Nutrient dense food is not only more healthful for us, but it can also help to improve our agricultural systems. We have witnessed the results of conventional farming and evidently it’s time to change our food growing methods to ensure that we get the most out of our land and our food.
How do we know if we’re eating nutrient dense food?
Nutrient dense foods are those which contain a high proportion of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrients. They are often fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and proteins.
The widespread use of synthetic fertilisers and chemicals has resulted in many foods being grown in nutrient-poor soils. This means that even if a food is not processed, it may still be lacking in the nutrients our bodies need.
How to Identify Nutrient Dense Food
Nutrient dense food looks much the same as nutrient devoid food, which is how the synthetic fertilisers and chemicals managed to become so widely used in our food production. The chemical content is out of sight and out of mind.
Fresh produce that has been grown with artificial fertilisers are sometimes larger, and more watery. This is due to the plants adaption methods that it undertakes in order to assimilate the artificial substances. This can also make them tasteless.
Otherwise, it is difficult to visually tell nutrient dense produce apart from other produce, which means you would need to ask your fresh food supplier how the food is farmed.
How does Nutrient Dense Food differ?
Nutrient dense food contains genuine minerals and trace elements, which the human body needs, and is grown in chemical free, fertile soil, with organic minerals and trace elements available.
A healthy soil microbiome, is soil that has been built using and number of natural farming methods which include plant diversity, applying natural inputs and using regenerative principals.
Living soil is a crucial foundation to all living things, and is the only place where nutrient dense food is grown. Fertile soil is key to ‘real’ human health.
When you eat nutrient dense food, you don’t need to eat as much.
We get hungry because our body needs minerals, which is fuel. A healthy balance of minerals, through a diverse nutrient dense diet, helps the body function optimally. Food that is devoid of real minerals ultimately does not satisfy, so we crave more.
How do minerals get into the plant food?
Quality soil contains millions of invisible workers that enable nutrients to be delivered into the plant.
Beneficial microorganisms feed the soil and plants, along with many other roles in the complex web of microbes and fungi that occupy the soil. Chemicals, pesticides and an overuse of synthetic fertilisers, damage beneficial soil microorganisms and impair their intricate network for communicating.
A REAL Health Insurance Policy
Chemical free farming is important when it comes to human health and the future health of our planet. More regenerative farming is essential on the planet today. It makes sense then, that we start individually to take steps toward supporting the regeneration of nature.
How can we Support Regenerative Farming?
1. Find out where your fresh food is coming from and local farms that can supply you. Ask them about their farming methods. Let them know you are looking for food grown in chemical or synthetic free soil.
2. Investigate what ‘organic’ means in your country. In some countries the ‘organic’ criteria means farms are allowed to use synthetic fertilisers. Do your own research.
3. Eat what is in season. By doing so, it will automatically drive more demand/business toward local producers instead of to overseas imports. Did you know that ‘everything’ that is classed as food entering Australia is irradiated?
4. Buy locally grown and locally supplied. This is the way we get to move toward regenerative farming quicker. Farmers meet demands. If the demand is for chemical or spray free food, that is where farming will go.
5. People have the power. Ask questions, request nutrient dense food, grow your own!