Are You Eating Enough Dirt?

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It is my personal belief that optimal health and fitness begins with nutrition. And good nutrition begins with eating the way you were meant to eat.

That means avoiding most “modern” foods like Twinkies and soft drinks and sticking with the foods your ancestors ate like meat, fish, fruits, nuts and vegetables.

But here’s one area that often gets ignored: Eating dirt.

I’m NOT talking about grabbing a big hunk of soil and shoving it in your mouth. But if we truly strive to eat like our ancient ancestors did, than you must consider the fact that your great-great-great-great-great grandfather probably ate a little more dirt than you do now.

Because your ancestors ate vegetables straight from the ground. Worked outside, in the dirt. And probably played in the dirt as well. As a result, our ancestors ingested small amounts of dirt on a daily basis.

Today, many of us live and work in sterile environments. Our vegetables are squeaky clean. We constantly wash our hands in anti-bacterial soap. And I can’t remember the last time I played in the mud.

And while most of us consider this to be a good thing, it means we’re missing out the valuable benefits of dirt. Dirt contains scores of microbes and healthy bacteria that can strengthen your immune system.

In fact, one study shows that kids who grew up on a farm were at less of a risk for developing allergies.

But even if you are getting your “daily dose of dirt”, you’re still not out of the woods.

Thanks to over-aggressive farming, harmful chemicals and other toxins, our modern soil is nutritionally bankrupt. Hundreds of years ago, soil teemed with vitamins, minerals, microbes and healthy bacteria. But not anymore.

So what should you do? Eat twice as much dirt? Stop washing your hands?

The answer is C: None of the above.

It is not my intention to frighten you. But I need to make you aware that — nutritionally — our dirt is not as good as our ancestors dirt. And as a result, our fruits and vegetables contain fewer vitamins and minerals compared to the fruits our ancestors enjoyed.

So the point is this: Take your vitamins.

A good daily multi-vitamin can help any hard-training athlete protect against the nutritional deficiencies of our modern diets. There are those who say that vitamins are a waste of money and you can get all the nutrients you need from food.

But that’s simply not true anymore because our food is dramatically different from the foods of our ancestors. Heck, even our dirt is worse.

So do your best to eat like your ancestors did but give yourself a small bit of insurance and take your vitamins.

Note: Centuries ago, when dirt and soil contained greater amounts of vitamins and minerals, dirt was actually a source of vitamin B12. Today our soil is depleted and you’re unlikely to get much vitamin B12 from soil.

So for the modern day athlete, here’s a good source of vitamin B12.