Hilary McClure <[log in to unmask]> writes:

> Tim Rowell wrote:
> >
> > I'm new to the paleo diet and this topic raised a question in my
> > mind.
> >
> > Isn't it one of the underlying tenets of the Paleo diet that we
> > don't need supplementation?  That a 'correct' Paleo diet gives our
> > bodies everything they need to function correctly?
> >
>
> The claim Atkins and others make is that modern farming methods deplete
> soils of trace minerals and that selective breeding over the millennia
> has increased the carb to nutrient ratios in fruits and vegetables and
> the fat to protein ratios in domestic animals. This may even be true for
> much of the organic farming practices.


*Farming* is responsible for depleteing the soil of nutrients.
before the earth was tilled, every part of it was covered with plant
matter, and rich, decomposing older plant matter, which nourished the soil
automatically.  We are so used to seeing furrows in the soil that we
forget it is the most unnatural thing in the world to expose soil to
the air (that is why weed seeds work so hard to turn the exposed earth
green again)

anyway the wild plants are more nutrient dense than selectively bred
ones, and eating edible weeds etc and a wide variety of them too is a
good practice.  i used to feel the same way you do, tim, about not
taking supplements, but there is no doubt that we have a lot of
powerful tools available to us if we DO know what we're doing
(antioxident vitamins, for example, and essential fatty acid
supplements, acidophilus, etc.)  i hope some day to be able to get
nutrients from my diet, but i think it takes a lot of... vigilance
might be the word i am looking for.

Jana