Why People – Especially Kids – Are Not Getting Enough Minerals (and What to Do About It)

by Donna Gates for BodyEcology.com

You care about your kids and give them fruits and vegetables, but did you know many of today’s foods are mineral deficient? Here’s how to boost your health and that of future generations with foods rich in precious vitamins and minerals.

Once upon a time, people grew and harvested fruits and vegetables that they used to make healthy, whole food meals. Those fruits and vegetables were full of vital nutrients from the land and nourished the bodies of those who ate them, helping them to grow healthy and strong.

Today we’re told to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet, but even if you are eating them, something is most likely missing.

Our produce no longer has all the nutrients we need.

In fact, the USDA has reported that there is a 25-80% decline in the mineral content of the foods we eat.¹

Whether a result of over-farming, pesticides, genetically altered seeds, decreased soil quality, or fertilizers, one thing is for certain: Americans young and old are mineral deficient because our food supply no longer gives us the nutrients we need.

Dangerous Mineral Deficiency

Taking in significant amounts of minerals is an overlooked and underemphasized reason why so many of us are not really healthy today. It greatly contributes to early and needless aging. Active in every single function of your (and your child’s) body, minerals are absolutely essential to good health.

Consider the Japanese, who many years ago consumed a diet very rich in minerals. Their diets consisted of sea vegetables at every meal. They enjoyed good health exemplified by their dark, shiny hair, few wrinkles, calm and focused demeanors, and long lives.

Gradually, though, the influence of the West has taken over.

Many modern Japanese have abandoned their traditional ways of eating in favor of processed foods, caffeine and sugar. These mineral-depleting foods cause gray hair, wrinkles and other signs of premature aging. The Japanese are now just as concerned as we are about their children’s health. We are all seeing a generation of young children and teens who are intellectually very bright, but are unable to sit still and focus. Read on and I’ll explain why.

Tying the dots of research together will show you that mineral deficiencies play a major role in these changes and this has long been a factor in the declining health of adults and children the world over.

The major reasons we are now lacking minerals are:

• Decreased amount of minerals in our food supply
• Consumption of mineral depleting processed foods
• Eating too much sugar
• Relying on caffeine for energy
• High stress lifestyles
• Lack of quality sleep

The Many Health Benefits of Minerals

It is so important that it must be stated again: minerals are active in every single function of your body.

Here are just a few of the almost endless examples of the health benefits of minerals:

• Magnesium helps convert blood sugar to energy, and is the ‘anti-stress’ mineral.
• Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body; it initiates DNA synthesis, maintains bone health and strong teeth.
• Potassium maintains acid/alkaline balance in your blood.
• Zinc promotes proper nerve, immune and digestive health and boosts immunity.
• Phosphorous helps maintain heart regularity, provides energy and aids in metabolism of fats and starches.

When you are mineral deficient, your whole body suffers.

But nowhere in your body suffers more from mineral deficiency than your adrenals.

Your adrenals are walnut sized glands that sit on top of your kidneys. The workhorses of your body, healthy adrenals ensure that you have lots of energy, help you sleep soundly, and regulate your brain, heart, liver, digestive, endocrine, and nervous systems. We age because our hormone levels decline each decade, and minerals are a vital nutrient for the organs in our body that produce our hormones.

Your adrenals are also an integral part of your body’s response to stress. To be healthy our adrenals need feeding. And what they like to eat are minerals, B Vitamins and plenty of Vitamin C.

Unfortunately, one of the major ways we “stress out” our adrenals is by not feeding them with the minerals they need to function. When our adrenals are mineral deficient, we may suffer from insomnia, have an acidic, achy stomach and have trouble digesting food. Our hormones will be out of balance, we feel sluggish and tired, gain weight, feel depressed and have difficulty concentrating.

So feeding your adrenals with minerals is important for everyone, especially children and teens who are not only growing but who will become the future parents of the world. Create healthy children and teens, help them create a healthy new generation of babies someday and we can turn around the health crisis on the planet.

Minerals are so important that it’s critical to nourish your own adrenals even before you have children AND extra amounts of minerals should be taken by a mother-to-be when she is creating a new life inside her womb!

Research has shown that when a pregnant woman experiences stress during her pregnancy her fetus experiences stress too. Stress has a negative effect on the mother’s adrenals, but it also affects her baby’s newly-forming adrenal cells.

One research study shows that when babies experience stress in the womb the cells of their adrenals are expanded and become weak. The study showed that these children were highly intelligent but could not handle stressful situations.  They had trouble focusing and sitting calmly in school. They had trouble going to sleep at night.  (Sound familiar?) This certainly helps explain behavioral and learning problems after birth. Research also indicates that children whose mothers experienced stress during pregnancy may be at greater risk for mental illness later in life.² (This may explain the climbing rate of teen depression today and depression among those of African American decent.)

Clearly our current epidemics of mental health problems and developmental disorders like autism and ADD can be traced back to poor nutrition, environmental toxins and stressful lifestyles. Fortunately, Body Ecology has a number of wonderful solutions to offer the world at this time.

From conception, our children are not receiving the valuable minerals they need to grow healthy and strong. For those of us who are well past childhood, the fatigue, stress, chronic diseases, and deterioration of our bodies indicate that mineral deficiency is taking its toll.

But if we can’t depend on our food supply to nourish us with the minerals we need, what are we to do?

Simple Antidote to Mineral Deficiency

I created the Body Ecology system of health and healing as a mineral-rich antidote to our modern world.

By following the Body Ecology diet, you can replenish your body with the minerals it needs, not only to function properly, but also to attain vibrant health! Whether you are a parent yet or not, a diet rich in minerals will prepare you to pass on a legacy of health to our most precious resources: the next generation of children.

Here are 6 easy tips for you to reclaim your health and get missing minerals for you and your kids:

1. Choose organic foods. When you dine on organic foods, you are eating foods that more flavorful but are free of toxic pesticides AND have more vitamins and minerals. Organic farmers have strict rules for keeping the soil mineral rich, like the soil that kept our ancestors healthy and safe from mineral deficiency.
2. Have a mineral-rich green drink every day. VITALITY SUPER GREEN should be your morning MUST!!!  It’s made from whole-food green powder that has fermented grasses, algae, green vegetables, enzymes and probiotics that pack a powerful mineral punch. Read about one mom who sends her kids to school with their very own mineral-rich green drink!
3. Include fermented foods and drinks. In fact, you won’t be able to really correct a mineral deficiency long term without the use of fermented foods, like cultured vegetables and fermented drinks, like Young Coconut Kefir or ready-made Coco-Biotic.
   

   Need more minerals? Then try this energy-boosting whole food. Vitality SuperGreen is a delicious way to boost your mineral intake while you get powerful probiotics and healthy fiber to restore the health of your digestive system at the same time. Try Vitality SuperGreen for a boost of energy in your day!

   Yes,  they are an excellent source of much needed vitamins and minerals. But perhaps even more importantly, the microflora in these probiotic foods,enhance digestion of all foods you eat. Remember it is not just WHAT you eat but HOW IT IS DIGESTED that is important. Yes, you will need to consume, drink and devour mineral-rich foods but you want to digest them as well.

   When it comes to minerals, probiotic-rich foods pack a powerful nutritional punch!

4. Eat your sea vegetables. Sea vegetables, or seaweed, are some of nature’s most nutritious foods. Introduced to the American health food stores by the macrobiotic movement, sea vegetables have been a staple in Asian cultures for thousands of years. Sea veggies improve thyroid function, naturally detoxify your body, and are important foods to help you overcome mineral deficiencies. We suggest you find a way to eat them at least once a day. The traditional Japanese diet includes them in every meal. (Japanese women are the longest lived group in the world.)
   
5. Eliminate processed sugars from your diet and use natural sugar substitutes instead. Every time you eat sugar, it causes your blood to become too acid. To make your blood more alkaline again, minerals are pulled from your bones and teeth where they are stored until needed.

   Sugar interferes with your body’s absorption of calcium and magnesium and may cause chromium and copper deficiencies. But if you still need the sweet taste that sugar provides, try Body Ecology’s all natural sugar substitute, Lakanto, for baking delicious recipes without the dangers of sugar.

6. Stress less and sleep more. This goes for parents and kids alike. Stressed parents and kids have weaker immune systems and have trouble sleeping.³

   Institute early bed times and stick with it. Find fun ways to handle stress. You’ll pass these positive habits on to your children and nourish your adrenals at the same time. Read Sleeping Trouble? Discover Why Winter is the Ideal Time to Learn How to Sleep Right to learn more about the minerals and sleep connection.

Essential Minerals

As our modern world puts more stress on our bodies, our minds and our environment, it becomes even more important to take charge of our health and the health of our kids.

Minerals are essential to your well-being, but the Standard American Diet does not provide you with all the nutrients you and your children need. By following the Body Ecology system of health and healing you can replenish your body’s storehouse of minerals and improve your health, as well as the health of generations to come.

Sources:

1 Jack, Alex, “Fruit Basket Upset: The Disappearing Nutrients in America’s Orchards,” CommunicationAgents.com.
http://www.communicationagents.com/emma_holister/2004/12/12/the_disappearing_nutrients_in_americas.htm

2 Dingfelder, Sadie, “Programmed for psychopathology?” APA.org.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb04/programmed.html

3 Caffeine, Nutrition.com.sg.
http://www.nutrition.com.sg/atd/atdcaffeine.asp

4 Children Under Stress Develop More Fevers, MedicalNewsToday.com, 9 Mar 2007. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/64586.php

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