MedicalConspiracies- How Grocery Stores Are Ripping You Off

Walk into your local grocery store's produce department, and you'll be bombarded with marketing messages telling you how fresh and healthy the fruits and veggies are. Too bad it's all a big fat lie. The sad fact of the matter is that much of the produce in the grocery store is nutrient poor. I'm talking about foods like broccoli ... tomatoes ... spinach, and more. Foods that we've always thought of as nutritional powerhouses. And the thing is, the government has known for over 75 years that these foods aren't nearly as nutritious as they should be. But they haven't done a darned thing about it. A government cover-up? The produce from your grocery store isn't nearly as nutritious as you've been led to believe. Did you know that the government sets NO nutrition standards for much of the food you eat? That's astonishing, given the fact that the government seems to want to control every other aspect of your life. But it's true. The USDA writes guidelines setting forth standards for the size, the shape, and the color of fruits and vegetables ... but they set NO standards that address their nutritional value. So you could have an ugly, ill-shapen red pepper packed with vitamins A and C alongside a pristine, perfectly shaped one with almost no nutrients ... and the latter would be considered "Grade A" while the former would not. So there you are, trying to take care of your family, shelling out the big bucks for fresh produce at the grocery store... and you're just paying for overpriced, nutrient-poor eye candy. What a rip-off! But why is our food so stripped of important nutrients? And how long has this been going on? Here are two important facts you should know: Fact #1: It's the soil, stupid. For food to be nutritious, the soil in which it's grown must be rich in minerals and other nutrients. But sadly, the soil throughout most of the U.S. used to grow commercial crops is sorely lacking in important nutrients. And we've known about it for a long, long time. 1936: Congress reveals that 99% of Americans are deficient in essential minerals due to a lack of micronutrients in the soil. 1977: Testimony before Congress reveals that, due to soil depletion, even a balanced diet fails to provide most Americans with all the essential nutrients. 1992: The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development declares that the problem continues to worsen. Between 1892 and 1992, American farmland showed an average mineral depletion of 85%. 2001: According to the Journal of Complimentary Medicine, government statistics reveal that between 1940 and 1991, the trace minerals in fruits and vegetables diminished by up to 76%. 2003: News Canada reports that over the course of the 20th century, cabbage, lettuce, spinach and tomatoes lost an average of 350mg of mineral content. (Shockingly, potatoes have lost virtually all their vitamin A, over half their vitamin C, and over a quarter of the calcium) 2004: The Journal of the American College of Nutrition publishes research indicating massive nutrient loss from 1950 to 1999 for 6 nutrients (protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and ascorbic acid) in 43 crops. 2011: Scientific American magazine publishes an article that once again reiterates the problems of soil depletion and nutrient-poor vegetables and fruits. No wonder Americans are all getting sicker and fatter! We're eating more empty calories than ever before, even when we think we're eating "healthy." Diabetes is an epidemic. We've lost the war on cancer. Heart disease is rampant. More Americans than ever before are depressed, have fertility problems, and allergies. Gee, do you think it could have something to do with our nutrient-poor diet? But even if food is grown in unusually rich soil, like on an organic farm, there's still going to be a huge problem. Because another big reason our foods are so nutrient poor is this: #2: It's the long journey. Those "fresh" green beans you buy at the store may look fresh, but chances are, they traveled over 1,000 miles to get to your plate. And along the way, they lost about 45 percent of their total micronutrients, based on a typical 14-day journey from farm to plate. Broccoli and cauliflower typically lose 25 percent of their nutrients, peas about 15 percent, carrots about 10. But remember... chances are those foods are already starting out nutrient-poor. Take tomatoes, for example. According to Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment, tomatoes are usually prematurely harvested. Growers can get away with it, because tomatoes will continue to color after being picked, and they also spray ethylene gas on them to "ripen" them. But the ripening is merely cosmetic. Most store-bought tomatoes will never reach the nutrient density that, say, a homegrown, ripened-on-the-vine tomato will. During its journey, the nutrients continue to deteriorate. According to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, the average tomato travels 1,155 miles from farm to fork. It's shipped cross-country in a truck, where improper temperatures deplete its nutrients even further. And tomatoes are just one example. Let's look at spinach. If you live on the east coast and your spinach comes from California, your spinach will be stripped of nutrients by the time you get it. A study at Penn State revealed that it takes just four days for spinach to lose almost half (47%) its folate and carotenoid content when stored at a temperate 68 degrees. What the study didn't test was how spinach did in the back of a tractor-trailer, which is usually much hotter - and thus even more damaging to the spinach's nutrient content. Let's say the spinach trucking company, by some miracle, decides to send the spinach on refrigerated trucks cooled to a chilly 39 degrees. After just 8 days (in a truck across the country, at the store in their cooler, and then in your fridge), the spinach has still lost over half its folate and carotenoids (53%). If it's been exposed to light and air along the way, the vitamin E and C are diminished too. So here's the big question: How do we make sure our food is filled with all the minerals, vitamins, and nutrients it's supposed to have? Simple. We just have to do two things. Make sure our food is grown in healthy, mineral-rich soil. Make sure the time from harvest to plate is as short as possible.  That's why a home garden is so important. You control the soil health. You eat food that's been harvested, literally, minutes before you eat it. The difference in nutrient density is astounding. If it could be bottled and patented, it would be hailed as a wonder drug! Could a home garden really be all it takes to enjoy good health? Considering how essential nutrient-dense food is to superior health ... considering how chronic disease has increased as the nutrients in our food have decreased ... it's a no-brainer. Let's look at one recent example in history: World War II. The war years were years of massive deprivation. Food was rationed. And yet ... when you look at the disease markers for the mid-1940s, a startling trend emerges. People were healthier. Far healthier. Was it just a coincidence that 40% of the vegetables people ate came from home gardens? It's no wonder they enjoyed better health than we do now! The Survival Seed Bank Isn't Just About Surviving. It's About Thriving. I'll be honest with you. When I conceived of the idea of the Survival Seed Bank, I was mostly concerned about surviving big, cataclysmic, earth-shaking events. I wanted to help people to feed themselves in the event of economic collapses, natural disasters, and more. What I failed to see at the time was that the sorry state of our nutrient-poor produce today is every bit as life threatening, and every bit as catastrophic ... but it's a whole lot sneakier, and a whole lot quieter. The food you grow and harvest yourself has far more nutrient density than anything you could ever buy at the grocery store. The Survival Seed Bank is a treasure trove of nutrient density and nutrient diversity. The seed varieties have been carefully selected for their ability to thrive in a wide range of geographic regions, their extraordinary germination rates, and their ease of growing. So, you get seeds for beans, which are an excellent source of vitamins C and K. You get beets, with natural anti-inflammatory properties. You get cabbage containing compounds known to protect against cancer. Of course there's spinach--the way it should be, rich in A and K, plus lutein and zeaxanthin. All in all, you get 22 vegetable and fruit varieties that, when grown with the TLC that only you can give them, will be far more nutrient dense than the produce you can buy at the supermarket. Plus, the seeds are non-hybrid heirlooms, which means that you can save seeds from each harvest to plant again the following season. With the Survival Seed Bank, you won't have to eat nutrient-poor food any longer. You won't have to settle for the nutritionally impoverished veggies from your local grocery store. Instead, every bite you eat will be packed with the essential vitamins and minerals that support optimum health. When you grow your own food, you won't need to spend nearly as much on vitamin pills and supplements to fill in the gap. Plus, you'll be out in the fresh air and sunshine, getting healthy exercise, along with much-needed vitamin D! Don't let your grocery store rip you off any longer. Take back control of your food supply ... and take back control of your health. >>Order your Survival Seed Bank now<< Sincerely, Bill Heid, President Solutions From Science Tell A Friend! Click here to let a friend know about Off The Grid News This newsletter is a free weekly service of Solutions From Science. You can reach us at: Solutions From Science 815 W. Main St. P.O. Box 518 Thomson, IL 61285 Email us at info@solutionsfromscience.com

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