MODERN MIRACLE MEN 
5 
If iodine is not present in our foods the function of the thyroid gland 
is disturbed and goiter afflicts us. The human body requires only 
fourteen-thousandths of a milligram daily, yet we have a distinct 
“goiter belt” in the Great Lakes section, and in parts of the North¬ 
west the soil is so poor in iodine that the disease is common. 
So it goes, down through the list, each mineral element playing a 
definite role in nutrition. A characteristic set of symptoms, just as 
specific as any vitamin-deficiency disease, follows a deficiency in any 
one of them. It is alarming, therefore, to face the fact that we are 
starving for these precious, health-giving substances. 
Very well, you say, if our foods are poor in the mineral salts they 
are supposed to contain, why not resort to dosing? 
That is precisely what is being done, or being attempted. However, 
those who should know assert that the human system cannot appro¬ 
priate those elements to the best advantage in any but the food form. 
At best, only a part of them in the form of drugs can be utilized by 
the body, and certain dietitians go so far as to say it is a waste of effort 
to fool with them. Calcium, for instance, cannot be supplied in any 
form of medication with lasting effect. 
But there is a more potent reason why the curing of diet deficiencies 
by drugging hasn’t worked out so well. Consider those 16 indispensa- 
ble elements and those others which presumably perform some obscure 
function as yet undetermined. Aside from calcium and phosphorus, 
they are needed only in infinitesimal quantities, and the activity of 
one may be dependent upon the presence of another. To determine 
the precise requirements of each individual case and to attempt to 
weigh it out on a druggist’s scales would appear hopeless. 
It is a problem and a serious one. But here is the hopeful side of 
the picture: Nature can and will solve it ij she is encouraged to do so. 
The minerals in fruit and vegetables are colloidal; i. e., they are in a 
state of such extremely fine suspension that they can be assimilated by 
the human system: It is merely a question of giving back to nature the 
materials with which she works. 
We must rebuild our soils: Put back the minerals we have taken out. 
That sounds difficult but it isn’t. Neither is it expensive. Therein 
lies the short cut to better health and longer life. 
When Dr. Northen first asserted that many foods were lacking in 
mineral content and that this deficiency was due solely to an absence 
of those elements in the soil, his findings were challenged and he was 
called a crank. But differences of opinion in the medical profession 
are not uncommon—it was only 60 years ago that the Medical Society 
of Boston passed a resolution condemning the use of bathtubs—and 
he persisted in his assertion that inasmuch as foods did not contain 
what they were supposed to contain, no physician could with certainty 
prescribe a diet to overcome physical ills. 
He showed that the textbooks are not dependable because many 
of the analyses in them were made many years ago, perhaps from 
products raised in virgin soils, whereas our soils have been constantly 
depleted. Soil analyses, he pointed out, reflect only the content of 
samples. One analysis may be entirely different from another made 
10 miles away. 
“And so what?” came the query. 
Dr. Northen undertook to demonstrate that something could be 
done about it. By reestablishing a proper soil balance he actually grew 
crops that contained an ample amount of the desired minerals. 
