By: John Lisimba
Number of words: 649
Some of the diseases people suffer from today are caused by lack of food nutrients. Nutrients are lacking in those foods because of various factors. The soil might be exhausted of trace elements; crops might be harvested unripe, use of chemicals on plants as pesticides or preservatives and refining of crops are some of the ways in which foods lose their nutrients. It is logical to take some food supplements. This article discuses the need for food supplements in modern diet.
To increase crop yields, most farmers rely on the use of chemical fertilizers. This somehow affects the way they farm. Farmers prepare their fields by clearing them and burning dry stalks of plants. If not ploughed back into the soil, the minerals in those stocks are burnt too. They never get back to the soil. This could cause exhaustion of minerals. These chemical fertilizers do not accommodate soil organisms that help in the breaking down of humus. The soil organisms are not only useful for breaking down humus but also soil ventilation as they move about.
Some crops are sometimes harvested unripe because the owners want to make quick money. At times they do so because they transport their produce to far away places. If they send them fully ripe, they might rote on the way. If fruits are harvested unripe they have less sugar, vitamins minerals and phytochemicals. Fruits must be allowed to ripen on trees.
Cereal crop refining is another area responsible for lack of nutrients. The colour of vitamin ‘B’ complex is the same as that of bran. It is crammed with vitamins, minerals, fibre and enzymes. That is why you could feed your chickens on bran only but you could maintain their health status. The same reasons raised the recommendation of eating of whole-wheat bread.
Lack of vitamin ‘B’ complex causes fatigue, anaemia, skin disease, weakness and slow digestion. If you eat heavily polished food, your body will lack fibre required to eliminate indigestion. It will also lack enzymes necessary for digestion. The whole body requires enzymes to function properly. If the food lacks enzymes it will pluck some from your white blood cells. With what effect? Your immunity will weaken each day!
Some food supplements are made synthetically. These are termed isolates because they have nothing of food value apart from that vitamin or mineral. They are purified. They don’t support other nutrients as they are on their own.
Nutrients extracted from foods are better in the sense that they have other nutrients they support. Vitamin C in an orange supports absorption of iron which is also available in the same fruit. There are also some phytochemicals like flavonoids which work together with vitamin C to slow the development of viruses in the body. Still in the orange folic acid and Vitamin C work together to make the life span of white blood cell long. Limonoids are among 170 pytochemicals present in the lemon.
You will never find this natural partnership in isolate supplements. Supplements made from food extracts are superior as they have more food nutrients supporting each other.
Many diseases are caused by the way we handle our food. A lot of nutrients are lost through soil exhaustion (as farmers heavily rely on chemical fertilizer use), harvesting of unripe fruits, and food refining. However the good news is that denatured food could still be taken as long as we take food supplements.
