Foods Without Nutritional Value

FOODS WITHOUT NUTRITIOUS VALUE

Soft drinks, candy and sugar-free gelatin – just to name a few – are non-nutritive foods. They are have no nutritious value as they are devoid of complex carbohydrates, proteins, fat, vitamins, minerals and sometimes even calories. In today’s America it is entirely possible to be overweight and yet be starving to death!

Most Americans rely on white bread and other refined breads and cereal products. But white flour, when processed, loses almost all of its nutrients (Iron, Vitamins B1, B2, and B3). The 1942 Enrichment Act required for these nutrients to be added back into white flour again, which is now our ‘enriched’ bread. However, compared with whole-grain bread, enriched bread is still deficient in nutrients:

15% less Iron
75% less Magnesium
60% less Zinc
80% less Vitamin B6
35% less Folate
75% less fiber

SUBCLINICAL NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES

A new area of concern has emerged: subclinical nutritional deficiencies. These are nutritional insufficiencies that are slowly and subtly eroding the state of your health. A subclinical deficiency can take years to show up as a symptom. The situation becomes even more difficult for people who are taking medications that are depleting nutrients form their bodies -e.g. Statin (cholesterol lowering) drugs’ depletion of CoQ10. Other individuals may have specific diseases or conditions that may demand more nutrients. And finally, nutrient needs also increase with the demand placed on all out our bodies from the toxic environment we live in.