Public Health Topic: A Word from the Doctor
By: Dr. Arden Anderson | Friday, January 25, 2013
We are now into 2013 with all the New Year’s resolutions that go with the beginning of every new year. The most frequently expressed New Year’s Resolution every year seems to be "weight loss." Unfortunately, the official health statistics from the CDC regarding obesity in the US show as dismal, and a continuing increase in the percentage of the population is classified as obese. Either all the New Year’s resolutions to lose weight are without substance and follow through, or there is something more sinister awry with all the weight gain. I submit to you that there is a little of both at work. Many people just don’t follow through with their resolutions proven by their lack of dietary restraint. At the same time there are many people that genuinely change their dietary habits and lifestyle, yet still have great difficulty losing the weight they set out to lose. What might there be that sabotages these people from losing weight and in fact contributes to the lack of execution by those that fail to really change their diet and lifestyle? It’s a very dirty word in the medical, veterinary, drug and chemical industries; it’s "nutrition." In this case, actually it is a lack of nutrition that is the saboteur.
Ultimately we and all living organisms eat to gain the sustenance and nutrition necessary to live and protect ourselves. When we fail to obtain adequate nutrition in our food/diet, then we cannibalize our body reserves. When these reserves are exhausted, our tissues begin to decline, degenerate and eventually die. Consuming a lot of carbohydrates, (starches, sugars, grains) that are low in mineral and vitamin nutrition, our bodies will store these carbohydrate calories as, you guessed it, FAT. Contributing to the fat storage process is the fact that estrogenic compounds in the foods themselves further stimulate fat accumulation. These estrogenic compounds are present via pesticides, plastics, synthetic hormones and mycotoxins. Our bodies require minerals, vitamins and amino acids to detoxify these poisons. Nutrition is fundamentally about minerals, vitamins and amino acids with minerals and vitamins being the base. USDA research has shown a consistent decline in the mineral content of food grown under modern agricultural management. Summarizing the thought process, we see that the body seeks nutrition for sustenance. As it fails to get this nutrition but instead gets hollow calories, the body stores these calories as fat. Further taxing the demand for nutrition is the body’s need for nutrition to detoxify the poisons present in the food. Failing to obtain sufficient nutrition for detoxification, these toxic substances accumulate, especially in the fat. The process becomes a toxic, fat accumulating downward spiral. It is actually quite straight forward; as nutrition declines, so does one’s health.
Reversing this trend means obtaining the nutrition (minerals, vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids) necessary to both detoxify the poisons and regenerate/repair body cells. Because food has so declined in nutrient value, one must supplement the diet with minerals, vitamins and oils to obtain those needed to regain health, to regain the sustenance the body seeks. Supplementation must begin on the farm in the form of free choice minerals and kelp for meat and milk animals and birds. Particularly in confinement and standard pasture animal operations, the variety of plants available to the animals is limited to 3 or 4 different plants, while in nature these animals may consume as many as 100 different plants daily to obtain their needed nutrition. Consequently, the farmer must supplement the livestock for them to be healthy AND be sufficiently nutritionally fortified to provide improved nutrition for human consumers. Appropriate nutrition on the farm results in higher omega-3 fatty acids in the meat, milk and eggs, and higher levels of all minerals as well as vitamins in these same foods.
It can be a challenge for consumers to find nutrient dense foods wherever they live and shop. The more the consumer is educated about basic nutrition on the farm, the better the consumer will be able to demand more nutrient dense food. Certified organic does not mean the farmer is doing anything with improving nutrition in his products, it simply means that he has not used disallowed poisons and fertilizers, drugs and methods on his farm. Asking for fatty acid analyses of the beef and eggs, a brix reading of the milk, fruits and vegetables goes a long way in assisting the consumer in determining how nutritious the food purchase really is.
Finally, the more nutrient dense the foods purchased, the easier it will be for the consumer to meet the New Year’s Resolution of losing weight, because each food calorie will provide more nutrients and better satisfy the craving for more food, calming the hunger pains so often felt on a typical weight loss diet. People should feel better on any diet, not worse, and certainly not feel ravaging hunger cravings a few minutes after getting up from the meal table.
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Comment from ABC:
Dr. Anderson is right on the mark when he alludes to the fact that human health is influenced by the health of the animals upon which we depend for our protein sources. This thinking goes back at least to the 1940’s when Dr. William Albrecht proposed that it takes healthy soil to grow healthy plants, healthy plants to grow healthy animals and all three of these to sustain a healthy human population.
Albrecht’s observations of the grazing performance of animals on soils of differing fertility was the beginning of the concept that animals, if given the opportunity, will seek out nutrients that they require for good health. This applies not only to proteins, fats and carbohydrates but also to vitamins, major mineral and trace minerals. Centuries of soil depletion, nutrient decline and confinement have increased the need for supplemental minerals.
For decades, Advanced Biological Concepts® has been a leader in providing the livestock industry with precision tools of mineral supplementation in the form of a complete program of self-regulated cafeteria style minerals. Check out our line of Free Choice Minerals Here. Animals on this program have access to a wide array of essential minerals and vitamins which increases their health and results in healthier, more highly mineralized beef, pork and poultry. These products also taste much better to us indicating that even we humans recognize healthier, more nutritious food when confronted with it.
Sir Albert Howard, who some say is the father of the Organic Agriculture movement, summed it up thusly ---"The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible."
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