Food Processing and Prep: the Vitamin Massacre

A whole healthy food is a different animal when its caged in a can, freezer packed or in a box.  Potatoes, for instance are potentially a regular, reliable source of vitamin C.  But today, many people eat potatoes reconstituted from instant mixes, not realizing that these potato products contain no vitamin C whatsoever.  Figures for citrus fruits(a staple source of vitamin C) are not much better.  Orange juice from a cardboard carton has up to 30% less vitamin C than fresh squeezed juice.  That wouldn't be so bad, but 40% of whats left of the vitamin C is biologically inactive(of no use at all). 

For years the USDA believed that a 6 oz pork loin delivered 5.4 mg of iron a substantial amount.  But recently the USDA has discovered that pork contains only 1.62 mg, 70% less than thought.  Beef the most popular meat in America contains 20% less iron than originally thought. 

Today there are more than 3,000 chemicals used in the commercial food we eat.  And in one way or another many of them are nutrient and immune system antagonist.  The plants we grow are deficient, so in turn we take them a boil the crap out of them, or steam them or even worse microwave those bad boys.  And as a result they contain 20% the original nutritional content after molecular destabilization by cooking.