Soil Depletion of Nutrients Is Not the Problem - Our Food Choices Are

Contrary to many of the horror stories you hear, our soil is not de­ pleted of nutrients. California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Florida, and other states still have rich, fertile land that produces most of our fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. America provides some of the most nutrient-rich produce in the world.

Our government publishes nutritional analyses of foods. It takes food from a variety of supermarkets across the country, analyzes it, and publishes the results.  Contrary to claims of many health-food and supplement enthusiasts, the produce grown in this country is nutrient-rich  and  high  in  trace  minerals,  especially  beans,  nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. American-produced grains, however, do not have the mineral density of vegetables. Grains and animal-

feed crops grown in the southeastern states are the most deficient, but even in those states only a small percentage of crops are shown to be deficient in minerals. Thankfully, by eating a diet with a wide variety of natural plant
foods,  from  a  variety of soils,  the  threat of nutritional  deficiency merely as a result of soil inadequacy is eliminated. Americans are not nutrient-deficient because of our depleted soil, as some nutritional-
supplement proponents claim. Americans are nutrient-deficient be­ cause they do not eat a sufficient quantity of fresh produce. Over 90 percent of the calories consumed by Americans come from refined foods or animal products. With such a small percentage of our diet con­ sisting of unrefined plant foods, how could we not become nutrient-deficient? Since more than 40 percent of the calories in the American diet are derived from sugar or refined grains, both of which are nutrientdepleted, Americans are severely malnourished. Refined sugars cause us to be malnourished in direct proportion to how much we con­ sume them. They are partially to blame for the high cancer and heart attack rates we see in AmericaIt  is  not  merely dental  cavities  that  should  concern us about sugar. If we allow ourselves and our children to utilize sugar, white-flour products, and oil to supply the majority of calories,  as most American families do, we shall be condemning ourselves to a lifetime of sickness, medical problems, and a premature death. Refined sugars include table sugar (sucrose), milk sugar (lactose) honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, corn sweet­ eners, and fruit juice concentrates. Even the bottled and boxed fruit juices that many children drink are a poor food; with no significant nutrient density, they lead to obesity and disease. Processed apple juice, which is not far from sugar water in its nutrient score, accounts for almost 50 percent of all fruit servings consumed by preschool­ ers. For example, apple juice contains none of the vitamin C origi­ nally present in the whole apple. Oranges make the most nutritious
juice, but even orange juice can't compare with the original orange. In citrus fruits, most of the anti-cancer compounds are present in the
membranes and pulp, which are removed in processing juice. Those
cardboard containers of orange juice contain less than 10 percent of the vitamin C present in an orange and even less of the fiber and phytochemicals. Juice is not fruit, and prepackaged juices do not con­ tain even one-tenth of the nutrients present in fresh fruit.