Deficiency states are rife. Did you know that a basic calcium deficiency can manifest as some 147 different diseases ? Bells' Palsy, osteoporosis, kidney stones, bone spurs, arthritis, osteoarthritis, sciatica, lumbago, degenerative arthritis, rheumatism, receding gums, gingivitis, high blood pressure, chronic constipation, muscle twitches and cramps, even PMS, all are signs of a marked calcium deficiency.

Diabetes is a deficiency of too little chromium and vanadium - the farming and veterinary communities have been preventing and curing this terrible illness since 1957 when "Federation Proceedings", the official journal for the National Institutes of Health in America, published a paper on it. According to the British Colombia Medical School in Vancouver, vanadium alone will replace insulin in adult-onset diabetes - which accounts for 85% of all diabetes cases - and cure it. Insulin has to be reduced gradually of course, and the process takes 4-6 months, but just think of the implications of this information. Chromium and vanadium are found in quantity in things like chocolate. Most doctors will tell you that it's the eating of excessive amounts of chocolate that can cause the diabetes - this is the reverse, clearly. The body is craving these minerals, tries to get them by eating chocolate, doesn't get enough of them, and develops diabetes. Not helped of course by medical advice insisting that chocolate does you no good.

Agricultural science is always ahead of human science in the field of nutrition and deficiency states - they've had to be, because they've had to find cost-effective ways of managing their livestock whilst maintaining their livelihoods. They had to find out what caused each disease and then find a way to fix it. Another example: stomach ulcers in pigs have been successfully being treated for more than 50 years, because they understood that they were caused by a bacteria called helicobacter pylori and a deficiency of a trace mineral called bismuth, yet for all that time we were told that stress was the cause and surgery the only cure; the American National Institutes of Health finally published this information in 1994, to great and quite undeserved acclaim. Another example, this one discovered via farmers, vets and turkeys - copper deficiency results in aneurysms, varicose veins and sagging skin (it's vital for maintaining elastic fibres in the body), and also grey hair. The list of modern diseases caused by deficiency states is enormous.

Cravings for any foods - or other substances for that matter - always indicate a deficiency state. The reason that pregnant women crave bizarre foods is because the foetus is pulling all the minerals away from the mother. Back in the 70's, there was a big issue about the use of lead-based paint because children were eating it off the walls; instead of recognising a deficiency state and addressing it with cheap mineral supplementation, the paint was expensively replaced with non-lead compounds. Cattle, especially dairy cattle, will eat fences, barbed wire, rocks, wood, pretty much anything unless they are being given mineral blocks to chew on instead; it's not a matter of boredom, it's a matter of mineral deficiency as the constant milking pulls all of the minerals out of these cows.

Cravings like these are known in veterinary circles as a disease called Pica. If you experience any cravings, it is a very clear sign that there is something your body is lacking something which it needs. And it isn't will power !

And lastly in the nutrition chain come vitamins. Again, we all know what these are, and we may even know about some of the deficiency states; B12 is linked to pernicious anaemia, vitamin C with scurvy, vitamin D with rickets, and so on. But there's more, of course. Fifty years ago, Alzheimer's was unheard of. It is a vitamin E deficiency. It's also remarkably common now. here are some others for you to be thinking about, in no particular order:-

What we have tried to do here is to provide you with some basic information about the need for good nutrition. All of the above will be covered in greater depth in a series of information leaflets. This is designed as an overview, just a little taster to get you thinking about the possibility of deficiency states being involved in your own health condition.

To summarise, then: nutrition isn't simply about the four food groups. It's about all the different chemical substances that our bodies need in order to perform all the functions of life. Every function in our bodies is the result of a chemical reaction or interaction. If the right nutrients aren't available to the body, functions fail, and it's as simple as that. Nutrition is about giving your body what it needs in order for it to be healthy. Nutrition is about life.

article added with permission by the author

Foods that help

Vitamin A – Go for yellow – carrots, cheese, butter or margarine, egg yolk, fresh apricots and, the exception, green vegetables.

The B-group vitamins.

1. Thiamin: This is found in whole-wheat, pulses, nuts and pork, but rice, white flour and raw fish interfere with your being able to use it.
2. Riboflavin: This is found in liver, cheese and eggs, or meat and yeast extracts.
3. Niacin: This is found in liver, kidneys, eggs, yeast extract and instant coffee.
4. Vitamin B12: Meat, poultry, liver, eggs and milk.
5. Vitamin B6: This is available in almost all foods. The biggest danger is accidentally overdosing with vitamin pills.

Vitamin C: Citrus fruits, peppers, salads, green vegetables.

Vitamin D: Herrings (including kippers), sardines, margarine and eggs plus a regular dose of sunshine.

Vitamin E: Margarine, sunflower seed oil and other polyunsaturates, wheat germ.

Water: A good supply of clean, uncontaminated drinking water.

Foods that don't

1. Cabbage and many other members of the brassica family, sprouts, cauliflower, kohlrabi, horseradish;
2. Peanuts, walnuts, almonds;
3. rape and mustard seed;
4. maize (sweet corn), millet, sorghum;
5. soya – especially as part of a high-fibre diet, since too much thyroid hormone and iodine are excreted from the body;
6. cassava – a minor problem in Third World countries;
7. Kale, raw swedes and turnips fed to cattle and coming through in their milk, as has occurred here in the UK.

 Flouridated Water or food with flouride such as tea in excess. Also while kelp and seaweed may help those people with low levels of thryoid hromone which have dropped due to aging etc if you have auto immune thryoid disease it may not and may cause a hyper swing so take carefully if at all