Loss of nutrients and how to balance it

Today, the vegetables and fruits have little nutrients than the vegetables and fruits that were grown a few decades ago. They were richer in vitamins and minerals as they were grown on a good quality soil but with increased farming the quality of soil has degraded to an extent. Another reason was that there was less population earlier than what it is now and hence not as much supply was required and hence less was grown but the quality was maintained.

With increase in population, the demand for food also increased. Intensive agricultural methods are a culprit that have degraded the soil quality in terms of nutritional value. Intensive use of fertilisers and pesticides has also become a practice that is not only bad for the crops but for us too. 
Many types of chemicals are used nowadays to grow more food in less time. Though the quantities have increased rapidly but they lack nutritional values. Natural health stores online, in Canada, have a huge variety of natural products and supplements that can be used to balance the nutrients that we intake.

Nutrients are lost due to many means. They can be lost due to peeling the vegetables and fruits, cooking, drying foods, inefficient processing or storage systems.

Foods like carrots, green leafy vegetables etc are a rich source of Vitamin A. Vitamin A is dissolved easily with oils and fats and hence food is cooked, vitamin A leaves the vegetables and gets mixed with the oils.

The process of cooking rice results in the loss of Vitamin B. Vitamin B is water soluble and when rice is washed it also gets washed away with it. The cooking procedure requires washing rice, soaking it and then boiling in water; resulting in lesser amount of vitamin B in the cooked rice.

Vitamin C is found in citrus food and is an important nutrient. It is easily lost by cooking of food. It is also lost when vegetables and fruits are cut and are exposed to air for long. Over cooking and use of cooking soda also destroys this nutrient.

Proteins are coagulated by heat and hence cooking results in loss of proteins from the food. Proteins soften on cooking and further heating makes them lose their moisture, dries them up and makes it difficult to digest.

Minerals get lost when food is cut, washed or is soaked for a long time.

Online natural health stores in Canada help people by offering them supplements to balance the nutrient intake.

Keeping in mind how nutrients are lost from our food whether it is by depleted soil or by cooking or by any other means, supplements have come into play.

Deficiency of nutrients in our food can be balanced by taking supplements. There are varieties of supplements available; some are dedicated vitamins or some are multi-vitamins and can be taken according to the needs. Online natural health stores in Canada sell such supplements and one can benefit from them to a great extent.

 

Paul Ryder is the author of this article. To Know more information about Natural health stores online in Canada please visit the website.