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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Soil Health and the Physical and Mental Health of Humans
  • Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:51:32 -0600


Some Observations on the Relationships Between Soil Health and the Physical
and Mental Health of Humans
http://www.malcolmbeck.com/articles/foodforthought.htm
by Malcolm Beck


Earth, the only planet known to support and sustain life, is home to many
beautiful, fascinating and wonderful forms of life. The vast majority of
these life-forms, both plant and animal, follow their instincts and live
their lives in harmony with nature.

Humans, on the other hand, have free will as well as instincts. They have
the freedom to be stupid, to be jealous, envious, and greedy. They can
choose to make war on their own kind, pollute the environment, abuse the
earth and other creatures living on it, and even allow abuse and erosion to
destroy the thing that supports all life -- the soil.

Along with free will, humans were also given superior intelligence. Why
haven't we used this intelligence to learn the ways of living in harmony
with the environment and our own species?

Could it be that the body that houses and nourishes our thinking and
learning brain requires better nutrition than it is receiving?

Animal life is programmed to seek out the most nutritious foods for both
body and brain. Humans have the free will to decide whether or not to
properly nourish their bodies.

Poorly nourished people have unsatisfied cravings, suffer from allergies
and degenerative diseases, and find their thinking and reasoning powers
impaired. As a result of these problems, lack of nourishment effects not
only the person involved but also their associates and people with whom
they interact.

The undernourished person is irritable, discontented, and unhappy. They
have less and less ability to think their way out of their problems.

Could it be that many politicians, lawyers, judges, teachers, parents and
students are not nourishing their bodies and minds sufficiently to support
sane and logical thinking?

We have vast knowledge of the history of mankind, but for some reason our
supposedly superior intellect has not used this knowledge. Nations are
still fighting nations. Neighbors are still killing neighbors. Now even
school children are killing school children. Where do we look for the
answers?

Dr. Lowdermilk's studies, published in Agriculture Bulletin No. 99 in 1939,
tells how soil neglect, erosion, deforestation, and overgrazing have
toppled empires and wiped out civilizations. At the same time, he learned
that careful stewardship of the earth's resources and soil conservation
measures have enabled other societies to flourish for centuries.

The body (brain included) must be properly nourished to be healthy and
sound. All life on earth is nourished by a thin layer of soil. The quality
of that top soil is maintained by soil life's ability to use energy from
decaying organic matter and minerals from decaying rock.

Greed has caused humans to allow much of the food producing soils around
the world to fall below par in organic matter and mineral content. The
quality of our top soil determines the quality of the air we breathe, the
water we drink and the food we eat. If the quality of the top soil is
allowed to degrade to any degree, the life it supports degrades to the same
degree.

In the 1930s, Sir Robert McGarrison, M.D. of England, carried on an
elaborate experiment using more than 2000 clinical animals under controlled
conditions. The rats in one group were fed a near perfect diet. They grew
large, were healthy, lived long and were docile and affectionate. The rats
in the other group were fed a more common diet of polished rice,
condiments, very little milk or vegetables. The diet was chiefly refined
foods. This poorly fed group were sickly, nervous, vicious and short-lived.
They had many of the diseases common to man.

In the 1950s, Warren Walker did a similar test, using a big group of
pigeons. Half were fed polished rice; the other half were fed brown rice.
The pigeons who ate white rice eventually got five degenerative diseases,
stopped reproducing and started dying prematurely. The pigeons fed brown
rice lived a normal, full, healthy and reproductive life. One unexpected
outcome was that the pigeons on the polished rice became irritable and
discontented long before any clinical ailments appeared.

In 1963, I did an experiment similar to Mr. Walker's, except I used baby
chicks instead of pigeons. I fed one group on white bread and the other
group on whole wheat bread. The chicks eating white bread quickly became
sick, irritable and discontented. They began dying on the 13th day and by
the 17th, they were all dead. The chicks who ate whole wheat bread never
became discontented or irritable. I kept them on the whole wheat diet until
full grown. They were normal and healthy. I released the hens to our laying
flock, and we baked the rooster for Thanksgiving dinner.

Beginning in 1957, my wife and I and our five children ate only natural,
unrefined foods, most of which were produced on our own organic and
mineral-rich farm. We had no doctor bills. Our children never missed school
because of illness. The teachers reported that they were well behaved, and
they all did well in school. Because of my own and other diet studies using
animals, I was interested in how diet related to health and behavior in
people. I paid close attention to my children, my sisters and brothers, and
other people I knew well. I noticed that diet does effect, not only health,
but human behavior as well.

In the spring of 1999 I bought some chicks from a hatchery and did another
test. In this test I fed one group white rice and white bread, the other
brown rice and whole wheat bread. Since white bread is now enriched, the
chicks on it and white rice survived longer than before. The chicks on
brown rice and whole wheat bread, however, also eventually became sick and
started dying. According to Dr. Vestal, DVM of Dodd Animal Hospital and
Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, the chicks on the brown
bread and rice were almost in as bad health as those eating white bread and
rice. The brown bread and rice chicks were mineral and vitamin deficient
except for calcium, and they were also obese. The chicks on white bread and
rice were very deficient in minerals and vitamins, except calcium.

Has the quality of our food-producing soils gone down over the past 36
years, or could it be that the chickens we eat and get eggs from are so far
removed from nature that they now need medicated feed and vitamin
supplements to survive?


Modem studies have many times shown that nutrition has an effect on the
behavior of animals and humans. Could the root of all the troubles in the
world be from over-processed, de-vitalized, chemicalized foods grown in
poor soil? Could these facts be too simple to be understood by our powerful
but poorly nourished brains???

Malcolm Beck






  • [Livingontheland] Soil Health and the Physical and Mental Health of Humans, TradingPostPaul, 10/16/2006

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