Jill Clapperton -- Discovering, Analyzing, Recovering, and Rebuilding Nutrient Density in Food

As humans, we have always known how to find the foods we needed to nourish and heal our bodies. I remember in a presentation by Dr. Wade Davis from the National Geographic Society talking about living in the Amazon when he was doing his PhD at Harvard in Botany. He related the story of asking the Shaman how he knew plant A worked in a separate way from plant B (that actually looks identical to the first plant). He answered that the plants told him. Later in the lab at Harvard, they discovered that indeed Plant A and B were unique and did have different properties, although it was not possible to tell the plants apart physically.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, we began to put names on the nutrients like Vitamins A and C. Then we became more interested in how small changes in what we fed livestock affected animal health. Nutrition was becoming a science! The increasing analytical capacity of chemistry laboratories revolutionized our understanding of human physiology and the nutrients we needed to fuel our engines. Technology continues to change the way we understand nutrition, food and health, especially for livestock. Only now are we seriously starting to again understand and think about how nutrition can nourish and heal our bodies.
When yield became a critical factor, cereals became the dominant crop. As cereals became the staple food in our diets the nutritional quality declined. The question is why?
Agriculture has not held nutrient output as an explicit goal of its production systems. Most adults in North America are deficient in the mineral magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc. Yet, whole grains can provide these nutrients. What practices can we use to rebuild nutrient density in food and where is the evidence? Join us as we discover, analyze, recover and rebuild the path to nutrient dense food.
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