Article #1: How Vitamin and Mineral Content in Food Decreases Step-by-Step

In this lesson we have seen that there is more than one way in which food loses vitamins and minerals, but that most of our food is subjected not only to one but to a combination of assaults on its nutritional value, as indicated below:

• Food is grown on minerally-depleted soils in the first place.
  
• Plant breeding of hybrid seeds, and crop management, result in another measurable decline in protein and vitamin/mineral content.
  
• Pesticide spraying leaves poison residues in our food.
  
• Food processed by any of the techniques mentioned in the lesson (irradiation included) further decreases its value. (Note: It wasn't specified whether fresh food could also be irradiated before being shipped to food processors; only irradiation of food destined for the produce stand in our stores was discussed. However, it is conceivable that some food could be irradiated to keep it "fresh" longer for the food processors as well, in which case it would undergo two assaults in this step alone.)
  
• As if all the above steps do not reduce the life in our foods enough, much of our food is then cooked, spiced with condiments, salt, etc., smothered in sauces, and, to top it off, eaten in excess and/or in improper combinations, washed down with beverages that dilute our stomach's digestive enzymes, and often eaten in a hurry, and/or according to "the time of the day" instead of true hunger, and sometimes in a state of mind that is not conducive to good digestion.

We are paying dearly for our ignorance, indifference and lack of good conscience, because we are destroying more and more of the life factor within our foods each time we alter them further from their natural, fresh state.

How can we expect food that is virtually dead to sustain life? It has been said, with reference to vegetarianism vs. meat eating, but this also applies in the case of lifeless, foodless foods, that: "from life comes life, and from death comes death."

The choice is ours.