"Various substances present in our comfort-craving, health-compromising American lifestyle can have a profound impact on our nutrient levels.
Conventional commercial farming practices reduce our nutrient content as vegetables and fruit absorb their nutrients from the soil in which they are grown.
Conventional crops are grown with synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, and are in the same fields over and over again, causing soils to become depleted. If you live in the Midwest you will drive past cornfields that have been in the same place for decades.
Fruit and vegetables are picked before they are ripe enough in order to survive transport across the country. This does not allow them to continue getting their nutrients from an already depleted soil.
In contrast, organic farmers rotate their crops, fertilize their souls with natural fertilizers such as compost, and rely on nature's pesticides by encouraging insect predators to make the farms their home. Organic farmers also make sure to pick vegetables when they are ripe, and these vegetables have been found to be much more rich in nutrients. One study found that some organic vegetables had almost 90% more nutrients compared with their conventionally grown counterparts.
The way our food is processed also takes out many of the nutrients normally present. Let's take wheat, for example. Wheat starts off as a wheat kernel that is made up of starch, nutrient-filled bran and germ. The bran and germ are removed, leaving behind just the starch, a.k.a. 'flour.' This flour is then bleached so that it is more aesthetically pleasing. A couple of synthetic B vitamins, iron, and folic acid are added in.
Found in bread, cereal, waffles, wraps, sandwiches, pasta, crackers, and most processed foods, processed wheat products are the foundation of the standard American diet and yet they are devoid of nutrients.
Every time someone consumes these products, they actually cause the body to lose nutrients instead of gain them!
If that wasn't bad enough, wheat products also contain gluten, a protein that is toxic to many individuals, and has been connected to many autoimmune conditions, especially Hashimoto's.
Conventional foods found in the Standard American Diet (SAD), devoid of nutrients and full of empty calories, lead us to be nutrient deficient.
Additionally, high-carbohydrate diets, oral contraceptives, antibiotics, and acid-suppressing medications also shift the type of intestinal bacteria we have in our intestinal tracts. These bacteria are responsible for extracting vitamins from our foods as well as keeping peace within our guts." (HASHIMOTO'S THYROIDITIS 63-65)