In Mass- production of food, during the process of ripening, storing, drying, cooking, freezing, blanching, pasteurization, hydrogenation, ultra-fibration and multiple other practices of modern food processing, our already degraded foods produced by NPK fertilizers on depleted soils, are further deprived from their essential nutrients.
The latest RDA handbook, the official government handbook stating the quality of our food, reviews hundreds of studies, showing that the already degraded crops of today may lose even what’s left over of nutrients after harvesting, before it reaches your dinner table.
Here follows some examples of the evidence from the RDA handbook:
Vitamin E: “the tocopherol content of foods varies greatly depending on processing, storage and preparation procedures during which large losses may occur”
Vitamin C: “may be considerably lower because of destruction by heat and oxygen” Vitamin B6: “50-70% is lost in processing meats and 50-90% is lost in milling cereals”
Folic acid: “as much as 50% may be destroyed during household preparation, food processing and storage”.
Magnesium: “more than 80% is lost by removal of the germ and outer layers of cereal grains”
Next time when you eat a slice of bread, realize that the germ and outer layers of grains
are removed in the manufacturing process of all white and so-called “enriched” flours.
You must realize that these facts are not from some scary media report but from the official handbook, Recommended Dietary Allowances, published in November 1989
by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. They are the latest official facts on nutrition.
Here follows some more evidence from authorities in food science to show the nutrient losses by food processing.
Dr. Robert Harris, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at MIT describes in his “Nutritional evaluation of Food Processing”, destruction of nutrients in vegetables by modern cold storage. Stored grapes lose up to 30% of their B vitamins. Tangerins stored for 8 weeks, can lose almost half their vitamin C. Asparagus stored for a week, loses up to 90% of its vitamin C.
Any time you eat an apple and see the flesh turn brown within a few minutes, it a sign that the apple has oxidized in storage and has lost most of its vitamins.
Dr. Theodore Labuza, Professor of Food Technology at the University of Minnesota, recently reviewed studies showing up to 90% loss of thiamin in the drying of meats and losses of up to one-third of pyridoxine and pantothenic acid in freeze-drying of fish.
Professor Darryl Lund of the Department of Food Science of the University of Wisconsin, shows that the process of blanching , commonly applied to vegetables and fish, can destroy one-third to one-half of their content of thianin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and vit. C. Similar large losses of B vitamins and vitamin C occur in the pasteurization and ultrafilration of milk.
Dr Henry Schroeder, foremost American authority on nutrient content of foods, has proved that freezing of meats can destroy up to 50% of their thiamin and riboflavin content and 70% of their pantothenic acid content.
These are some small examples of the evidence. If you add up all the nutrient losses that have accrued to our food since the late 1940’s, there is not much left. First came the degradation of the soils by use of NPK fertilizers, depriving us from the minerals which are essential to human health. Then came the development of nutrient-poor hybrid strains of grains and vegetables that would grow better on NPK. Finally the methods of modern food processing have deprived from our food much of its remaining nutrients.By the time it reaches your table, it is hard to determine the nutritional value of any food that you put in your mouth.
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