Appeared originally in the Price Pottenger Journal, Vol 32, No. 4. Guest Commentary section.

 

I recently had the experience of sitting in on a workshop prresented by one of the most highly regard supplement manufacturers in the country. It was quite informative and populated primarily by enthusiastic MDs striving for a more holistic practice. I applaud the MDs for breaking with the tradition of their profession and seeking a greater understanding of a more natural and non-pharmaceutical respone to the ailments they must treat. This can’t be easy andI truly consider them all to be brave souls indeed.

 

But coming from a more holistic background, I also found the entire experience disturbing. As a PhD in holistic Nutrition, with a background not only in clinical work, but also as an adjunct professor teaching International HEalth, my perspective is far different than doctors’. Where the MD’s recognize the illogic of a pharmaceutical focus in treating disase and seek a more natural approach, my perspective is to examine how one might be out of balance with nature. From where I’m sitting, synthetic, processed, laboratory-produced nutritn, no matter how well justified scientifically, entirely miss the mark as a viable solution to the very real problem of malnutrition.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I know that just about everyone in the Western world would probably benefit from supplemental vitamins at this point in time. Poor farming practices for many decades have led to nutrient-deficient soils, yielding nutrient-deficient foods and a nutrient-deficient population. In his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,

1 Dr. Weston A. Price outlines for us the progression of disease in both humans and cattle that followed the advancing Western frontier as its unsustainable farming practices depleted soils wherever the settlers went. His studies, done back in the 1930′s and 1940′s, demonstrated, many times over, the effect of nutrient depletion in the soils and in the food supply on both humans and animals, in various parts of the world.

 

The pesticides and fractionated fertilizer used to compensate for the microorganisms and insects such soils attract are just a further burden to the body, and are likely one ofthe root causes of some o fthe ailments common to the 20th and 21st century. For instance, farmers who use these products have the highest rate of Parkinson’s disease.

2

 

We are like guinea pigs in a rather ou-of-control experiment: never before in history has a population been so completely lacking in the nutrients neccessary for their survival, while as the same time exposed to unprecedented amount of toxins in the air, water, soil, and food. Vitamin supplements certainly look like the answer to the problem. And they may be, temporarily. This solution is, however, based only on partial truth. One should ask how this approach plays out in the long term.

 

First of all, I have a serious concern that supplement companies, like the one sponsoring the aforementioned workshop, are going to step into the role created by Big Pharma and take over “educating” medical professionals, teaching protocols which require only their exclusive brand. Most of these docs have little or no training in nutrition and are mightily impressed byt he description of biochemical pathways, enzyme inhibition, etc. They can now intelligently defend their non-drug choice in terms that other docs can relate to. But with so much of the education coming from one source, we are still vulnerable to the same dangerous narrow thinking that results from exclusivity and thatwe’ve seen in the Big Pharma/AMA relationship of the past hundred years. The practitioner is now in the precarious position of promoting a specific produt ecause of its income producing capability, and so their ability to recommend the very best might be compromised. Nutrient supplementation is vital, espcially for the ill. For proof, look at the astounding results obtained by Linus Pauling in the field of orthomolecular medicine. In our haste to use supplements, though, we often overlook the fundamental source for many of them: food.

 

Much of the alternative health movement will argue that today’s food supply is no longer viable. Such truth should be a wake-up call for us to focus on improving the quality of our food rather than on-developing supplements that are designed to compensate for nutrient depletion. If the degradation of the soils here and around the world has resulted in the degradation of health, then that is the logical place to seek the restoration of health. In the long term, we need to address the real cause of malaise and illness: nutrient deficient soils and the equally deficient foods grown on them, environmental toxins (thousands of untested chemicals introduced annually), and a culture that frequently places importance on profit over health.

 

Many people, both here and abroud, can’t even afford food, much less expensive supplements. What they do eat is often the cheapest form of sustenance they can get: empty calories and food that has had much of its life sustaining properties rmoved to increase shelf life and profit. Sometimes referred to as “antinutrients,” these processed foods actually leach nutrient stores from the body in the act of metabolizing them.

 

Traditionally, when people needed foor in the past 10,000 years or so, they farmed. now, with the advent of factory farming and food processing in the last century, we are all starving for the vital nutrients both of these practices remove. Two major problems with supplements are that they do no get to the root cause of the problem and, for nutrient deficiencies that they can ameliorate, a large segment of the population are unable to afford them. Viewed this way, it is difficult to argue for the political correctness of continued progression along this path.

 

Legislation that mandates health education for all might bring real change. Meaningful education would be realized without the influence of food producers or other special interests. The curriculum should examine historical evidence for the conditions that allowed people to thrive and how those conditions changed to bring about a decline in health.

 

Revisiting the concept of GRAS, the Generally Recognized As Safe amendment to the Pure Food and Drug law of the early 20th century might also help to strengthen our nutritional foundation. As reasonable as GRAS may have seemed at the time of its inception, it has since become a justification for unleashing upon the public, tens of thousands of potentially toxic substances. My dream would be the reinstatement of the Pure Food and Drug Act as originally intended by its author

3, abolishment of all but the most innocuous food processing, preservatives, and additives, and then required labeling of the actual nutrient density in each food product, with minimum amounts being mandatory.

 

Given our current political climate where special interests can undermine such ambitious reform, I consider the only real solution to be a grass-roots movement, which is where many great changes find their ultimate power. People committed to improving their health will demand truly organic, nutrient-dense foods at a reasonable price. This demand reverberates to the food producers (“food manufacturer” is an oxymoron), who in turn take measures to increase the nutrient density of their soils (following the meausres proscribed by indigenous farmers who successfully farmed the same areas for decades without denaturing the soil) and therefore of the produce grown on it.

 

Buying local produce is an extremely effective way to improve nutrition, help the environment, and enrich the local economy. Since produce begins losing nutritional value within a day or two of harvesting, reducing the time to market can dramatically increase nutrient density. Avoiding long haul transports reduces pollution, saves fossil fuel, and obviates the need to pick produce prematurely so that it can be ripened in transit.

 

We are finally recognizing and accepting the reality that clean food, clean water, and clean air are vital to our survival and a right of and necessity for all living things. The organics industry is booming. Our collective contribution to global warming is finally being addressed. international movements to clean up the air and water are struggling, but there are organizations like Cuba’s Via Campesina (now international) and Brazil’s landless workers movement (MST) that are growing. Similar groups are making a difference around the globe.

 

We can make access to nutrient-dense foods aailable to all, even if only through restoring the right to grow your own. Urban gards and CSA’s (community supported agriculture) are a growing phenomenon. The same is true for oganic farming. The macro and micro-nutrients we need for optimal health are found first in nature and in forms biologically recognized by the body. no supplement manufacturer, no matter how scientific or well regarded, can ever duplicate the positive impact of fresh real food grown on nutrient-dense soils.

 

Ultimately, it is more politically correct to seek nutrition from naturally grown food than from commercial nutrient supplements. It’s better for you, better for me, and better for all life on the planet.

References

 

Weston A Price, DDS: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Chapter 27, Nutritional Programs for Race Regeneration. pp490-493. (Available from PPNF)

Alok Jha: “Study Links Parkinson’s Disease to Long-Term Pesticide Exposure.” Guardian.co.uk. www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/28/parkinson’s.disease.

Dr. Harvey Wiley (1844-1930) authored the Pure Food and Drug Law in 1906 with the intention of protecting the US food supply from the food processors of the day.