What makes us different? Read our Declaration of Journalistic Independence Home | About Natural News | Contact Us | Write for Natural News
minerals

Secrets of soil nutrition: Why the minerals in soil determine the success or failure of foods, health and civilization

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 by: Mike Adams (see all articles by this author) | Key concepts: minerals, nutrition and selenium

Want stories like this e-mailed to you? Click here for free email alerts

Email this article to a friend Printable Version

Personal Health Solutions from NaturalNews

Replace your toxic laundry detergent with natural laundry soap that grows on trees! (Popular solution!)
This top "underground" natural health newsletter brings you amazing new natural cures each month. Save $100!
How to treat and cure over 100 health conditions using little-known health secrets
How to halt type-2 diabetes with nutritional therapy - over 50% cure rate proven in studies
End cravings with this guide to natural appetite suppressants (Download edition available.)
How to blend nutritious meals in minutes with Adams' Superfood smoothie recipes (Delicious!)
Breakthrough LED lighting technology prevents global warming, saves 90% on your lighting bill

Browse more health books...
Shop our eco-friendly products...

All sales help fund NaturalNews operations.
In learning about nutrition, we often hear that certain foods contain a certain amount of vitamins and minerals. This is especially true in fruits, vegetables, and other produce, but very few people understand the truth about this information, which is that most of the published values about this nutritional content are not correct. This is especially true among minerals, and that's the point of this story.

Most of the produce you buy in a grocery store does not have anything close to the mineral profile it is supposed to have according to nutritional textbooks. This is because minerals are not manufactured by plants, whereas vitamins and phytonutrients are. When plants create such nutrients, they synthesize them through chemical and energetic processes that can only be called miraculous. But as capable as they are, plants do not create minerals. Minerals have to be absorbed through the soil, and if they are not present in the soil, then the plant's roots cannot take them up, and therefore they will not be present in the plant.

The nutritional and mineral profile of the plant ultimately depends on the mineral content of the soil. Since soils today are so over-farmed and depleted of all but a few basic minerals, most of our produce lacks the minerals they should contain. For example, a lot of plants absorb selenium when selenium is present in the soil. But when selenium is not present in the soil, of course it's not available to the plant. The plant gets grown and taken to the store and sold and consumed anyway, even though it doesn't have the levels of selenium that it should contain according to traditional textbooks.

Interestingly, tomatoes can be grown to look very good cosmetically, even though they lack selenium and all the minerals that should be present. It really only takes three minerals to grow tomatoes or other vegetables. Of course, those vegetables will be nutritionally deficient, which means they won't be as healthy as they could be. They won't be as resistant to disease and pests, and they won't taste nearly as good either. So if you are eating tomatoes or produce grown in nutritionally depleted soils, then you are consuming inferior produce, and that's what's available in stores today.

Here's a common question about minerals and produce: How do tomatoes or other plants know which minerals to absorb? The answer is that each plant has a different mineral absorption profile. A tomato will absorb a certain number of minerals (around 56), and it will absorb no more. It will only absorb the 56 that it is programmed to absorb.

Grasses for example, will absorb over 70 minerals. Sweet potatoes, or yams, absorb more minerals than potatoes, and some plants absorb fewer minerals. Some plants absorb only 20 or 30 minerals. Each plant has a different profile of what it will absorb. Of course, it can only absorb what is present in the soil. So even though a tomato should contain 56 minerals, you may be eating a tomato purchased at the grocery store that only contains 12 minerals or 7 minerals. You are missing out on all the minerals it could have.

This is why it's a great idea to eat Brazil nuts from time to time, because Brazil nuts are the only commonly available nut that's grown wild in naturally mineralized soils. Brazil nuts are mostly wild crafted, meaning that they are collected out in nature from wild plants, and they are very high in selenium. In fact, just eating three Brazil nuts a day gives you the minimum daily requirement for selenium. Of course, selenium is a very important mineral for preventing Alzheimer's disease, preventing cancer and many other disorders. It's also a great anti-viral mineral.

The point of this is that, when we read in a book that Kale is a great source of calcium, or that broccoli is a good source of selenium, we really have to imagine an asterisk behind that statement. Kale may be a good source of calcium if there was calcium present in the soil in which it was grown. Broccoli may be a good source of selenium, but only if selenium was present in the soil.

The gift of natural disasters to replenish soils

As bad as things look today in terms of produce mineralization, it's only going to get worse in the foreseeable future. The longer our soils are farmed with large-scale commercial farming techniques, the worse the situation is going to get and the lower the mineral content will become. This is why floods, tsunamis and even volcanoes are very good for humans in the long-term, because they recycle the soil and deposit more minerals and new nutrients onto lands that can be used for farming.

Following the late 2004 tsunami in Thailand, the soils there produced outstanding crop yields because ocean water had been deposited onto the land. Ocean water contains all the minerals we need, and those minerals helped create an abundance of crops in the following season.

Back at the dawn of human civilization when we lived along the Nile, the river regularly flooded and would bring nutrients and minerals back to the croplands. That is what sustained early human civilization. The dawn of agriculture was dependent on the flooding of a river. Had that river not flooded and that land been farmed over and over again from generation to generation, the civilization there would have died due to malnutrition. It could not have sustained itself.

Much the same is happening in the United States today. Our civilization is crumbling for a number of reasons related to health. Our population is more diseased than any population in recorded history. Our mental capacity is diminished more than any other population. We have health care costs that are bankrupting our corporations and bankrupting our economy. We are on the verge of a collapse in part caused by a lack of mineralization. It sounds simplistic, but it's absolutely true. Health is the foundation of all abundant civilizations. Without health, there can be no trade, education, peace or abundance. Without mineralization, there can be no health.

The next time you go shopping for produce, don't trust the mineral claims on fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. If you want to boost the mineral content of the foods you buy, buy organic. Organic foods almost always have higher mineral concentrations than conventionally grown foods.

If you really want to do it right, grow your own food and apply diluted seawater (or trace minerals water) to your soil. That will give you the healthiest, highest mineral density plants available anywhere in the world. You can only grow them yourself because I'm not aware of any commercially grower using seawater, which is a great oversight. The source I recommend for seawater is called OceanGrown.com. They will sell you concentrated seawater that you can then dilute and apply to your garden.

###

Related Articles

The Many Benefits and Uses of Sea Minerals

Mannatech Introduces a Revolutionary Advancement in Vitamin, Mineral and Phytochemical Supplementation (press release)

Are the coral calcium claims by Bob Barefoot credible and believable?

Healing Illness - A Natural Anti-Cancer Protocol

Vitamins & minerals in a spray? Popular sublingual spray product puts liquid vitamins in a spray bottle

Popular Topics:

minerals, nutrition, selenium, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Breast cancer, Prostate cancer, Heart disease, Depression, High cholesterol, Osteoporosis, Vaccines, Autism, ADHD, Infertility, Weight loss, Cancer, Alzheimer's, Trans fats, Acrylamides, Fluoride, Mercury

Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com

Email this article to a friend

Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us

Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/020072.html

Reprinting this article: Non-commercial OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link.

Receive our Natural Health Newsletter for FREE

Subscribe now (it's free!) to win. We randomly choose a subscriber each month to send $100 in eco-home products or a RealGoods.com gift certificate (our choice). Plus, you'll receive FREE news, articles and action alerts from NaturalNews.com editors and join over 800,000 monthly readers who report extraordinary health improvements after becoming a subscriber!
  • Receive breaking news alerts on natural health solutions, renewable energy, the environment, global warming and more.
  • Receive a free instant download of our $29 Secret Sources guide that reveals top sources for little-known health and diet solutions.
Your Email Address:
Free Subscription Code:
Enter the numbers you see:
100% free of charge. Unsubscribe anytime.
Absolutely no spam. We respect your email privacy.

Recommended Special Report:

Seven Words that can Change the World
by Joseph R. Simonetta

Read this special report now...

"Seven Words That Can Change the World reveals the astonishing, simple truths that have the power to forever transform our world for the better while freeing our minds from the enslavement of limiting beliefs. This is not a text for the simple-minded; it is a guiding philosophy for the mindful, intelligent few who are wise enough to seek out -- and recognize -- the higher simplicities of truly purposeful living." - Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, editor of NaturalNews.com

More on NaturalNews.com:

Streaming Health Ranger Videos
CounterThink Cartoons
FREE Special Reports
Podcasts

Also Posted Today

Review: Organic Food Bar Offers Exclusive Discount to Natural News Readers on Their Best Food Bars

Indole-3-Carbinol Nutrient in Broccoli Protects the Heart, Balances Cholesterol

The HPV Vaccine: Herd Immunity or Human Sacrifice?

Lead in Diabecon? An Ayurvedic Anti-Diabetes Herbal Complex Gets the Test

Scientists Agree That EMFs Pose a Threat to Your Health

Beat Disease With Juice Feasting!

NEW 6-CD audio set reveals amazing new protocol for reversing cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and more. Click to learn more.

Own Health Ranger Report Podcasts on Audio CD

Own the first 8 Health Ranger Report audio programs on 6 CDs. Covers weight loss, ADHD, vaccinations, processed meats, bone health and more. Click to learn more.

Featured Videos

Short clip on Aspartame
A short clip on aspartame from the documentary All Jacked Up.
Click here to view now...

Exclusive video on Aspartame
The dangers of aspartame! Exclusive interview footage from Cori Brackett of Sweet Remedy.
Click here to view now...

Exclusive Footage from All Jacked Up!
See interview footage featuring the Health Ranger in the upcoming junk food film, All Jacked Up.
Click here to view now...

Drug Ad Parody
See the Health Ranger's satire parody of Merck's cholesterol drug ad.
Click here to view now...

Free Health Reports!

Amazon Herb Company review
The pH Nutrition Guide to Acid / Alkaline Balance
Pet Food Ingredients Revealed! (shocking)
Medicine From Fish
The Water Cure
The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D

Featured CounterThink Cartoons

The Plan for the Food Supply


Processed Meat for Christmas


How the Cancer Industry Controls Women


Health Product Companies We Recommend

Read recommendations on supplement companies, health food manufacturers and personal care product makers that you can trust. Our 100% independent review list tells you who to trust and who to avoid in the natural health industry. Click to read.
This site is part of the Natural News Network © 2008 All Rights Reserved. Privacy | Terms All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing International, LTD. is not responsible for content written by contributing authors. Truth Publishing sells no health or nutritional products and earns no money from health product manufacturers or promoters. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Your use of this website indicates your agreement to these terms and those published here. All trademarks, registered trademarks and servicemarks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.