Who should take nutritional supplements?

The simple answer is that you can get sufficient minerals and vitamins from whole grains, green leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts and good oils like olive, sesame, sunflower and rape seed. The facts differ, however.

The highest dietary source of zinc is from pumpkin seeds. At one time, I suffered from a chronic inflamation of the prostate. I was 26 years old. A urologist told me the only solution was to remove the prostate. I did not know then what I know now about endocrinology but felt that we were not born with extra or superfluous parts. The urologist claimed I did not need a prostate. I consulted a neighbor, Adelle Davis, who was well known nutritionist, and she recommended that I eat pumpkin seeds. It was like magic. The pain disappeared! And, the results have been the same for every friend, whom I have suggested they eat pumkin seeds,as a snack food.

Again, pumkin seeds are one of the highest sources of magnesium and it should be found in whole grains, green leafies, nuts, etc. Sources of selenium are also from vegetables and nuts. Brazil nuts giving the highest amount per ounce.

All of the viamins and minerals should be provided from a healthy diet and are, most likely, not.

Why? You ask. The vegetables obtain their nutrients from the soil. If the soil is depleted of natural nutrients, the plants grown in that soil will be deficient in nutrients. How does the soil get depleted? Let me count the ways... crop intensive farming, poor crop rotation, irrigation, acid rain, using petro-chemical based fertilizers, pollution, plowing, not allowing the fields to lie fallow between growing cycles,... In general, the bean counters, who manage factory farms, are more interested in return on investment, than they are in returning anything to the soil.

Additionally, the crops grown for market by the factory farms are grown for appearance, storage and transporability, rather than for taste or nutrient value. The fruits and vegetables, which you buy in the big-box markets, are chemically preserved cadavers and you have no idea how it was produced, nor where and usually you don't even know what year it was grown!

Examples: The highest quality eggs for sale, in the US markets are Grade AAA Fresh. Grade AAA stipulates that the egg must be less than six months old. For a AA grade, it must be less than one year old. Grade A is any egg over a year old. All of the eggs are from battery chickens, which means the chickens are held in tiers of small cages, with a special hormone rich feed going in at one end and a conveyer belt at the other for the eggs. The product is an egg with a thick shell for storage and transport, a uniform shape and color for appearance and about 30% of the nutrient value of the egg from a free range chicken. Most of your eggs come from Viet Nam, though Nigeria and Ghana are gaining in market share.

In the Ojai Valley in California, most of the citrus growers are under contract to Sunkist. I am writing from first hand experience; both Krishnamurti and I sold our valencia oranges to Sunkist. Every grower keeps a few trees near his house for personal consumption and begins to pick his fruit six months to a year after the Sunkist trees have been harvested. Why? Because tree ripened Valencia oranges are deliciously sweet and juicy. The Sunkist fruits are harvested green, washed with harsh chemicals, dyed orange, coated by a preservative chemical and a plastic sealer and put in huge refrigerated vaults. It is no longer a food, it is a commodity, which can be traded on the commodity markets. When needed for market, the fruits are gassed with carbon monoxide, so they can "ripen," while being shipped to market.

Below our home on Mont Pilat is a large fruit growing district - apples, peaches, apricots, grapes. Last week, I was talking to a friend, who told me that he had torn out and burned 900 apple trees, because it was too much work and too dangerous for him to spray the trees with insecticides and hormones 27 times, during the growing season. 27 doses of petrochemicals and you get a beautiful looking market ready apple, which gets a final dunk in preservative, before it goes into storage. Only apples of the right size are harvested. The apples too large or too small are left on the tree. The birds won't touch them, nor will the rodents. The excess harvested apples were, at one time, dumped in the Rhone River, in order to keep the price high, until they found that the poisons on the apples were destroying the fish stocks. One apple grower refuses to grow apples, in this manner, his fruit is ugly but delicious. He sells to locals, like me and the apple growers, who will not eat their own apples.

I could go on and on, about the uniform looking carrots and the chlorine saturated lettuce, but you get the picture.

Now for the bad news... Most vitamins are extremely sensitive to heat and cold. Processing of your factory food requires one, or the other, or both. The vitamin contents of the foods, which were listed on previous papers, are for fresh foods grown in nutrient rich conditions. Vitamins degrade with age.

Who should take nutritional supplements? Ultra-long distance kayak voyagers,while away from reliable supplies, for one. :>} And, anyone who does not have control or knowledge of their food supply.

For the past 10,000 years the fundamental organizing force of "modern" civilization has been control of the food supply. Read Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. Now, that food is 99% controlled, the controllers are regulating and managing thought, for "your benefit." Read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and see for yourself, where you are in the scheme of things and be aware that he wrote it about 75 years ago.

Any questions??