Last week I gave my views on mixed farming and its benefits. This week I want to dig a bit deeper into those. Being a nosey B***** I have spent a lot of my life trying to understand nutrition. I have applied what I have learned to my diet and the general verdict of those who test me and my blood is that I may not have been wasting my time!
During this reading and research I have discovered what I believe is a sadly neglected field. This is the important role of the micro-nutrients and minerals that we derive from eating foods that are produced on healthy soil. We learned about the importance of vitamins in the 1920s and it was this knowledge that allowed the Ministry of Food during the war years to so successfully manage our diet that in 1945 we came out of the war better nourished as a nation than we were in 1939, a magnificent and significant achievement. It may surprise you to learn that almost 80 years later the UK still does not have an official body devoted entirely to researching diet and making recommendations.
One of the consequences of this is that whilst the general role of micro-nutrients and minerals is recognised there is no overall plan to maximise our intakes. I sang the praises of the benefits of mixed farming last week and one of these is that over the years, looking after the soil and returning natural by products of animal husbandry to the land maximises the amount of these vital elements in the soil. It is a sad fact that the only foods that still contain pre-industrial levels of them is wild game and the products of foraging in the hedgerows, woods and wild places. In other words, anywhere that has not felt the dead hand of industrial farming with its emphasis on maximum yields gained from top dressings of artificial fertilizers, incidentally, most of them products of the oil industry.
I reach the point where I have to issue a Public Service Announcement. I am not a professional nutritionist, all I offer are my beliefs and opinions, it is up to you to make your own enquiries and come to a personal conclusion.
So, given my beliefs and recognising that the latest assessments show that levels of vitamins that were taken as a given thirty years ago have dropped alarmingly, I can no longer accept what used to be the standard advice, that anyone eating a normal mixed diet did not need to consider taking any form of vitamin supplement because they were getting all they needed from their food. It would appear that things have changed and that the occasional multi-vitamin pill might not be a bad idea. Beyond that I eat as varied a diet as I can. Nuts can be a good source of nutrients not found elsewhere. Due to their nature, they are probably the best approximation to a ‘wild food’ that’s available. Go forth and use your heads!
Perhaps the squirrel has the right idea!