Modern Day Nutrient Deficiency

Malnutrition used to only be thought of in terms of those who don’t have enough to eat at all. Lack of any food means lack of energy and nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Today, malnutrition can also look a lot like poor quality food consumed consistently, still leading to nutrient imbalances and lack of vitamins and minerals. This type of malnutrition is leading to a lot of the chronic diseases we are seeing in society today - heart disease, type 2 diabetes, etc. 

What is happening to our food and culture to make this possible?

It is absolutely not a one track problem. Free media has created a space where anyone can call themselves and expert and administer advice whether they have knowledge, qualifications, or certifications to do so. 

Let’s take the recent interview with Gwyneth Paltrow as an example. A self-certified health guru, Paltrow spoke about her own personal diet, which contained some beautiful ingredients with many vitamins and minerals that the body does need, but lacked many others including energy content, fiber, and balance. It was barely short of a glorified starvation diet. 

But that isn’t the only problem. The diet industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it thrives on our confusion about nutrition and food. Companies make the cheapest food possible in the largest quantities in order to make the best profit. These are often highly addictive foods because why wouldn’t these companies want us coming back for more! They are often engineered in a way to make it ‘impossible to just have one’. Sadly, there usually isn’t a lot of vitamins and minerals available in these foods. 

Bouncing between eating basically nothing because diet culture says to, then overcompensate with eating a ton of low nutrient foods that taste amazing but don’t really do much good for our body? Now we put ourselves in a position to develop diseases related to this pattern. 

And when we put our trust in the word of social media and celebrities instead of trusted healthcare professionals, nutritionists, and dietitians then we run the risk of creating generations that have a lower life expectancy than our ancestors. Scary!

Stay tuned for what you can do about it!