When we think of deficiency, we think of the millions of starving people in countries far far away that we see on television from time to time. Visions of Somalia and Darfur come to mind. Yet here in the West it seems impossible for any one of us to be deficient. There is no shortage of food. The sheer number of calories we have available to us and consume on a daily basis seems to make it impossible for one to be deficient of anything, let alone anything nutritionally related. However, upon closer examination we find that most U.S. residents are severely deficient and it turns out this is one of the two most common sneaky culprits that cause a multitude of health symptoms, most health symptoms in fact, and is most often overlooked. It has been demonstrated that 90% of all cancers are linked to nutritional and environmental factors and that you have a 75% chance of dying from a disease state caused by a nutritional or lifestyle factor. The two root causes of both of these statistics lie in deficiency and toxicity of the body.
While we have grown accustomed to judging what we eat by the number of calories we intake, that view is extremely myopic and causes us to overlook one of the biggest contributors to health problems in our country, deficiency. Here is the U.S we are deficient in key and essential nutrients our body needs in order to ward of sickness and disease, to remain balanced, to have high energy levels and attain and maintain superior health. Deficiency is defined as a lack of something. As pertaining to our health and diet, deficiency is a lack of essential nutrients that are vital for the body to rebuild itself and function as it should. The body's health is only maintained when there are sufficient quantities of all the nutrients it requires. If any one of these nutrients is not supplied sufficiently, there is an immediate slowdown in physical function. When deficiencies continue for an extended period of time, it creates substantial changes in the make up of the body and causes a gradual weakening of the body's resistance. As the body is continuously deprived of essential nutrients it begins to slow, functions become less efficient, organs become stressed and over time there is a general wearing out. The lowered overall resistance of the body also makes it highly susceptible to sickness and disease. A body suffering from nutrient deficiencies functions less effectively and eliminates wastes and toxins more poorly. Illnesses of all kinds come into existence as the body is overloaded with wastes and toxins and is suffering from deficiencies.
A report entitled National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey issued by released from the USDA-ARS Food Surveys Research Group (FSRG) found that Americans are deficient in key nutrients.The most alarming shortfalls were found for Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, Selenium, Magnesium and Potassium. Although they found these to be specifically deficient, vitamins and minerals work synergistically and when one is deficient others are unable to work as they should and they also become deficient. This is why nutrients are found together in foods, because they are dependent upon one another. Minerals and vitamins and especially dependent upon one another. Minerals are the catalysts that cause vitamins to work, without them vitamins cannot do their job. All vitamins, minerals and trace elements are intricately dependent on each other in the body. Therefore a deficiency in any one of the nutrients, causes a series of other deficiencies. To some this may not seem like a big deal but when you look closely at what each of these nutrients are responsible for in the body, you begin to gain a different perspective:
- Vitamin E is is intricately connected to four other nutrients: vitamin C, glutathione, selenium, and vitamin B3. Vitamin E is essential for your hair, skin, fingernails and organs. It has antioxidant qualities that help heal, repair and rejuvenate. Vitamin E also plays a role in the formation of red blood cells. Red blood cells are responsible for delivering nutrients and oxygen to other parts of your body, along with a variety of other important jobs. Without healthy red blood cells your body becomes oxygen deprived and a low oxygen environment creates and acidic environment which is fertile ground for the growth of disease and the degradation of health, energy and vitality.
- Vitamin C has been found to have over 100 different actions in the body. It is one of the most versatile and valuable nutrients in the body. Vitamin C has significant interactions with several key minerals in the body - it enhances iron uptake and is required for regeneration of vitamin E. Both Vitamins C & E appear to work together as powerful antioxidants and in the survey both were found to be deficient. Vitamin C is important for a strong and healthy immune system and is a powerful antioxidant. It plays a key role in helping the body stay cancer free.
- Vitamin A is a fat-soluable vitamin and the transport and utilization of vitamin A is dependent upon several vitamin A binding proteins. Adequate intake of dietary fat and zinc is necessary for the absorption and utilization of vitamin A. It is essential for supporting your vision, skin, healthy bone growth and your immune system. As an antioxidant vitamin A helps skin to repair, stay moist, and produce the enzymes that stabilizes the production of collagen.
- Selenium is indirectly responsible for keeping the body's supply of at least three other nutrients intact - vitamin C, glutathione, and vitamin E. The chemistry of these relationships is complicated and centers around an enzyme called glutathione peroxidase. This enzyme cannot function without selenium. Selenium is an essential mineral that helps protect cells against oxidative damage from free radicals. It is necessary for thyroid function and immune system functioning, as well as for overall health.
- Magensium is required for calcium uptake and maintaining balance in the body's metabolism. Magnesium also has an important relationship with potassium, and helps regulate the movement of potassium in and out of our cells. It is an essential nutrient for maintaining an alkaline environment in the body.
- Potassium works in the body through a mechanism known as the "sodium-potassium" pump - sodium and potassium work together to initiate muscle contraction and nerve transmission, and to maintain the body’s normal distribution of fluid. These two minerals are dependent on each other to maintain balance in the body. Potassium is known to decrease the excretion of calcium, so adequate intake of potassium is as important as adequate intake of Vitamin D and calcium for bones.
- Vitamin D plays a major role in maintaining normal blood levels of calcium and impacts the absorption and storage of calcium. Vitamin D also stimulates the absorption of phosphorous. It is also a key element in healthy hormone regulation in the body. Vitamin D is needed for healthy bones and kidneys. Vitamin D deficiency may also result in iron deficiency.
In addition to these key nutrients, Americans are increasingly deficient in fiber, water, oxygen, enzymes and biochemically active phytochemicals. All of which work in the body to keep it healthy and balanced. So how is it in a nation that has no shortage of food has such a high rate of nutritionally deficiency? The answer lies in how we create and consume food.
Essential vitamins and especially minerals come into our body through the foods we eat, sunlight, water and through bacteria in our gut. Healthy bacteria in the gut manufacture certain vitamins most especially B-vitamins. The largest volume of nutrients come into our body from plants. Whether you are a vegetarian or not, you are getting the key nutrients you need through plants, either first or second hand. If you eat animal products the animals first eat the plants and then you eat the animal. Vitamins are organic substances, which mean they are found in foods. Mineral are inorganic and are found in the soil, water and air.
Our modern ways of growing foods: commercialized farming practices; Manufacturing foods: refining, processing, packaging and shipping; and Eating foods: microwaving, high heat cooking and BBQ'ing, all contribute to nutrient deficiency. It all begins with the soil. Commercialized farming methods have strayed from the natural ways of growing foods in an attempt to increase profits. While doing so they have degraded the soil to a point that the naturally present high nutrient content of living plants foods has been almost completely destroyed. Organic, healthy, fertile soil yields plants with higher contents of all key nutrients, and also living enzymes, probiotics, phytochemicals and pure oxygen and water. Foods grown in depleted, degraded, chemically laden soil yield similar depleted, degraded, toxic plants. High heats then applied to foods through processing, refining and cooking destroy another 80% of the nutrients naturally present in living plant foods. Over 105 degrees, sensitive phytochemicals, living enzymes, pure oxygen and water are all completely destroyed and vitamins and minerals are further destroyed and degraded. Long shipping times and shelf lives further contribute to a food's nutrient loss, as do toxic chemicals used on inorganic foods which interfere in the body's ability to utilize nutrients. Processed and refined foods are then further manipulated with chemical additives, preservatives, colorings and taste enhancers. What we have relegated ourselves to then are toxic chemically laden foods, grown in depleted degraded soils, refined, processed and mechanically manipulated, shipped hundreds if not thousands of miles, filled with additives, preservatives and other chemicals "enhancers." It is no wonder we are deficient! Deficient in everything natural and healthy that our body needs!
If you eat a Westernized diet that is high in cooked, processed, refined and fast foods you are most probably suffering from deficiency.
Steps to Reversing Deficiency:
1. Eat Organic Foods. Organic foods come from healthier, more nutrient dense soil which in turn yields higher nutrient content plants. Organic foods are also free of additives, colorings, taste enhances and toxic chemicals that interfere with the body's ability to utilize nutrients and increases the amount of toxicity present in the body.
2. Eat Live Foods. Foods that are alive are still in their natural state, having all their nutrients still 100% in tact. Nutrients begin to be degraded when a foods are heated or processed, sometimes multiple times, from their original natural state. Eat foods in their living natural state and deficiency is impossible. A minimum of 50% living foods in your diet, to a most healthy ratio of 80% living foods in your diet will keep you at the highest levels of health.
3. Eat Whole Foods. Once a food has been degraded from its natural state, through processing or refining, its nutrient content has also been degraded and it becomes increasingly possible to become deficient when eating these foods. Keeping foods in their natural state, whole, keeps all of their valuable nutrients in tact.
4. Cleanse. Cleansing the body is a powerful tool in eliminating built up toxins and wastes while restoring deficiencies with a high concentration of nutrients. Cleansing does not mean taking a supplement or pill to "cleanse", a true cleanse is one built on living, raw foods and juices which infuse the body with powerful living nutrients, cleansing out waste and restoring deficiency. When you cleanse the right way you not only restore deficiencies but also cleanse the body of wastes and toxins, addressing both roots of health symptoms. Cleansing & Detoxification
When you address deficiency and toxicity in the body you see health symptoms, you may have even lived with for years, suddenly vanish. You also attain and maintain strong and consistent levels of energy, clarity and health you never knew possible.
At Align Holistic Health & Well Being, LLC we offer natural, holistic approaches to restoring deficiencies through Individualized Nutritional Therapy, Healthful Cooking Classes, Grocery Store Learning Excursions, Lectures, Workshops and Holistic Raw Food & Juice Cleanse Programs. All of our approaches are based on organic, live, whole foods and address all areas of one's body, mind and spirit simultaneously. For more information about how our services will help you reverse health symptoms and attain and maintain superior levels of health and well being visit our web site at : Align Holistic Health & Well Being
Align Holistic Health & Well Being, LLC
A Place Where Health is Transformed
www.alignholistichealth.com
720-277-912424
No comments:
Post a Comment