Starving on a Full Stomach

By Cliff Harvey

In the modern world we eat more than ever before. But in spite of this surplus of calories, we may be functionally starving, because we may not be getting all that we need from the modern diet to truly thrive.

Starving for Nutrient DensityVitamins and minerals act as co-factors for literally thousands of chemical reactions throughout the body, from facilitating the breakdown of foods into energy, through to cellular reproduction, expression of genes and much more. Suffice it to say that without enough of the ‘little guys’ of nutrition, nothing much can occur in the body. I like to think of the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) being like the spark plugs in a car. They don’t provide the fuel directly but allow its efficient use.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data shows that some fresh produce (vegetables, fruits berries) only provide around half the amounts of some vitamins and minerals that they did in the 1950s.1 To get the same amounts of nutrients, we need to eat twice the amount of some veggies and other ‘nutrient dense’ foods than we did fifty or so years ago.

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