Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Pitfalls in Vegetarian Nutrition (5) – Minerals

Learning how to farm organically
is the first step of nourishment
Mineral is one of the most 
easily neglected nutrients in modern diet.

The main reason is 
due to the chemical agricultural practice in modern time.

Modern chemical agriculture 
deviates from the traditional organic farming, 
abuses on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and 
hormonal catalyzer, to boost the growth of crops and plants. 

It seems like a positive evolution in agriculture, 
having more harvest, 
feeding more people. 
However, chemical agriculture has conferred side effects, 
including the pandemic issue of mineral deficiency in modern diet.

This is because:
(1)The application of chemicals harms the microbes in the soil. 
        When microbes are not able to grow properly in the soil, 
        they cannot transform the elemental minerals into organic minerals. 

        In general, plants are not able to absorb elemental minerals in the soil. 
        When the soil microbes are not surviving, 
        there will not be sufficient organic minerals for plants. 

        Therefore, when these organic minerals-deficient crops 
        are consumed by routine, 
        people are naturally lack of minerals.


(2) Modern agriculture also abuses on 
        Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium as well as 
        hormones to catalyze the growth of crops. 
      
        Growth-boosted crops, because they are harvested early, 
        have less time in contact with the soil.  
        Chemical fertilizers and hormones although 
        may speed up the growth of the plants, 
        do not speed up the absorption of minerals from the soil. 
        Hence, eventually, growth boosted crops 
        tend to be lack of mineral due to the limited soil contact.

        Usually, our need for minerals is minute, 
        therefore a lot of people thought 
        it’s not hard to get enough minerals in their daily diet. 

        But, they do not realize crops harvested early, 
        could not even fulfill the basic mineral needs!

Mineral is part of a balanced diet, 
as it dictates 
   metabolism, 
   nervous signal transduction, 
   cellular communication, 
   immunity and 
   many essentials life mechanism.

Long term deficiency in minerals 
could bring along a lot of health hazards including 
   obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, depression etc

Vegetarian often neglect the consumption of mineral, 
falling into these pitfalls:
(a)  Preference for white rice to brown rice: 
     Brown rice contains a lot of minerals, 
     and most minerals are located in rice bran and rice germs. 
     
     Whereas white rice, 
     because has been polished away the bran and germ layers, 
     suffers from tremendous loss of minerals. 
     
     Therefore, vegetarians who avoid brown rice, 
     and consume white rice for long term will be deficient of minerals.

(b) Preference for leafy vegetables and fruits to root vegetables: 
     Different plant parts harbour different types of nutrients. 
     Some plant parts contains more vitamins (e.g. fruits), 
     some contains more proteins (e.g. seeds) and 
     some contains more minerals (e.g. roots). 

     If vegetarians have high preference for leafy vegetables and fruits, 
     then there will be a tendency of consuming less mineral.

(c)  Misunderstanding about organic produce: 
     Organic produce as above mentioned 
     are richer in minerals. 
     
     Some vegetarians may be mistaken that 
     there is no nutritional difference between 
     organic produce and conventional produce, 
     hence thought there is no need to consume organic food. 
     This is another reason of mineral deficiency.


Due to the fact that modern produce are mainly chemically grown, 
and that foodstuff nowadays are highly processed and refined, 
mineral deficiency has become a global pandemic issue. 

If this nutrients crisis is not solved in time, 
the incidence of degenerative diseases will keep climbing. 

Although we may not be able 
to reverse chemical agricultural practices 
back to organic ones in short period;
we could still support organic foods 
according to our own financial capacity. 

In order to upkeep our wellbeing, 
we should remind ourselves on 
the intake of more wholesome grains and root vegetables. 

If there is necessity, 
we could also consider some multi-minerals supplements.


The Veg School’s Signature Veg Nutrition Course commencing 21 Sep 2014 (1.30pm-5.30pm), will further elaborate about balanced nourishment via safe and scientific plant based regime. You are welcome to join us. Details in http://TheVegSchool.net/TVS-VNC-HY.pdf


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...