals are present, their balance and absorption rate are superior. Usually placed under the tongue or dissolved in water, they enter the cells almost immediately.
Organic or herbal minerals have already been broken down by plants into a more digestible form. Best taken during meals, these minerals are bound to herb fibres. One of their unique properties is that they will draw and flush out inorganic metal and mineral desposits within the body, such as kidney stones and calcium deposits in the joints.
Regardless of the supplement you choose, you will derive some benefit. Energy and vitality will dramatically increase. Your immune system will strengthen. You'll look and feel younger. Your digestion and elimination will improve. Mental clarity will increase. Many chronic ailments will disappear. For about a dollar a day, that's really an outstanding investment.
If you are confused about the type or amount of supplementation you require, contact a qualified nutritional consultant. Various non-invasive diagnostic techniques combined with a detailed health profile will determine your specific needs. Don't ignore your need for better nutrition. Your life depends on it! In natural health, the best medicine is prevention!~~
