According to a $25,000,000 study, there are 90 essential nutrients we all need, every day to provide optimal health. Learn what they are, and how to prevent deficiencies in this article and infographic!
Dr. Joel Wallach did a 12 year, $25,000,000 research project from 1971 to 1983. Performing 26,000 autopsies on humans and animals, plus 10 million blood chemistries, and histopathologies.
From this work his team determined that there are 60 minerals. 16 vitamins, 12 amino acids, and 2-3 fatty acids that are optimal for human health. If we could get these 90 nutrients in our diet every day it could drastically improve our health.
Listen in as Dr. Shane Harada, nutritional expert on the 90 essential nutrients, helps you understand the what, why, when and how of this cool nutritional ideology.
The best source of nutrients if real food, of course. Here’s a few high level tips to help you do that:
- Get 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies daily.
- Avoid processed foods, and eat real, whole foods.
- Try to get a full cup of mixed berries every day, they are rich in antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals.
- Eat a balance of healthy carbs, fats and protein with every meal whenever possible.
Supplements that ensure you get your 90 essential nutrients
It’s extremely difficult in western society to eat a perfectly balanced diet that includes healthy forms of all the nutrients. These three high-end supplements will make sure you get all the vitamins, minerals, and omegas you need.
Mimi’s Miracle Minerals contain over 70 trace minerals. People report having better hair and nail growth, more energy, and strengthened immune system when on this product. “Every one else in the office got sick but me” is a common testimonial. And as a nice side benefit, this product is about half the price of similar products on Amazon, some of which contain less nutrients.
Mimi’s Miracle Multi contains those vitamins and nutrients that people are highly likely to be deficient in, and are difficult to get from diet. Most multivitamins have plenty of stuff you don’t need. Not enough of what you do need… and in a low quality form.
Pure Form Omegas. Fatty Omegas are three of the most important nutrients in the list of 90. And research has shown that plant based omegas are more readily utilized by your body than fish based. This interview with Dr. Jeff Matheson, one of the worlds leading inflammation and pain management experts, is amazing in some of the evidence and case studies he shares about this.
In one case, a lady waiting for a liver transplant, was sent to him for pain management while she waited for her new liver. He put her on a pain management protocol with high doses of Pure Form Omegas as the primary method. Five months later and Voila! She no longer needed a liver, it had healed itself. If we didn’t hear it from such a credible physician we would find it hard to believe.
What is the back story of the 90 Essential Nutrients and Dr. Wallach?
Originally, Dr. Wallach was a veterinarian by training. He became famous for his participation on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, a very popular television show.
Known to be a very talented veterinarian, he was called back to the United States to research on what are some of the challenges were with the animals being held in captivity. Dr. Wallach performed autopsies those animals that died, as well as the animals that were having fertility issues in captivity.
Dr. Wallach was instrumental in determining some of the nutritional and environmental problems these animals faced, and was able to drastically improve the health of the animals.
The animals were largely deficient in nutrients, and once those nutrients were put back into the diets of the animals, the health improvements followed.
And the more he learned, the more he realized that humans had many of the same problems as the mammals he was treating, so he started studying similar issues with humans.
The $25 Million, Twelve Year Nutritional Study
Dr Wallach then did a $25 million study from 1971 to 83 doing autopsies on animals and humans that included about 16,000 autopsies of animals and humans as well as chemical profiles on every single one of them to discover these 90 essential nutrients.
They also did 10 million blood chemistries studying animal and human cells under the microscope. One of the things they looked for was disease found in those cells. So one of his specialties was pathology at the cellular level.
This work is currently held at the Smithsonian Museum, and from his research also came his blockbuster book, “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie.” And of course the 90 Essential Nutrients concept.
So What are the “90 Essential Nutrients?”
There are basically four categories of nutritional components. The first and largest is the minerals, 60 are considered essential nutrients. Now essential in this framework means the body cannot produce these nutrients by itself and thus the body requires those nutritional components to come in through the diet, water or supplements. So 60 of those 90 are minerals.
The next category are vitamins and there are 16 vitamins.
The next category is amino acids and there are 12 amino acids in the list of 90. That makes 88. And then there’s essential fatty acids, which are found in fish oil, flax oil, etc. There are two to three essential fatty acids, which adds up to 90 or 91 essential nutrients.
What Happens If We Are Deficient In These Nutrients?
There are approximately 900 different diseases that are directly associated with vitamin, mineral, amino acid and essential fatty acid deficiencies. These 90 essential nutrients are essential in helping prevent basically every chronic disease that’s in all of the first and second and third world countries. Which includes the likes of arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, bone diseases, soft tissue diseases that effect the brain and heart, that includes strokes, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, most forms of cancer, and the list goes on and on and on in these 900 diseases.
Category One: Minerals
Essential minerals are pretty much the most important category that many people are deficient in.
One key to minerals lies in the taste of our food. The fruits and vegetables that you taste, which are the sweetest, typically have the highest mineral content. This makes them sweet and desirable to the human body. Likewise to all of the animal population that eat those fruits of vegetables.
That is why those fruits and vegetables become desirable to humans and all wildlife.
Interestingly, on the flip side, the bugs, worms, and parasites are typically not as prevalent in those crops that have higher mineral content.
The minerals to help prevent diabetes, and for blood sugar regulation include, chromium, vanadium in zinc. Those are three minerals that are primarily in the regulation for blood sugars that help the pancreas with insulin levels. But more importantly, to help the cells actually utilize the sugars better.
In helping prevent conditions such as arthritis you have calcium, magnesium, strontium, Boron and other minerals that are all co-factors with one another. We hear a lot about calcium and magnesium. But in order to truly absorb and utilize the calcium and magnesium, there’s a host of about 12 to 20 additional nutritional components that are required for the calcium and magnesium to be utilized for that bone to be strengthened and to be repaired.
What are the Best Food Sources for these Minerals?
That is such a fantastic question. I totally agree with this philosophy, food first. However, obviously what you and I are both finding is that the nutritional components in the essential nutrients that are supposed to be in foods are definitely lesser than they used to be even 15 years ago. And much lower than 75 or a hundred years ago. We’re just not getting the nutritional content. [Learn more about this in a previous post, “The alarming global nutrient collapse.”.]
However, we need to eat plenty of greens. Those are fantastic. Spinach, Kale, Chard, all of the deep Greens and things that we would include in a green smoothie.
Many of the berries are obviously high in antioxidants. And those have a high mineral content typically, as well. Especially, if they’re sweeter. Then they have a higher mineral content. So those are the kinds of foods that I look at. Greens, salads, peppers, berries, and there’s also minerals in red meats, liver and bone broth.
Listen to the podcast interview with Dr. Shane to get the whole story…
How About The Top Essential Vitamins?
Most of the same foods that we just discussed are high in vitamin content also. So again we point out the importance of having a balanced diet. And what I’ve seen in most research is that lower carb is much better as well because most of the grains are higher in calories than they are in nutrients. So if you want a higher nutritional component, then eliminate much of the grains and go for more of the higher protein and higher healthy fat foods as well as the fresh fruits and vegetables.
Steamed veggies are terrific, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus are great examples.
The Third Group of Essential Nutrients: Amino Acids.
Amino acids are so vital in the repair of specific tissues such as a bone and ligaments, tendons, joint structures and cartilage. So for helping people avoid degenerative joint diseases, that’s where all of the amino acids come into play.
Some of the best sources for amino acids are eggs and other different protein sources. Whey protein isolate is fairly pure depending on where the manufacturer is getting it from. Collagen type supplements and bone broth supplements are very high in amino acids as well as minerals. And there are certain fruits and vegetables that can actually help in the absorption of those amino acids as well. So again, we come back to the healthy fruits and vegetables to help synergize and to be able to absorb the amino acids properly.
On Fatty Acids.
We’ve been raised in a society, especially in the United States, where even back into the late sixties and seventies we started to getting into this low fat diet situation. And now 40, 50 years later into this low fat diet craze, what are we seeing in our society?
Conditions such as Alzheimer’s, memory loss, Parkinson’s, high cholesterol, all of those conditions that are related with essential fatty acids are increasing.
It is becoming more and more prevalent as we get farther and farther along in this low fat and a fat restricted diet.
So a Dr. Dan Murphy, who is very well-respected in the chiropractic industry, was a keynote speaker at a recent convention, and he brought out a scientific study that showed that for the average American, the essential fatty acids are required at a clinical level.
Now a clinical dosage means it’s higher than your maintenance, or healthy dose because you are increasing the dosage in order to start making up for the deficiency. That’s the similar concept as having a higher rainfall amount after a drought in order to restore the lakes and the streams.
The same thing happens with human reservoirs, those storage sites get depleted. Well then you have to not just have enough to maintain healthy cells, but you have to have enough to maintain the healthy cells and restore the reservoirs as well. And that clinical dosage amount was 10,000 milligrams of fatty acids for four months straight.
On Fatty acids and Cholesterol
It’s interesting enough that when we get our levels of essential fatty acids, cholesterol levels automatically start to go down. So we ask the question why in the body’s innate intelligence, why does it make the cholesterol levels go up? And interestingly enough, cholesterol is a fat based molecule. So the liver knows how to produce and create a fat based molecule called cholesterol and the body innately increases that fat based molecule, when the body is not getting sufficient essential fatty acid intake from its diet at other sources.
So there you have it! 90 Essential Nutrients you should eat every day, with food and supplement sources. And big thanks to Dr. Shane Harada for doing the interview about it!
Listen to the interview here:
About Dr. Shane Harada:
His Mother taught the benefits of herbs and natural healing through her example and practice. During the later high school years, he had an injury to the lower back that caused severe pain with most physical activities that involved the core/lower back. Some 15 years later, while attending chiropractic school, it was discovered that the injury had fractured the growth plate. Dr. Shane opened his first clinic in Southern Utah soon after graduating in 2003. After more extensive study and application in clinical nutrition, and nearly 25 years following the injury, the lower back was completely healed. At this point, he has assisted thousands of individuals through chiropractic, clinical nutrition, acupressure, weight management using HCG and ketogenic diets, kinesiology, and other Holistic methods. These experiences, combined with the science, materials and writings of many individuals, has brought together what is called The Harada Method.
Website: https://truelivingchiro.com/
