The fundamental source of life
The Root of All Disease Chapter 1
About Elmer Heinrich
Mr. Elmer G. Heinrich is Chairman of TRC Nutritional Laboratories of Tulsa, Oklahoma and Minerals, Inc. of Emery, Utah. He was the first person to introduce plant-derived minerals to the world. TRC is world-renowned as the unrivaled, long-term producer of superb quality pure plant-derived minerals. The TRC warehouse, production facility and office pictured below is one of the most modern nutritional production facilities in the USA:
About the Book
Elmer wrote the book The Root of All Disease while President of U.S. Naturals LLC in the 1990s. PureMinerals.uk has amended a few bits of the book to bring it up to date (2025). It is a thoroughly good read and very educational, especially in light of the crazy Covid nonsense everyone has experienced since 2020.
The book consists of 14 chapters, each of which will be uploaded to this website in order. After that, the entire book will be made available as a free PDF download. The information it contains is crucial as it is not part of physicians' training, so don't bother asking your doctor about the importance of having 75+ pure plant-derived minerals in your diet. Doctors are agents for pharmaceutical companies and are not allowed to prescribe or recommend products that are not part of their inventory.
The Root of All Disease Chapter 1
THE FUNDAMENTAL SOURCE OF LIFE
The Root of All Disease Chapter 1
Updated October 2025
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THE EARLY EARTH
The early Earth must have been a vision of hell—an elemental world of rock and gas—where the Sun was fainter than it is today, and the Moon, orbiting at less than a tenth of its current distance, appeared immense. The terrain was unimaginable: scalding rock, unbearable heat, and choking fumes. Since then, the surface has cooled, continents have drifted, mountains have risen and eroded, and life has emerged—benign and green.
Nearly all traces of the early planet have been erased. Plant life emerged before animals appeared on land, and scientists believe that, in the beginning, all terrestrial life was vegetarian. One can only imagine how extraordinarily nutritious early plant life must have been—the Earth was new, and at least eighty-four minerals were abundant near its surface. Plants, therefore, would have been remarkably rich in nutrients. This state of natural abundance persisted for millions of years. Over time, however, the Earth’s surface succumbed to wind and rain erosion, continual plant growth, unwise agricultural practices, and, ultimately, the widespread use of chemical fertilizers.
MINERAL DEPLETION
As time passed, the minerals near the Earth’s surface became depleted. This depletion began several thousand years ago but was dramatically accelerated two to three hundred years ago, and now it has reached alarming levels. The top eight feet of soil, where plants grow, are severely lacking in minerals compared to millions of years ago. When surface soil is tested today, anywhere in the world, it typically contains no more than twenty minerals.
However, when samples are taken from much deeper layers of the Earth, or when volcanic ash is analyzed, at least eighty-four minerals are consistently found. This provides clear evidence that surface soils are deficient in minerals. If soil lacks these vital inorganic elements, then the plants and foods that grow in it will also be deficient. One does not need an advanced degree to recognize this problem. We must acknowledge that the nutritional quality of our food—and consequently, the health of the animals and humans who depend on it—is determined by the fertility of the soil.
The longevity and vitality of one’s life are closely linked to lifestyle, activity, and overall health. Much of this health depends on the nutrients the body receives. As the saying goes, we are what we eat—and we should all be alarmed by recent findings from several well-recognized research teams indicating that the nutritional value of modern foods is not merely declining but collapsing. This research serves as a warning of imminent danger: we are losing our minerals, the fundamental sources and basic building blocks of life. And this decline does not concern only processed foods—it extends to fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as basic foodstuffs such as milk, cheese, beef, and chicken.
IRON
There is evidence that, over the last 60 years, the level of iron, a vital mineral for good health, has decreased by 55 percent in the average rump steak. During the same period, magnesium plummeted by 21 percent, and calcium was also significantly lower. In fact, every mineral, except the three used to fertilize today’s farmlands, was anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent lower than 60 years ago.
Life as we know it requires liquid water, energy, and organic molecules. These organic molecules, however, depend on minerals—the elemental foundations of physical life. Yet these essential minerals are disappearing from our soils at an alarming rate. The minerals that form the precise lattice structures of the mineral kingdom also contribute to the structural and biochemical integrity of the human body. They are essential for healing and regeneration. During embryonic development, the absence of even a few vital minerals can impair the formation of organs and tissues. Everything in life is, to some degree, mineral-dependent. We must also recognize that modern foods are often artificially enriched by chemical fertilizers that merely compensate for, rather than restore, mineral-depleted soils.
DOWN ON THE FARM
Down on the commercial farm, quantity now triumphs over quality at every turn, and, in their desperation to make even a halfway decent living, many of today’s Farmers, pushed by their supermarket masters to produce high yields at low cost, seem to have forgotten that there was a reason their grandfathers farmed differently.
The nutritional value of food usually drops in direct relationship to the increase in bulk production. Today, the nutritional value of food is lower than ever in history, and it will continue to decline rapidly in the future. The soil is our primary healthcare system and, when healthy, is the source of more than 98% of human nutrition. However, today we find our soil is depleted and sick from overuse.
Diminishing nutritional value
The long-term implications of the declining nutritional value of our food are deeply alarming. The problem is real, and even more troubling is that there appears to be little we can do to reverse it. Governments around the world are rightly concerned about climate change, and some efforts are being made, albeit slowly, to address this global crisis. Global warming could likely be mitigated if every nation took decisive action to reduce the elements that endanger our atmosphere.
But what are World Governments going to do to re-mineralize the soils? Absolutely nothing because this is impossible on a worldwide scale. Yes, farmers could fallow and let their land lie idle for a year or two. This would improve the food somewhat, but it would not replenish the depleted minerals. They are gone, and they likely will never be back in the top eight feet of the Earth’s surface, where our plants grow, until the Earth encounters another ice age, and according to some experts, that is probably about 90,000 years away.
INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
Despite the apparent advances in broadacre industrial agriculture, the nutritional qualities of our basic foodstuffs have been declining rapidly over the past century. Many of our modern-day farmers are on a treadmill of dependency on fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and plant food that creates abnormal growth and very little nutrition due to a lack of minerals in the soil.
The agricultural and food industries are often reluctant to acknowledge the issue of mineral depletion in soils. Nevertheless, recent findings are consistent with a growing body of independent research that points to a troubling conclusion: chemically intensive modern farming methods do not produce food of optimal nutritional quality. Fundamentally, such methods were never designed to do so, and, because of the mineral imbalance in soils, they cannot.
These mineral deficiencies are prevalent worldwide. I admire the Government of the United Kingdom because it acknowledges and is not ashamed of the problem, and also admits they have a mineral depletion catastrophe. In 2000, the Soil Association quoted figures from the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, that trace minerals in the UK fruit and vegetables had fallen by 76 percent.
Comparable data from the United States Department of Agriculture indicate that this issue is not confined to Britain alone. Soil mineral depletion represents one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever faced. We cannot afford to delay action; immediate steps must be taken to slow the ongoing loss of minerals from our soils.
MINERAL BUILDING BLOCKS
Minerals, as we know them, are locked in the Earth’s crust. As land dwellers, our main link with minerals is through a diet of plants that can extract and assimilate metallic minerals from the soil as they grow. Our secondary link is from the meat of animals that eat plants. Minerals are essential for our well-being, yet they have always been taken for granted, and few of us have given them a second thought.
Until a few years ago, no one knew of or cared about the importance of these essential building blocks that comprise 96 percent of our bodies. Now that minerals are enjoying tremendous success in the marketplace, it is only prudent that users learn more about them. Mere knowledge of minerals, their importance, and their differences may shed new light on why they are so necessary for us to stay healthy. Without minerals, nothing else, including vitamins and enzymes, will benefit our health.
Excellent health
Excellent health should be an attainable goal for anyone who strives to achieve it—and that includes all of us. We ought to remain healthy, vibrant, and strong throughout our adult lives. However, without adequate mineral intake, this is impossible. In addition, certain lifestyle adjustments may be necessary to enable minerals to provide their full benefit. The pursuit of longevity and biological rejuvenation is a rational and worthwhile aspiration, for there are indeed sound and evidence-based approaches that can help us move toward that goal.
These changes may include a food selection change, better drinking water, more stretching and exercise, less stress, more rest, less smoking and drinking, fewer prescription drugs, and the intake of considerably more usable oxygen. Physical, mental, and spiritual health are linked to one’s lifestyle, so lifestyle changes may also be necessary. A complete spectrum of minerals is the benchmark for ultimate and total nutrition, but not the full answer to excellent health.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MINERALS
To understand the importance of minerals, we first need to know what minerals are made of. Minerals from the earth are naturally occurring, uniform inorganic substances with specific chemical compositions and distinct crystalline structures, colors, and hardness. These minerals are called hydrophobic “metallic minerals,” made up of various elements. For instance, the mineral silica consists of the elements silicon and oxygen.
Metallic minerals are not made of carbon and are not bonded to carbon, yet they take part in many biochemical processes essential for maintaining health in humans and all other living species on Earth. Biologists estimate that there are up to 100 million different life forms on the planet, and all of them rely on minerals.
Nearly everything on earth is comprised of minerals. Your ring, belt buckle, lampshade, stove, wallpaper, flooring, and automobile would not exist without minerals. God made man from minerals, and man requires minerals for his mere existence. Every other living creature has the same requirement. There would be no life without minerals! Minerals control millions of chemical and enzymatic processes and reactions that occur in the human body at all times. The same is true for animals. This knowledge should make us aware of the importance of minerals for humanity’s survival.
MAJOR and TRACE MINERALS
Although some are very rare, more than 100 mineral elements are found on Earth. Four of these, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, make up 96 percent of our bodies. The remaining 4 percent of our body is made up in part of 70 or more minerals, many of which are not in our bodies anymore, and most of which are no longer readily available in our soils.
Governments and the scientific community classify minerals into two categories. Those required in the human diet in amounts greater than 100 milligrams per day are known as major minerals, while those needed in quantities of less than 100 milligrams per day are referred to as trace minerals.
Both major and trace minerals belong to the same general class of essential minerals. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the main difference between them lies in their names and in the recommended daily intake (RDI) required by the body. There are seven major minerals: calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. The human body must contain substantial amounts of each. Trace minerals, on the other hand, are present in much smaller quantities—each typically accounting for less than one hundredth of one percent of total body weight.
End of The Root of All Disease Chapter 1
Updated October 2025