Foods that feed you, and foods that feed UPON you...

"As a result of consuming refined foods, (...) nutrients are extracted from the bones, tissues and nerves."(1)

"Whole foods means foods that are in their unrefined edible state, for example, whole wheat and whole grain pasta, whole fruits, and unrefined oils, salt and sweeteners. (...) Refined foods, such as white flour used in bread, pastry, and pasta, are not just missing a few ingredients that can be replaced by enrichment with three or four vitamins. They lack up to 50 different minerals and trace minerals, a number of vitamins, virtually all the fiber and precious oils, and untold numbers of phytochemicals that support full immune function.
These nutrients are required for complete metabolism to occur. As a result of consuming refined foods, the missing nutrients are extracted from the bones, tissues and nerves."(1)

I was studying recently an introductory course on microbiology, and amongst others, the molecular processes taking place in cells, as in the human body. A cell is very much like an "autonomous" being, an "individual" ("the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living", says Wikipedia). So in this course there was a description of this "individual" cell interacting with its environment: taking up certain things that are absolutely essential for its survival as a cell - and thus for the well-being and survival of the organism as a whole (the human body it is part of, for instance); getting rid of other things (waste products from digestion on a cellular level); transformation processes taking place inside without which it cannot survive, etcetera etc.

In this microbiology course, all this was explained in terms of chemical reactions and interactions, like equations or very precise recipes. And guess what? In (almost?) every reaction, minerals were absolutely essential: magnesium, calcium, ..., you name it - without them, nothing goes on a cellular level. In every single reaction, one or more minerals appeared as part of the equation. This means: for about anything a cell has to do, it needs minerals available and around!

This really helped me to be conscious of how minerals are necessary in a very concrete way on a very very basic level of my being - the cellular level. My body is the sum of all these cells, constantly carrying out thousands of reactions and interactions, right now as I write this and right now as you read it, and for about every one of these, they need minerals around!

I imagined a cell of my heart, for instance, starting some simple but absolutely vital process, being in need of some magnesium or calcium to complete it, and not finding any available - that's a horrifying thought! It'll get sick, or die off, or become cancerous - and I with it! I don't want any cell of my heart ever to lack some necessary element! And the same goes really for any other cell, wherever it is in my body! So becoming aware that refined foods actually not only fail to replenish minerals, but actively rob them from my body, was quite a shock.

"As a result of consuming (...) [food], (...) nutrients are extracted." Isn't that absurd! But well, it's what happens when you consume refined foods. They're a kind of Trojan horses...

"But how about complements, can't they do the trick?" (says the stubborn refined-foods-addict in me...) Some tablets or powders (natural or synthetic) or miracle extract from the Amazon Forest or the Himalaya's, to get the necessary elements that are lacking in our refined diet?

To start with, it's really not very smart to conceive things this way. It's like trying to fill a bucket with water and at the same time punch holes in the bottom. What the complements bring in, the refined foods flush out, that's such a waste of money and energy.

Secondly, unrefined foods are like refined foods, so to speak, but with exactly the necessary complement simply built in, part of the package - easy and low-cost, for you and for the planet. "... Unrefined cane sugar", for instance, "actually prevents tooth decay and nerve deterioration instead of causing them as refined sugars do."(1)

And then there's also the following. Pitchford takes here the example of calcium, but the same goes for any other mineral...
"All the minerals in the body are in a delicate, dynamic balance (...) Exactly how minerals should be balanced internally is a biochemical puzzle which scientists reinterpret and question from year to year. For example, the ideal ratio of calcium to magnesium in the diet was once thought to be two-to-one. More recently, researchers have advocated a one-to-one raio, and now some are asserting that magnesium intake should be twice that of calcium. (...) In fact, a favorable mix of all known nutrients essential for calcium absorption is found in a balanced whole-food diet. (...) [C]alcium absorption requires adequate dietary magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, C and D. In fact, without certain of these nutrients, it appears that calcium cannot be absorbed at all"(2).
So taking calcium tablets, and even eating more dairy, is not a guaranteed solution of calcium deficiency - it may even, on the contrary, lead to calcium being deposited in places where it is a problem (like in arteries) instead of a solution (as in the bones). And who can tell which of the many known, and still unknown, other elements it should be combined with, and in what quantities? And you can't just take too much (just to be on the safe side): too much of any mineral can also be a problem...

It's all very simple really: a balanced dietary regime of whole foods is all that is needed. Easy and tasty...
Sometimes I wish I would have been aware of this earlier on in my life... I just didn't know any of this, and nobody around me seemed to know either... And it's so simple really, but so very important, it seems to me...

Some final, related quotes to finish:

"Overeating, a popular pastime in the wealthy nations, is thought to be the major cause of premature aging. (...) Refined foods may also contribute to overeating, according to a scientific study reported by the U.S. Agricultural Research Service (March 1, 1999). An explanation is that one is biologically conditioned over millions of years of human evolution to consume whole foods; excessive eating may represent an instinctive craving to obtain nutrients that are lost during refining. Common foods depleted in nutrients include "white" refined: sugar, pasta, bread, pastries, and rice; refined oils, and reduced-fat dairy." (3)

"Certain refined foods such as cornstarch, white rice, and the white-flour versions of noodles, spaghetti and bread take almost twice as long to digest as whole grains and give one a feeling of being full or having something that "sticks to the ribs". This creates the delusion of being nourished and warm. However, these foods form a sticky mucus that accumulates in the intestines causing coldness(5), constipation and stuffiness. Nevertheless, it is important for some people to maintain this feeling of fullness until they can accept the light, clear experience resulting from eating whole grains."(4)

Footnotes:
(1) Paul Pitchford in the foreword to "The new whole foods encyclopedia" by Rebecca Wood, 1999, p. viii
(2) Paul Pitchford, "Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition", North Atlantic Books; 3rd edition (2002), pp. 217-218
(3) id., p. 251
(4) id., p.449
(5) Coldness refers here to a term in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which can include, but is much vaster than, the sensation of having cold.