In a message dated 10/5/00 3:00:07 PM, Gawen Harrison
<[log in to unmask]
writes:

<< From what I have read vitamin content is stable even in poor soils.
Mineral
content, however, does decline in poor soils.  Vitamin deficiency
occurs when
someone is not eating the proper foods.
-Gawen

<< Gawen, I think a lot of people on the list take supplements and
vitamins
because
 our food just does not contain what it used to anymore.  >>

What people are not considering relevant to this discussion concerns
our
ability to ABSORB nutrients taken in. In the case of vitamin B 12, for
example, there is something secreted by the intestine called intrinsic
factor, without which no amount of the vitamin can be absorbed or
utilized by
the body. This is why some people, lacking this factor, must take the
vitamin
as an injection or a sublingual tablet, despite that fact that only
microscopic amounts are required for health. Additionally, some people
have a
metabolic need for much larger amounts of a particular nutrient than
would
normally be available even in the most ideally produced foods, and
therefore
must take additional amounts in supplemental form to remain healthy.
Keep in
mind that in actual Paleo times, a person with such unusual needs
would not
survive to pass on his metabolically defective genes. Such is not the
case
today. So we should remember, that while in a perfect world
supplements may
not be necessary, there are many people who must have large additional
amounts. This is the basis of Orthomolecular Psychiatry. Most people
on this
list have probably grown up eating the SAD lifestyle, and many have
compromised digestive capacity as a result. While switching to a Paleo
lifestyle will go along way toward achieving health, there are times
when
supplements of various kinds will be quite necessary.

Maddy Mason
Hudson Valley, NY