5. Standards of Good Health
We produce more food than we need. To keep it from spoiling, it is highly processed and refined. In so doing, the thermolabile substances are destroyed. These foods contain calories but little, if any, nutrients.
Processed and refined foods will not allow for repair or growth of your body. In fact, refining foods removes so much nutrition that Federal Law requires that a few artificial vitamins and minerals be added back. These foods are labeled “enriched” or “fortified” and literally mean that the natural nutrients have been destroyed! And, facts show that over 60% of the typical diet today is refined foods and snacks. That’s the problem.
There’s no comparison between vitamins produced synthetically in the laboratory and those made by nature.
Vitamins are not food and although food lacking in vitamins is useless, so are vitamins by themselves. You cannot live on vitamins alone. In some cases, vitamin D for example, an excess is as harmful as a deficiency.
Vitamins are organic food substances. They exist only in living things.
They exist in foods in minute quantities but are absolutely necessary for life. Plants manufacture their own supplies of vitamins. Some richer than others. This is why it is important to supply your diet with a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits.
Vitamins, unlike fats, proteins and carbohydrates, are not “foods” because they are not broken down into other substances. They keep their own form and bring about certain essential changes in your cells.
Refined foods have generally had every vitamin refined out of them.
For example, refined white sugar is the product that remains when all the B vitamins, and a lot of other valuable, necessary trace elements, have been removed from the molasses. Food containing white sugar has to be digested without the assistance of the vital B vitamins. Your system has to get these from somewhere and, as they are stored in the body in various places, such as the liver and kidneys, these organs have to contribute the requirement and thus, a vitamin B deficiency occurs. This is the same situation with all denatured foods, such as white flour and white rice.
These denatured foods have no food value except carbohydrates – pure calories.
Pure carbohydrates do not exist in nature. Each cell in your body is equipped to deal with natural foodstuffs. Certain vitamins and minerals are necessary for your body’s use of fats, protein and carbohydrates. Natural foods (fruits, vegetables, honey, etc) come ready equipped with all the things necessary for their metabolism.