Foods produced today are estimated to be much lower in mineral content when compared to foods produced 100 years ago.What are some of the factors that contribute to this? What are some of the health problems associated with this deficiency of minerals in foods?
The major reason for this is that minerals are most readily available in whole, unprocessed foods, and I'd gander that maybe 75% or more of the foods being consumed in this country today have been heavily processed and refined. In addition packaged foods are loaded with sodium and then people add sodium while cooking and then more before eating, making other minerals less available to the body.
Another important cause of which more should be aware is that even the "whole foods" available to us are not necessarily whole. Produce and animal products travel long distances to arrive on our dinner plates. Transit time alone decreases the concentration of both vitamins and minerals. On top of this, happy little fruits and vegetables have likely been intoxicated with all sorts of chemicals which degrade their mineral content, and then they may be vulnerable irradiation or other treatments, all of which are known to decrease the nutritional quality of the foods themselves.
Our own exposure to environmental pollutants and our higher likelihood to have nutritional deficiencies at some point in time make us less able to absorb minerals that actually come to us in food. So it's a big catch 22, leading to issues like anemia, underweight babies, night blindness, knotty muscles, excessive bleeding, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and heart attacks, just to name a few.
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