Throughout mankind’s history vitamin and mineral deficiencies have been two of the primary causes of disease in both man and animal. Deficiency diseases were documented as early as 1500 B.C. in the Ebers papyrus and in early Roman and Greek writings. In the early days of world exploration by European nations, when long periods were spent at sea, deficiency diseases ravaged many seafaring crews.

According to nutrition experts, and documented by testimony on the Congressional Record (see excerpts below), a wide variety of diseases are caused by or exacerbated by vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Mineral deficiency diseases can be attributed to the following: heart disease and heart attacks to deficiency of selenium, copper and calcium, strokes and ruptured aortic aneurysm to deficiency of copper, arthritis and bone diseases to a deficiency of calcium and boron, mental depression and hyperactivity to a deficiency of calcium, hypoglycemia and fatigue to a deficiency of chromium and vanadium, blood problems to a deficiency of iron, neurological irregularities to a deficiency of potassium and magnesium, and a lack of bacterial resistance to a deficiency of sulfur. Vitamin deficiency diseases can be attributed to the following: scurvy to vitamin C deficiency, neurological development problems and pernicious anemia to vitamin B 12 deficiency, rickets and joint disorders to vitamin D deficiency, cancer and cataracts to vitamin E deficiency, numerous metabolic problems to various vitamin deficiencies and the list goes on.

Much of the world’s mass food producing soils, have long been depleted of the necessary nutrients required to life a long, healthy, and disease free life, making it necessary to augment our diets with those missing nutrients. As bio-chemical creatures, we are quite literally “what we consume” and if the foods consumed don’t contain the minerals and vitamins we require, we will sooner or later, have to deal with the consequences of malnutrition. Keep in mind that the classic picture of malnutrition showing a starving child in India or Africa is not the same picture of malnutrition that we should be seeing in the industrialized and technological world of the 21st century. Today’s picture would have to include, not only the overweight and obese, but the trim, muscular, and seemingly fit athlete.

Our farmer and rancher friends have understood for many decades that to have viable agricultural operations, you must have healthy, disease free animals. This is primarily accomplished by supplementing into their feed the vitamins and minerals that are not already there. Veterinarians and farmers know that when animals exhibit what is called cribbiting and pica, where they chew fence posts, barn doors, metal troughs, tin cans, etc.; they are vitamin and mineral deficient. The simple cure is adding supplements to their diet.

Mankind experiences the same symptoms, but we may call it snacking or having the munchies. Much of the problem of obesity in the developed nations is a direct result of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which can cause a constant craving for those nutrients that aren’t getting in their diets. Therefore you have people always hungry because their bodies are demanding nutrition that they aren’t getting. Most readily available foods supply loads of calories, but little real nutrition in the form of vitamins and minerals required to sustain a healthy living being.

The sad reality is that human medicine has for the most part focused on treating symptoms of disease rather than on the prevention of deficiency disease. Strangely enough, animal health care hasn’t generally followed the same flawed path as human health care, because the reality of any viable agricultural operation is that you must have healthy and disease free animals to have a profitable operation. Farmers and ranchers have understood for many decades and even centuries that this is primarily accomplished by supplementing into the feed of their livestock the vitamins and minerals that may not already be there. But there is hope; people healthcare is moving slowly but surely in that same direction.

This material is intended only as information and should not be used to replace the expertise of medical professionals. When looking for medical help, we believe it best to consult those who practice not only the more conventional methods of medicine, but also whose first consideration are the nutritional deficiency aspects of disease treatment.

Following are excerpts from the 2nd Session of the 74th Congressional Record:

“Our physical well-being is more directly dependent upon minerals we take into our system than upon calories or vitamins, or upon precise proportions of starch, protein or carbohydrates we consume.”

“Do you know that most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until depleted soils from which our food comes are brought into proper mineral balance?”

“The alarming fact is that foods (fruits, vegetables, and grains) now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain minerals are starving us-no matter how much of them we eat. No man of today can eat enough fruits and vegetables to supply his system with the minerals he requires for perfect health because his stomach isn’t big enough to hold them.”

The truth is that our foods vary enormously in [nutritional] value, and some of them aren’t worth eating as food ...”

“Laboratory tests prove that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, the eggs and even the milk and the meats of today are not what they were a few generations ago (which doubtless explains how our forefathers thrived on a selection of foods that would starve us today!)”

“It is bad news to learn from our leading authorities that 99% of the American people are deficient in these minerals, and that a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease. Any upset of the balance, any considerable lack of one or another element, however microscopic the body requirement may be, and we sicken, suffer, and shorten our lives.”

“We know that vitamins are complex chemical substances which are indispensable to nutrition, and that each of them is of importance for normal function of some special structure of the body. Disorder and disease result from any vitamin [or mineral] deficiency. It is not commonly realized, however, that vitamins control the body’s appropriation of minerals, and in the absence of minerals they have no function to perform. Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use of minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless.”