Minerals in crops vital to human health

TOKYO —

Trace minerals contained in vegetables, cereals, fruits and other foods ingested daily are vital to human health, and researchers are increasingly coming to recognize their importance.

Kazuhiko Watanabe, a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, said, ‘‘The source of a healthy body rests with soil improvement agents and fertilizers used to grow agricultural products.’‘

In addition to zinc, said to be an indispensable element, silicon and boron have also drawn interest. Humans depend on crops in order to be able to ingest silicon and boron.

Watanabe compared the densities of elements contained in plants and people, and found that although there was no big difference where calcium and iron are concerned, the density of boron in plants was 140 times higher than in humans, while that of silicon was 35 times higher.

The need for silicon has been known since a 2004 survey of residents of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The daily intake of silicon by about 2,800 people aged 30 to 87 was surveyed from 1991 to 1999 in order to determine how it affected the density of their pelvises and thighbones by 2001.

The more silicon men ingested, and the more silicon women ingested before menopause, the higher their bone density and the better formed their bones. The effect was two times greater than for calcium. Silicon had no effect on women after menopause.

Silicon is found in soil, and a large amount is also contained in cereal crops. The amount derived from cereal crops is sufficient for Japanese, given that the staple food is rice.

Foreign researchers long wondered why relatively few Japanese suffered from osteoporosis in the Meiji era, even though dairy products were not commonly consumed in those days, but silicon has since proved to be the answer to that mystery.

However, as rice consumption has declined drastically in Japan, fears persist that there may be a shortage of silicon in the diet in the future, medical analysts said.

It was long believed that boron was not as necessary to human health as silicon, but that perception changed in 2002 when a group of researchers, led by Toru Fujiwara, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, announced the discovery of a membrane protein for transporting boron in plants.

In 2004, U.S. researchers found a boron transporter in humans, too. In an experiment on humans by researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, basic data were gathered to show that boron helps to maintain women’s hormones at a high level after menopause and boosts brain activity in the elderly.

Fujiwara said, ‘‘There is an increasingly strong possibility that boron is necessary for the human body.’‘

As there is no boron in meat or fish, boron has to be ingested via soybeans, brown seaweed and other plants, but for people on a balanced diet, this presents no problem.

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Latest 15 of 16 Total Comments Show All

Disillusioned at 09:00 AM JST - 19th August

Does this include lead?
SushiSake3 at 09:34 AM JST - 19th August

The pertinant point here is the type of growing method.

Conventional agriculture requires plants be grown on the same soil year in, year out. Over a few years, tjhis nearly completely depletes the mineral content of the soil, and as you can probably imagine, if the are very few minerals in the soil, there will be very few minerals in anything grown in that soil - so, no matter how juicy your conventionally-grown tomato looks, it may have very little nutriton and goodness in it.

Hence, the use of fertilizers, which in most cases is Superphosphate, the world's most commonly used fertilizer, used to replenish soil with nutrients and minerals, concocted in a factory no less.

Cue ocean dead zones. There are now more than 100 ocean dead zones worldwide, where sea water contains no oxygen. One of the biggest ocean dead zones is located at the mouth of the Mississippi river - caused by the nitrogen component in fertilizer runoff from farms all along the river creating algae blooms that suck out all the oxygen.

Fish and other sea creatures that can move hopefully do. If you are a scallop stuck to a rock and your living area is enroached by a dead zone, bad luck.

Answers?

1/ Crop rotation - give specific plots of land a rest every few years - and let Nature replenish the minerals and nutrients in the soil naturally.

2/ Eat organic as much as possible - and hope that farmer　Brown practices crop rotatotion.

3/ Take supplements - but beware of land-based minerals - that may have been subjected to artificial fertilizers and sprays. Deep-sea minerals are best,
SushiSake3 at 10:35 AM JST - 19th August
This is a REALLY big issue. Superphosphate entered mainstream use post-WWII, in the 1950s.

Since them cases of cancer have skyrocketed, and despite people living in developed countries having a jaw-dropping selection of food to choose from, the bottom line, I believe, is that our grandparents and generations before them were eating way healthier food than we are now.

Most fish now contains various heavy metals, and the further up the food chain (ie: the bigger the fish), the more likely it is to contain harmful metals.

Our food supply has been 'beautified' - we see tomatoes and various fruit that looks so well-shaped, shiny and beautiful that it's all too easy to think they will be good for us, when in actual fact, a gnarled organic apple will be far better for us than its larger, well shaped conventionally-grown counterpart.

What we need to do is go backwards - and re-start growing crops as everyone from Adam up to our grandparents' generation did.
- That means crop rotation and cut the fertilizers.
Another interesting fact is that if crop rotation is used in the growing process, it just isn't necessary to use fertilizers, because by leaving ground fallow for a year or so, Nature will replenish the nutrients in the soil and we won't have to go and dump a whole lot of factory-produced checmiscals on our crops.

As is typical, humans have screwed up the system, and we really need to just follow Nature's cues to see how to grow our food right.
Badsey at 10:45 AM JST - 19th August

Boron: This is why hydroponic (no boron) tomatoes taste poorly. (peppers, I would assume other nightshade plants etc)

=Never underestimate the power of a good mulch. You must put back what you take away. (Fukuoka Farming)
stirfry at 10:55 AM JST - 19th August

and researchers are increasingly coming to recognize their importance

you really mean "japanese researchers" don't you ? western researchers came to this conclusion 40 years ago, but thanks for the newsflash
sf2k at 11:56 AM JST - 19th August

minerals in crops vital to human health

well duh... what's next? A study of air?
sf2k at 12:08 PM JST - 19th August

@sushisake3

the topsoil existed for those generations. Now it has blown off or been reduced to nothing more than a sponge to hold petrochemicals, not natural systems. Housing developments throw away the topsoil because it interferes with their construction!

With a reduction of topsoil every single year this will have predictable consequences.

Actually in Japan I'm more hopeful since the average home out of the cities have gardens and a local foodies culture that I really miss. Neighbours are highly skilled or not at all, but learn and celebrate local foods and traditions. The gardening in-place method is not only a non-tilling method of farming but keeps the root structure intact, thus less erosion and no vehicles thus no fuel use.

The irony is kaiseki is paid for and more expensive because it is fresh and valued. (Not GMO). Something we would be wise to duplicate.

When the time comes though, our soil will be dust and the years needed to recover it will not be in time to alleviate hunger, nor prices.
Azrael at 05:07 PM JST - 19th August

With those prices, it's no wonder rice consumption has declined drastically here in Japan.

I had to quit rice for other starch filler (mainly potatoes) when the economic crisis began to hit me - the Japanese government's scholarships have been steadily cropped down every several months for the past few years. With the prices of food here, it's a feat to get proper nutrition. Thankfully I received nutrition classes in Elementary in my country, plus my mother's teachings. However uninformed people go straight for the fast food, pre-made food packages and other cheap foods rich in industrial components. Minerals in crops are vital to human health alright - but isn't this study another form of propaganda to foster the earnings of Japanese fertilizer industries at the expense of the consumer's health? Quote the article:

Kazuhiko Watanabe, a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, said, ‘‘The source of a healthy body rests with soil improvement agents and fertilizers used to grow agricultural products.

Stop inflating the prices of rice and perhaps people will consume it more. Also, more industrial chemicals is the last thing the human body needs. Kidney, pancreas and liver won't evolve fast enough. Also remember, Soylent Green is people.
NeilWarnock at 11:57 PM JST - 19th August

Eatproper wholesome foodlike fisha nand chips with mushy peas or pie and mash with liquer for example. You will be in peak health and get all the nutrients you need. I learnt at school mineral in foods wre vital to health, and these geezers are exoerts? What from Victorian times!
Badge213 at 12:50 AM JST - 20th August

Minerals in crops vital to human health

You don't say!
aelieth at 01:15 AM JST - 20th August

I almost went into a rant about this on another article, I believe the blue fin tuna article before. People complain about the mercury levels, but by farm raising fish you lose nearly every other nutritional aspect of them beyond lean meat. The omega-3 fats are non-existant in farm raised fish, same thing goes for red meat in the United States. Yes, red meat used to contain omega 3's. These came from the vegetation that grew naturally before.

Fake minerals, such as multi-vitamins do not work as well as naturally existing compounds found in foods. A big reason is simple because of the complexities of the molecules and how they interact with the amino acids. I expect to see many more problems and an increase rise in obesity in the future among many nations as they try to produce cheap, filling food with the nutrition sucked out of it.
zurcronium at 09:40 AM JST - 20th August

well duh... what's next? A study of air?

Perhaps what is in air may be worth studying. People are dying from pollutants in air. Perhaps that is a news flash for some.
Cliffy at 01:56 AM JST - 21st August

This is not new.
bdiego at 09:15 AM JST - 21st August

Ancient cultures have known this intuitively for thousands of years and so has even the Bible, yet the average person in modern society is completely ignorant of healthy eating. That's why this research is necessary, because modern man won't believe in common sense unless some scientist reminds them so.
getsy at 07:10 PM JST - 21st August

This guy sums it up... listen to 1 to 7 Smart guy.. Ive been on Neways minerals for 13 years... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIuAvFett0w&feature=related