Shocking! According to the Canadian Cancer Society, there will be 145,500 new cases of cancer with an estimated 68,300 deaths occurring in 2004. That means on the day you are reading this, 187 people will die from cancer. Statistics also show that 80% of Canadians will have some form of heart disease. A chart from the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation about risk factors states that 62.4% of heart disease is due to inadequate Fruit and Vegetable Consumption (66.8% for Alberta). In addition, over two million Canadians suffer from Diabetes, which puts them at a higher risk for heart-disease and stroke.

The functioning of our immune system has deteriorated by approximately 30% in the last twenty years and continues to drop at an alarming rate of about three percent per year. Is there a connection between health and nutrient consumption/absorption?

Everyone has busy lifestyles, whether we choose it that way or not. Our bodies are constantly under physical, emotional and environmental stress. To make matters worse, we starve ourselves by not providing our body with the nutrition it needs to function properly. We get little nutrition from food for a variety of reasons. The very convenient processed, ready-to-serve foods available at your corner store, such as cereals, pasta sauces, white bread, canned foods and pop etcetera, are far from nutritious.

We live in the age of science. The food industry makes our foods easy to prepare and inexpensive but with little thought about the nutritional value of the product. Canning, pasteurizing, milling, refining, you name it. Brand name products are created for profit. Lots of sugar, salt and countless additives and preservatives (chemicals) are added, not only to make the food taste better but more importantly from a business point of view, to extend the shelf life. And this market is still growing. These additives can seriously disrupt the natural chemical balance in our body, especially long-term. No wonder cancer and heart disease are on the rise to epidemic levels.

Even when we eat fresh fruits and vegetables, nutrient levels are considerably lower than fifty years ago. This is due to the fact that they are mass produced, genetically modified, picked prematurely (due to storing and transportation issues), extensive use of pesticides, and grown on eroded and nutrient starved lands. Most nutrients (phytonutrients) of fruits and vegetables remain in the roots until they mature. During ripening, the phytonutrients move from the roots into the fruit, slowing down the aging process. This is what makes strawberries turn red and bananas turn yellow. Naturopath Dr. Steve Nugent