Nutrient Rich Food

Latest Update 3rd February 2022.

If you want to enjoy excellent health eat nutritious organic food, and if you really want to be sure you're getting all the nutrients you need from your food, grow your own.

Modern farming and food processing practices have resulted in food which looks good on the supermarket shelves, but does it provide the nutrition we need?  I don't think so.

As I see it, the problem lies in the following areas:-

1. Processed Food.  Highly refined mass produced food is tasty, clinically hygienic, good looking and cheap.  Its largely energy food, and doesn't supply enough of the micronutrients and trace elements needed by our bodies to properly maintain our organs and our overall good health.  Its no surprise that many of us depend on vitamin and mineral suppliments for good health, but a better way is to eat more fresh food, especially organic food.
2. Nutrient deficiencies.  Modern farming practices degrade soil by depriving it of organic matter, and lacing it with poisonous chemicals.  The soil biology dies, and the broad spectrum plant nutrients, naturally liberated by active microbes, decline.
3. Disturbing soil structure.  Deep tilling (up to 30cm) compacts the soil below that level and use of heavy agricultural equipment increases the effect.  This forms an impenetrable barrier to deep rooted plants.  Beneficial soil microorganisms including bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi which together create soil aggregates (the building blocks of typical light friable organic soil structures).  They store water and plant nutrients, provide free movement of oxygen (air) and water to plant roots and they provide drainage of surplus water to the subsoil.
4. Synthetic fertilisers.  Exclusive use of chemical fertilisers on crops does not provide the full spectrum and correct balance of nutrients we need in our food.  Farmers flood the soil with soluble nutrients which largely wash away into rivers and streams polluting the water and killing wildlife, and they are forced to use more and more of them as the soil biology declines.
5. Herbicides and pesticides:  These chemicals are mostly indiscriminate, killing beneficial insects (like pollinators and pest consuming predators) and beneficial microbes as well as the pests they are designed to kill.  Its unlikely we get away unscathed from the effects of chemical residues in our food either.
6. Antibiotics:  Factory farming of livestock, where feed-stock is largely grain based (not the natural food of ruminants) and the animals are confined in cramped unsanitary conditions, is not conducive to animal good health.  Widespread and intensive use of antibiotics keeps the inevitable animal diseases under control and accelerates growth, but this massive use of antibiotics is said to be a major player in the development of antibiotic resistant pathogens (animal and human).

Good quality organic food contains all the nutrients you need to maintain excellent health and vitality.  So what's the secret? and why are we not getting these essential nutrients from mainstream supermarket food?  Its all about what's happening in the soil and I go into this in detail on my blog page The Soil Foodweb.

We need to adopt farming practices which nurture the soil and do not use poisonous chemicals to grow food.  I believe this change will happen.  It has started here in Australia and is gathering momentum, but it will take time.  Meanwhile I urge you to grow some of your own food organically, and buy as much of the rest as you can from certified organic sources.  Your body will thank you for it.