MINERAL DEFICIENCIES

I'm finally beginning to realize that life's lessons are taught when and where we least expect them. When I added a barnyard to my backyard, I never realized these "animals" would become my greatest teachers.

Living in the city, one of the first questions I would get asked was "why chickens". It was because of my children. They were allergic to commercially raised eggs. I figured if I could just come up with a feed mix that didn't include soy, wheat, or corn then my children could eat eggs. When I succeeded with chickens it just made sense to add a few turkeys to the mix. And when friends moved and needed someone to take their ducks, our yard seemed like the perfect place. As for the milk goats, my children were allergic to pasteurized dairy as well and we had a slope covered with blackberries...it seemed like a fair trade...blackberries for "real milk"!

Nutritionally speaking, the spring of 2004 the goats were my greatest instructors. Goats are not really grazing animals and need a portion of twigs, shrubs and trees for a healthful diet. The minerals are higher in these plants and goats that are mineral deficient, will suffer from a number of different ailments. Most goat owners supplement with salt, kelp and free choice mineral mixes however, even these aren't sufficient as they generally don't contain enough of the needed minerals in a usable form. One of the most important minerals for maintaining optimum health in your goats is copper.

According to Pat Coleby in Natural Goat Care, goats that are copper deficient will suffer from a number of different diseases including worms, foot rot, ring worm, anemia, arthritis, dermatitis, cancer, mastitis, and bent leg syndrome to name a few. The question becomes, how does one supplement with copper. The most cost affective way is to use a synthetic form. It comes as a feed grade additive which is far less expensive than a whole food, dietary supplement made for human consumption. However, my goats recognized the copper sulfate as a synthetic mineral and wouldn't touch the stuff unless I disguised it, so each night I soaked some barley in a copper sulfate/vinegar mix. The problem is, it was hard to keep from getting the copper sulfate on me, and I was forever experiencing a metallic taste in my mouth or sporting a nice black line underneath my wedding band, both sure signs of copper toxicity in myself.

Needless to say, that winter with the ice storms and all, I got a little lax at keeping the copper in their diets. So when the kids (goat kids that is!!!) were born, it was no surprise they were all copper deficient. I had to spend the next three days doctoring them, getting their copper levels up, in order to save them. They were deficient in ONE mineral and it meant the difference between life and death, health and illness. By now you probably know where I'm going with this.

Dr. Linus Pauling, the winner of two Nobel prizes states "You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency". It doesn't get much clearer than that! In 1936, the United States Senate warned the population of a major mineral depletion in Senate Document 264. It states, "It is bad news to learn from our leading authorities that 99 percent of the American people are deficient in these minerals, and that a marked deficiency in any one or more of the important minerals actually results in disease. Any upset of the balance, and considerable lack of one or another element, however microscopic the body requirement may be, and we sicken, suffer, shorten our lives."

Modern technology has contributed to widespread vitamin and mineral deficiencies. For example, when processors convert whole grain to refined white flour 23 - 30 vitamins and minerals are removed as well as most dietary fiber. Processors then add back 4 - 6 synthetic vitamins, labeling the product "enriched" which leads us to believe it's healthier now than it was prior to processing. Not true! In Modern Bread, the Broken Staff of Life, Elmer M. Cranton, M.D. writes, "Processed foods today are not just more sophisticated and more convenient versions of the foods eaten by our ancestors. A wide spectrum of essential nutrients has been removed in the manufacturing process. The basic molecular structure of what remains is also degraded and nutritionally inferior." Dr. Mark Stern in Lincoln City says it all so well, "If it wasn't food 200 years ago, it isn't food today".

I mentioned in a previous article, there are some foods that are healing foods, some foods that are neutral and some foods that are toxic to your health. You can only consume so much food in a day so why not make selections from nourishing traditional foods and make every bite count. Foods to consider in your daily diet are as follows: grass-fed beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck and goose; seafood from clean waters; cultured, raw dairy from grass-fed, organic cows; whole grains soaked or sprouted to remove the phytates present; lacto-fermented vegetables and drinks; raw, cultured butter; cold-pressed, unfiltered olive oil; beef, lamb, goose, and duck fat; coconut, palm and flax seed oil; and gelatin-rich bone and meat broths. If you're looking for recipes to help you get started Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon is a great place to begin.

If you want to maximize good nutrition for better health, the solution is quite clear; eat plenty of traditionally-prepared, mineral-rich, nutrient-dense foods. Nothing can substitute for a healthy diet or compensate for a bad one.

Meanwhile, back at the farm...

Article by Brenda Ruble, NTP

About the Author:
Brenda Ruble is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner who has been a facilitator of health and healing for the past twenty years.

Her work began from the ground up, researching and studying soil improvement, animal husbandry, sustainable farming and gardening, and holistic medical practices; and has evolved into an exploration of the body-mind-world connection.

Brenda is inspiring others to take control of their lives, educating them to think in new ways about symptoms and disease. She teaches that illness is the body's powerful method of communication that something within or around us is out of balance. When we master this "language of the body" we can actually increase our potential for healing.

Brenda is an advocate of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the restoration of traditionally prepared, mineral-rich foods to the American diet through education, research and activism. She works closely with farmers, university research groups and consumers to continue developing chemical-free grass-fed pastured livestock, wild-caught ocean fish and other nutrient-dense whole foods while educating along the way.

Brenda Ruble is a voice of passion & possibility, inspiring others to restore health from within.  Visit her websites at www.brendaruble.com and www.thymelycuisine.com or write her at info@ThymelyCuisine.com.

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