How to Be Healthy

  There are many more minerals needed other than calcium and magnesium to maintain good health.  Minerals are needed not only for tooth and bone construction but for proper function of nerves and the central nervous system.  For example, one of the more important uses of silica, an important but underrated mineral, is in the formation of hair, skin and fingernails.  In fact it is so crucial to this function that silica is called the hair, skin and nail nutrient.  It not only helps in the creation of these tissues, it helps to maintain, strengthen and repair damage to them.  If you have split ends in your hair or your nails are weak, split or won’t grow, try silica.  You will be amazed at the results.  And this is what can happen when you correct just one mineral deficiency.

  Minerals are needed for numerous other duties as well.  For example, many vitamins and enzymes cannot function without minerals.  Hormonal responses need minerals to function.  Therefore, a lack of minerals may lead to restriction of many metabolic functions in the body.  The human body can use minerals alone but we need minerals as catalysts to allow vitamins to work in human metabolism.  In other words, minerals are as important in maintenance of overall health as all other essential nutrients.  Research has recently proven that the best form of mineral for human use is organic, that is minerals as they are found in fresh foods.

 I will say it again! The best way to get minerals is from food.

  Alarmingly, we know that today’s foods seldom contain enough essential minerals and trace elements.  It is estimated that only fifteen percent of the unfarmed (unused) mineral supply remain in the soil after 100 years of traditional farming.  As a result, health professionals recommend that we supplement with minerals and trace elements to offset the lack of minerals in our foods. However, we can easily become very confused because of the different claims touting the benefits of one mineral supplement over the other.  Should the mineral in a supplement form be a chelate, malate, collidal, fumarate, ascorbate, etc?  The simple answer to this complex question is that whenever possible minerals should be derived from food sources.  Unfortunately, this is no longer possible due to the sterilization of our soils and eradication of the micro organisms responsible for mineral utilization by plants and animals as a result of pesticide use.

  Foods grown in organic soils that have never seen pesticide use can have as much as a thousand times more of the minerals and other trace elements than food grown in the industrial farms that most food chains get their produce from.  I call these vegetables and fruits industrial foods; they may look good but nutritionally there is next to no vitamins or minerals in them.  This does not mean that there are no other valuable phytonutrients such as flavonoids and carotenoids.  For this reason even poor quality vegetables are important to include in an overall healthy diet, but organic is obviously always better.  We now understand that vitamins, minerals and enzymes are essential to health and health maintenance.  For example zinc an adequate amounts is needed to construct over 200 different enzymes needed in every part of the body.   Another vital aspect of zinc is its role in immune function; the immune system cannot function without it.

  Calcium is essential in the function of or construction of over 500 different enzymes; the billions of cells in our bodies are all capable of producing their own specific enzymes.  The major control systems of the body are all enzyme dependent and number in the tens of thousands.

  Even mainstream medicine has come to the conclusion that regular use of all multi mineral multivitamin will do nothing but increase your chances for good health and a longer life span.  As you read before, this endorsement from the most conservative medical minds of the century only came after hundreds of studies showed categorically that vitamin and mineral deficiency is one of the primary causes of degenerative disease and malnutrition.  Our soils no longer have the capacity to provide us with the foods that are needed in order to maintain health and longevity.