SUPPLEMENTING IS ADVISABLE
The Root of All Disease Chapter 7
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Based on the information from the previous chapter, it’s plain to see that there definitely is a depletion of minerals in our foods as years passed. This test was done in 1991, and I’m confident we’d get results revealing another 10% to 15% reduction if similar tests were conducted today. The world that has proven powerless to improve our food supply must open its eyes in the near future. Government officials must recognize that our foods have fewer minerals each decade, and fewer minerals mean more sickness.
Where can we get the minerals we need if they are not available in our food supply? Well, about the only method available is to initiate a program of mineral supplementation. That is, take dietary food supplements containing a large number of minerals. Various mineral supplement formulations can be purchased from hundreds of suppliers under literally thousands of labels. However, what the industry considers an ample and adequate supply of minerals usually is at most 16 or 18 minerals at best. The most highly advertised mineral on the market today contains only 18, as listed on the label. They are metallic minerals or what some experts call heavy metals.
ground-up rock and soil
Most of the more popular mineral formulations available contain no more than 10 to 15 minerals because they are derived from ground-up rock and soil and ancient sea beds like the Great Salt Lake in Utah. This type of mineral is known as a metallic, hydrophobic mineral! Hydrophobic means “water-hating or water fearing” Basically, a hydrophobic mineral will not bond with water because it is not water-soluble. Therefore, these compounds are repelled by water; some are positively charged while others are neutral, meaning they have no electrical charge.
The type of mineral that comes from a plant has been assimilated or digested by the plant and is known as a water-soluble, plant-derived, hydrophilic mineral. Hydrophilic means water-loving. Such compounds have an affinity to water, are negatively charged, and usually have polar side groups to their structure that will attract and bond to water. Water consists of two hydrogen atoms joined to one oxygen atom, all in a triangular pattern. The oxygen is negatively charged, while the hydrogen end is positively charged. This causes the water molecules to attach to each other and form a hydrogen bond. Hydrogen bonds are very important to living things as they allow DNA strands to hold together, proteins to form, and water to behave as it does with the hydrophilic plant minerals as they blend together. This is the type of mineral that is thought, by far, to be the most beneficial for all living creatures.
Mineral assimilation
The few metallic minerals that come directly from the earth are hard to digest or assimilate because they are metals. Many nutritional experts, doctors, and food chemists believe at most, the human body actually assimilates 5% or maybe up to 8% of metallic minerals. This lack of assimilation occurs because the hydrochloric acid in our stomach isn’t strong enough to dissolve metals totally during the average 15-hour human digestive cycle. The balance, or up to 92%, merely passes through the waste system without benefit.
As I stated earlier, Minerals are the very source of physical life! Minerals, even if they are metallic, are of significant value to balancing and metabolizing our bodily functions. However, you could not live on soil or rock because it is not alive or enzymatically active, like plant-derived minerals from raw plants. Plant-derived minerals that chemicals from the chemical industry have not altered are, from a medical standpoint, enzymatically active or living minerals and deliver rich satisfaction.
What about vitamins?
Vitamins, like carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, are components of the chemical element known as carbon. Most of us have been hearing about vitamins since we were children. And even today, we hear authoritative sources say, be sure to take your vitamins, but seldom do you hear anyone say, be sure to take your minerals. Your mother probably reminded you to take your vitamins, but I doubt she ever mentioned minerals. She didn’t mention minerals because she wasn’t aware of the necessity or importance of minerals. Few people knew the importance until about thirty or forty years ago.
Even today, many doctors and nutritionists thumb their nose at the thought of mineral deficiencies in foods. They only think about and recommend vitamins because that’s what they were taught. Vitamins are sometimes expected to do more than they are capable of doing. Our bodies can go far longer suffering from a deficiency of vitamins than they can with a lack of minerals. Did you know all the vitamins in the world would do us little good without minerals? The minerals in our bodies are so important that the body goes to complicated, even desperate lengths to maintain its balance. If a cell is deficient in a single mineral, it will suffer from a loss of several minerals.
A vitamin can be broken down into its basic elements: carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Basically, vitamins are a group of chemically unrelated organic nutrients that are essential in small quantities for normal metabolism, growth, and physical well-being. Vitamins must be obtained through diet since they are either not synthesized in our bodies or are synthesized in inadequate amounts. A large amount of Vitamin D can be obtained through UVB rays from the sun.
Chronic vitamin deficiency
Many people worldwide are chronically Vitamin D deficient, especially during winter. Blacks and other dark-skinned people are vulnerable because dark skin blocks many of the UVB rays. Even more of a problem for dark-skinned people is that the only common food that provides significant Vitamin D is milk; over 75% of blacks are lactose intolerant and drink very little milk. Cows milk, without fortification, on average, has 40% less Vitamin D than it did forty years ago. Protein is also down nearly 25% compared to forty years ago, all because of mineral depletion in the soil.
Fortunately, today’s plants do supply a reasonable amount of vitamins. However, if you lack Vitamin A, you may have dry skin, kidney and gall stones, sinus problems, digestive problems, and many more symptoms. A lack of Vitamin B can cause chronic tiredness, loss of vitality, poor appetite, and nervousness. Insufficient Vitamin C can cause shortness of breath, headaches, tender joints, low resistance to infection, restlessness, and digestion problems. A lack of Vitamin D can cause a pot belly, constipation, rickets, convulsions, poor teeth, and curvature of the spine. Many people have a misconception about vitamins.
natural vitamins
Thousands have told us they will only use food supplements with “natural vitamins.” The so-called natural vitamins do not exist in supplements. Natural vitamins only come from plants. All commercially sold supplement vitamins are synthesized in a laboratory. Therefore, they cannot be called “natural vitamins.” There is a harmony between vitamins and minerals, and even though vitamins are nearly ineffective without minerals, they both are necessary. Minerals are pretty different from vitamins in their structure and the work they do, but the two enjoy an excellent working relationship.
According to Rodale’s Complete Book of Minerals for Health, “minerals create a healthy environment in which the body, using vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, can grow, function and heal itself.” I like the portion “heal itself.” I know this is possible if a body gets more than the 18 minerals found in most supplements or the 16 to 20 minerals found in today’s foods. It’s a known fact that a complete spectrum of minerals promotes better health as it adjusts the pH level of bodily tissues. What is a complete spectrum of minerals? I believe a mineral composition or a mineral solution cannot be considered a “complete spectrum of minerals” unless it contains at least seventy minerals. This large number of minerals has to include many of the “rare earth” minerals, or there would not be a total of seventy.
rare earth minerals are necessary
I believe the rare earth minerals are necessary, in addition to the more commonly known minerals, to stabilize the acid level in tissues. Most bacteria, viruses, and even tapeworms thrive in and prefer an environment of high pH or alkaline nature. A complete spectrum of minerals lowers the pH in our digestive system, raising the hydrochloric acid level and inhibiting bacterial and viral replication. Both extra and intracellular fluids function properly only because of a carefully maintained ratio of minerals, in conjunction with vitamins, in an acidic solution. The interaction of the two enables the body cells to take in nutrients and dispose of toxins that are the by-products of that metabolism.
Some health professionals have advised people to alkalize their bodies. Before you attempt this, let me say, hold no hope of alkalizing your body because it won’t happen! The body’s pH remains at a constant 7.35 to 7.45 while we are alive. Anything above or below that results in death. The kidneys are the primary organ of pH control and react to minor fluctuations, either acid or alkaline, diluting and then dumping the appropriate product in the urine. Most waste products of internal metabolism are acid, so the urine is typically acid because the kidneys are doing their job. Ingesting a high acid or alkaline diet does not either acidify or alkalize the body because of the pH regulation by the kidneys.
a toxic world
We live in a toxic world today. The price of man’s development and advancement in science and technology and the continuous growth in the world population, to the ignorance of many, has bought forth pollution, depletion, destruction of the earth’s environment, and extinction or mutation of some life forms. We live on a toxic planet that gets worse every day! In America alone, approximately 2,000,000,000 (two billion) pounds of toxic chemicals are released into the air we breathe each year.
Each year about 1.5 billion pounds of pesticides and herbicides are sprayed on food crops in America. In addition to chlorine, the drinking water in the U. S. currently contains over 2,100 toxic chemicals known to cause cancer and nervous disorders. There are now more than 100,000 chemicals in use, and more than 1,000 new ones are being added each year. The toxicity humans are exposed to is astounding. Couple this with normal body toxicity, even in an ordinarily clean environment, and it’s plain to see we have severe toxic problems that we need to address. That’s the reason we need more minerals.
A lack of minerals inhibits detoxification. Detoxifying occurs whenever the body begins to expel and eliminate anything that causes the body to be toxic. This can and does occur naturally, but if you lack minerals, the detox will never be thorough and complete. The poisons will only be expelled entirely if you have many more minerals than you can obtain from today’s foods via the Sizzling Minerals mineral supplement.
robust immune system
A robust immune system depends on a clean, detoxed body, which can only be obtained from the complete excretion of wastes and anything that is not fully compatible with your bodily functions. Normal detoxing at a physical level can range anywhere from extremely mild bowel or kidney movement, skin rash, aches, and pains to very intense discomfort. This usually subsides within a few days. In the area of detoxification, a complete spectrum of at least 70 minerals makes an incredible difference.
The pancreas
There is much talk about enzymes and antioxidants and their importance. Enzymes are extremely important for our metabolic functions, but they do us little good without minerals. The pancreas produces bodily enzymes for the utilization of digestion and also produces insulin that regulates sugar metabolism. The more our system lacks enzymes or the minerals to excite them, the more the pancreas has to work overtime to make the needed enzymes to assimilate the food eaten. If the pancreas fails to keep up with the production of enzymes and the required insulin, we become sick, struggling with blood sugar problems, inflammation, toxicity, and digestion problems.
Some enzymes and vitamins are helpmates to minerals. Some minerals are eager workers, but to perform best, they need an enzyme or a vitamin or two to stir them into action. As an example, vitamin C can triple iron absorption. Calcium absorption is impossible without vitamin D and some magnesium. But, remember, Vitamin D is of little value without the proper amount of minerals. Many minerals act as coenzymes, the so-called catalysts in chemical reactions with vitamins. This means they function as spark plugs, starting chemical actions where billions of chemical reactions occur daily.
BUT Is mineral deficiency real?
At this point, you may ask yourself a question. Is all this publicity about mineral deficiencies and the lack of minerals really true, and if so, which minerals and what kind of minerals should I be using, or should I even consider taking additional minerals? In my opinion, at least part of your question can be answered with the following little story.
A bedtime STORY
Many movies have been made about the migration of American settlers in the early 1800s. We all know they had to cross the great plains of the United States. What we don’t know or realize is that few of these people settled in one place for an extended period. Every few years, they would have to pick up and move. They’d start a small farm in the Midwest, such as Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, or Nebraska, with a milk cow, a couple of pigs, maybe some sheep, and a few children.
After a few years, Dad would always be constipated, and the cow would quit giving milk. The cucumber plants, tomato plants, and farm crops would not grow, so they would almost starve. If they were lucky enough to make it through the winter, they’d load all their belongings into a covered wagon and move west with the milk cow in tow. When they found a suitable place, they started another farm. Mom and Pop would be constipated all the time in a few years. The crops, cucumbers, and tomatoes, would quit growing, and the cow would again stop giving milk. And, if they survived the winter, they’d load everything in a wagon and move farther west again.
What was the problem?
The soil was being depleted! If they didn’t have enough land to allow some to be idle from time to time, the land would become barren due to a lack of minerals. Crops and plant growth took too many minerals out of the soil. The only way to eliminate this problem was to own a piece of bottomland near a river. Only the lucky farmers lived in the bottomland. They’d get new topsoil, silt, and additional minerals from miles upstream when it flooded. So, they didn’t have to move if they were fortunate enough to have bottomland.
Why?
The fertilizer would come to them during the flood. But if they were out on the prairie with no river or bottomland, they would be required to move; otherwise, the entire family would become malnourished and nearly starve. This settling and moving process occurred thousands of times during the last 200 years. This was necessary because the early settlers were strip-mining the soil’s nutrients. And if there were little or no nutrients in the ground, their crops and gardens could not produce due to a lack of nutrients in the soil. Depleted soils cannot possibly supply adequate nutrients to our food chain, and as the preceding tests revealed, our soils are becoming MORE DEPLETED each year.
Commercial fertilizers were introduced in 1908. Was the soil depletion problem solved? Not by a long shot! Study any commercial fertilizer by reviewing the ingredients listed on the package. You will see nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (NPK), and, most times, nothing more. It’s a known fact that you can raise most crops and plants with what little nutrients are still in the soil and NPK.
Most farmers never put back more than four minerals
In the first place, more than 4 to 6 minerals would be nearly impossible to obtain. Secondly, if they were obtainable and if farmers attempted to put that many back into the soil, they would soon be bankrupt. We now understand no more than 12 or 13 minerals are required to raise large, red, juicy tomatoes, but many times if you were blindfolded while eating, you would have trouble identifying the tomatoes due to a lack of taste. The lack of taste is due to a lack of minerals that causes a lack of Brix. This lack of minerals is why you would have to eat four carrots today to get the same amount of minerals as one carrot supplied 60 years ago. Soil depletion is the only reason today’s plants contain no more than 16 to 20 minerals, on average, compared to more than 70 minerals thousands of years ago.
According to research in the animal husbandry field and The National Science Foundation, animals require at least 45 minerals, 12 essential amino acids, 16 vitamins, and 3 essential fatty acids. However, the average land-grown animal feed only contains about 18 minerals, and when mineral levels are down, so too are the amino and essential fatty acids levels.
People need 60+ minerals
As mentioned earlier, according to Gary Price Todd, M.D., the human body requires at least 60 minerals for optimal health and basically the same other essentials as animals. But, as stated earlier, only about 18 minerals are available in any quantity in most of the food we eat today. We know plants can make vitamins, amino acids, and varying amounts of fatty acids if they are healthy from being grown in soils containing abundant minerals. If the soil lacks minerals, the plant is stunted because a plant cannot make minerals. Dr. Gary Price Todd says, “Sick soil causes sick plants, which causes sick animals, and ultimately sick human beings.”
One reason our plants are sick is due to pesticides and insecticides. Seventy years ago, it was necessary to develop these poisons to kill off insects and pests to prevent them from destroying weak crops due to a lack of minerals. Had the plants been healthy, like they were in prehistoric times, the insects would not have bothered them. Most scientists and agronomists conclude that a healthy, vigorously surviving plant can adequately defend itself against any of nature’s attacks, including insects and worms. This can occur only if the plant has numerous minerals available to draw from the soil.
