Why Your Body's Strong Cells Need Fruits Vegetables And Supplements

Why is our health threatened by twenty-first century diets and inadequate production of the right food? What a strange question in a highly industrialized country brimming with all kinds of food products. But there is a dramatic difference between nutrient-rich foods and nutrient-poor foods which makes a universal difference in how your cells look and act. How can we be so efficient in satisfying appetites and yet so irrelevant to our precious cellular integrity?

There is definitely an "army" of bad, nutrient destroying food out there that uses overheating, hydrogenation, preservatives and other additives which increase cellular diseases. Fortunately, our defenses are found within our own strong immune system best supported by a company of fresh fruits and vegetables. Still Nature's call to back to basics has serious antagonists to overcome.

There are 6 problems, like domino effects, which interconnect poor nutrient food quality with poor cellular nourishment of our bodies.

1. Soil exhaustion. Our soil is the source of minerals which are absorbed by the plant's roots through osmosis—if there are no minerals in the soil there are no minerals in the plants, food and consequently in our cells. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the mineral content of fresh vegetables and the mineral content in which they grew. De-mineralization of soil and plants deprives trace minerals in the cells which are linked to numerous specific functions. From a giant agri-business viewpoint, this is not as important as forced production methods to increase the yield and profits per acre of crops including pesticides and herbicides.

2. Plants. Plants are our only source for vitamins and minerals. They need carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper and more in a similar way to our cells because our body cannot synthesize vitamins in any appreciable amount. If we buy our vegetables and fruits in a store, then these conventional crops were grown on huge farms with depleted soil conditions. The green harvesting, cold storage and transportation of plants also significantly diminish the nutrient quality.

3. Animals and their products. Meat or animal by-products provide essential fats and amino proteins. Similarly, our meat industry is largely controlled by mega-industrialists whose aim is to turn an animal into a box of beef in the shortest time possible. Beef cattle are kept in pens, 150 animals per pen, and fattened on an unnatural diet of grain, growth hormones, protein supplements and antibacterial medication. Grain- fed cattle have more cholesterol than grass-fed. Other questions are about the safety of fish, especially farmed salmon also raised in enclosures with artificial feed and antibiotics. Even eggs are questionable because a typical hen that produces commercial eggs in shoebox cage on conveyor belts is also subject to antibiotics, growth hormones and poor nutrition conditions away from the range.

4. Food manufacturing industry. Huge corporations manufacture or process food stuff into boxes or bottles for consumption. In fact, about 90% of money spend on food is on processed food with preservatives, additives and coloring and only 10% on fresh food. Why do you think this is? One reason could be that packaged food marketers spend an estimated 15 billion dollars on marketing aimed at children for sugary, grease and processed foods by using celebrity role models, Saturday morning cartoons and school vending machines.

Let's take an example with bread. Wheat grain is taken from the field and robbed of 22 essential nutrients including the valuable magnesium in order to mill it into white flour. Agencies then "enrich" the product for marketing value. That slice of soft, squishy white stuff that kids love to eat on TV is quickly turned into carbohydrates, the excess which is converted, via insulin, into fat and stored in fatty tissue, the precursor of syndrome X and diabetes.

5. Cultural eating habits that closely reflect corporate marketing and profiteering. Studies show that only 9% of the population eat the recommended 8 to 10 vegetables and fruits, and even less for children. You don't hear this kind of TV advertisement, "If you start your day the Kellogg way, you'll get what you deserve…obesity and diabetes." You don't hear Ronald McDonald telling children, "Be careful what you eat because a fast food breakfast will dramatically increase inflammatory markers in the blood stream up to 4 hours after eating."

6. The final issue is the general lack of community and heritage of food to the land and farmers. Our food system has moved from dirt to store to dinner plate beyond independent family farms and wholesalers to giant, publicly held, food processing and distribution firms which form even larger conglomerates or "global food chain clusters. We now have regional and national chains of large supermarkets and even larger retail "Super Centers," franchised restaurants and fast food joints. It is no wonder that some children can't identify a fresh vegetable or where eggs come from.

Also, it would be remiss when talking about food sources not to mention the advent of genetically modified food crops with its random altering of genetic codes. "With little or no regulatory restraints, labeling requirements, or scientific protocol, bio-engineers and "life-science" corporations such as Monsanto and Novartis have been creating hundreds of new "Frankenfoods" to possibly dominate and monopolize the global market for seeds, foods, fiber and even medical products."

It was only as recently as 2001 that the Journal of American Medicine finally noted that there was enough long-term, clinical evidence to recommend supplements. Ultimately, food is our medicine, but our overprocessed diet simply does not meet the basic necessities.

This is why we need to supplement our diets with a full spectrum of nutrients to build healthy cells and enable the body to regenerate and repair cells properly, not degenerate into disease.

The need for dietary supplementation is irrefutable but one of the biggest dilemmas is how to be knowledgeable in choosing the proper supplement that will assimilate biologically within the cell. One on-line store has for sale 65,000 products.

Taking vitamins is an act of faith. There is no instant gratification because it takes months for the cells to rebuild.

Let's imagine a game board called Pick Your Vitamins. There are only two rules:

(1) Life begins, is maintained, and ends at the cellular level.

(2) The health of a single cell holds the key to the health of the whole organism.

You would start in the middle of a maze of words and descriptions: alternative, complementary, herbals, homeopathic, commercial, organic, food manufacturing, doctors, Physician Desk Reference, drugs for symptoms, side effects, bioflavonoids, neutraceuticals, fad diets, low-carb, self-prescription, OTC's, buzzwords, friend's advice, health food stores, websites, diet and weight loss.

Yet Health is not a game and your vitamins must never be part of a roulette wheel.

Your choice of vitamins is the most important decision you can make based on scientific support to meet your bio-chemical infrastructure without special interest groups, marketing psychology and profit margins. My choice is now a whole food supplement based on the best nutrient sources from both land and sea, and if, my cells could talk, I'm sure they would be grateful.


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Anne-Marie Berukoff is certified Nutritional Supplement Distributor and retired teacher. Her WELLNESS mission is whole food preventative health 101 Reasons to Plug Into Powerful Phytonutrients for Health. Learn how your whole family can benefit doctor-formulated chewable supplements from best nutrient-rich sources. Chewable weight loss product with 10 unique natural ingredients 212 990 6438