Root Of All Disease

This is an excerpt from the book The Root of All Disease by Elmer G. Heinrich.

The early earth was a vision of hell, all scalding rock, unbearable heat and choking fumes. Since then, its surface has cooled, continents have drifted, mountains have risen and eroded and life has emerged benign and green. Nearly all traces of the early planet have been wiped away. Plant life emerged before land life came about and scientists believe all land life in the beginning was vegetarian. Can you imagine how unbelievable plant life must have been? The earth was new! There were at least eighty-four minerals
everywhere near the earth’s surface so plants must have been extremely nutritious. This type of plant nutrition existed for millions of years but eventually the earth succumbed to wind and rain erosion, continuous plant growth and man’s unwise farming practices and eventually chemical fertilizers.

As time past, the minerals became depleted near the surface of the earth. This depletion began several thousand years ago but was dramatically accelerated two hundred years ago and now it is like a plague. The soil near the top eight feet of the earth, where our plants grow, is severally devoid of minerals compared to millions of years ago. When you test surface soil today, from anywhere in the world, you find no more than 20 minerals. When you test earth from a much deeper zone, or if you test volcanic ash, you find at least 84 minerals. This provides proof our surface soils are deficient in minerals. If soil is deficient in these vital organic molecules, our plants and foods will be deficient in these organic molecules. You don’t need a PhD in realism to understand this problem.

We are what we eat, they say; so all of us should be alarmed by new research from several well recognized research teams that suggest the nutritional value of modern foods isn't just declining, it's collapsing. This research is a warning of imminent approaching danger! We are losing our minerals, the fundamental source and the basic building blocks of life. I'm not just referring to processed foods. I'm talking about fresh fruits and vegetables and basic foodstuffs such as milk, cheese, beef and chicken. Further on I will produce evidence that during the last 60 years, the level of iron, a vital mineral for good health, has dropped 55 percent in the average rump steak. During the same period magnesium plummeted by 21 percent and calcium was also significantly lower. In fact, every mineral, except the three used to fertilize today's farmlands, was anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent lower than 60 years ago.

We need to take notice that our foods are nutritionally bloated with chemical soil mineralizers that attempt to invigorate minerally depleted soils. Down on the commercial farm, quantity now triumphs over quality at every turn and, in their desperation to make even a halfway decent living, many of today's Farmers, pushed by their supermarket masters to produce high yields at low cost, seem to have forgotten that there was a reason their grandfathers farmed in a different way. Today, the nutritional value of food is lower than ever in history and it will continue a rapid decline in the future. The problem is real and what is so alarming; there is nothing we can do about it! World Governments are concerned about global warming and some effort is being made, slowly I might add, to address this catastrophe. I'm sure global warming could be reversed if every country put forth the initiative to reduce the elements that threaten our atmosphere. But, what are World Governments going to do to remineralize the soils? Absolutely nothing because this is impossible on a world-wide scale. Yes, farmers could fallow and let their land lay idle for a year or two. This would improve the food somewhat but it would not put back the minerals that are depleted. They are gone and they probably will never be back in the top eight feet of the earth's surface, where our plants grow, until the earth encounters another ice age.

Many of our modern day farmers are on a treadmill of dependency on soil mineralizers, pesticides, insecticides and plant food that creates unnatural growth and very little nutrition due to a lack of minerals in the soil. The food and farm industries don't like to hear about mineral depletion in soils, but the new findings are totally in line with other prominent research that leads to one shocking conclusion. Chemically dependent modern farming methods do not produce nutritious food for several reasons. They are not designed to and can't because of the mineral problem. These mineral deficiencies exist all over the world. I admire the Government of the United Kingdom because they acknowledge, are not ashamed of and admit they have a mineral depletion problem. In 2000, the Soil Association quoted figures from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that trace minerals in the UK fruit and vegetables had fallen by 76 percent. Similar figures from the United States Department of Agriculture indicated that this wasn't just a British problem. More about this mineral deprivation will be forthcoming.

Minerals, as we know them, are locked in the earth's crust. As land dwellers, our main link with minerals is through a diet of plants that are able to extract and assimilate metallic minerals from the soil as they grow. Our secondary link is from meats of animals that eat plants. Minerals are extremely important for our well-being, yet they have always been taken for granted, and few of us have given them a second thought. Until a few years ago, no one knew of or cared about the importance of these essential building blocks that make up about 96 percent of our bodies. Now that minerals are enjoying tremendous success in the marketplace, it is only prudent that users learn more about them. Mere knowledge of minerals, their importance and differences may shed new light on why they are so necessary for us to stay healthy. Without minerals, nothing else, including vitamins and enzymes, would benefit. We must also remember that in order for minerals to provide their utmost benefit, we may need to make some lifestyle changes. Extending your life and growing biologically younger is now a rational desire, because we clearly have reasonable processes that will do just that. These changes may include a food selection change, better drinking water, more stretching and exercise, less stress, more rest, less smoking and drinking, and the intake of considerably more usable oxygen. A complete spectrum of minerals is the benchmark for ultimate and total nutrition, but not the total answer to excellent health.

In order for us to understand the importance of minerals, we need to first understand how minerals are composed. Vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and lipids are all compounds of the chemical element known as carbon. Minerals from the earth are elements that are not carbon and which are not bound to carbon. These minerals participate in a multitude of bio-chemical processes necessary for the maintenance of health in human beings and the animals that inhabit our planet. Nearly everything on earth is comprised of minerals. Your ring, belt buckle, lampshade, stove, wallpaper, flooring and your automobile would not exist if there were no minerals. God made man from minerals and man requires minerals for his mere existence. Every other living creature has the same requirement. There would be no life without minerals! Minerals control millions of chemical and enzymatic processes which occur in the human body at all times. The same is true for animals. This knowledge should make us aware of the importance of minerals for mankind's survival.

Although some are very rare, there are more than 100 mineral elements found on earth. Four of these, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen make up 96% of our body. The remaining 4% of our body is basically made up in part of 70 or more minerals, most of which are no longer readily available in our soils.

The world governments and scientific communities have grouped minerals into two categories. Those that are considered to be required in our diets in amounts greater than 100 milligrams per day are called major minerals. Those that are considered to be required in our diets in amounts of less than 100 milligrams per day are called trace minerals. Both major and trace minerals are in the same class. The only difference is the name and the recommended daily amount (RDA) required according to the World Health Organization. There are only seven major minerals. They are calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, sodium and chlorine. Our bodies should contain significant amounts of each! Trace minerals, on the other hand, are present in the body in very small amounts. It is thought that each makes up less than one hundredth of one percent of our body weight.