Digging Deep into a Surprising Source of Nutritional Deficiency

Posted: January 21, 2025 | By: Shanon Peckham

At the heart of our mission for nutrition is addressing a key source of deficiency: the soil. Today, we’re digging deep into the role soil plays in our health, how we may be endangering our crop soil, and what we can do ensure a more nutritious future.

Soil Has What Plants Crave

“Whether prepared by mothers, hash slingers, pancake houses, or French chefs, and whether presented as a Reuben on Rye or a Spinach Souffle, all nourishment and all food comes from the soil.”

– Dr. Joel Wallach, Dead Doctors Don’t Lie

Let’s start with the basics: Soil is life. Most of the nutrients our bodies need to thrive, like vitamins and minerals, come from the earth and life forms like plants, which need the nutrients in the soil to live. Plants use the carbon cycle to transform the sun’s energy and the earth’s valuable elements into life-giving nourishment for themselves and other life, including humans.^1,2

But plants aren’t the only ones feasting on the minerals and chemicals found in the dirt. Soil, unlike rocks or sand, is also alive, in a way. “The earth’s crust – the soil – is the source of all our non-carbon-based raw materials like minerals,” Dr. Wallach explains in his book, Dead Doctors Don’t Lie. “…It is also a mixture of living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, organic material (humus), and inorganic substances (minerals).”³ That’s right, your garden soil is FULL of microorganisms,⁴ including decomposers, which extract and return vital nutrients to the soil after each life cycle ends (think of the compost process).⁵ Living soil is basically a big recycling system for nutrients, enabling life to thrive. Kind of a big deal!

All of this is to say: You are what you eat. Nutrient-rich soil = nutrient-rich crops and livestock, leading to nutrient-rich diets for all. The opposite is also true, and it’s an uncomfortable reality we’re facing today.

The Soil Crisis

Youngevity Founder Dr. Joel Wallach has lectured on the importance of the 90 essential nutrients for years, but the scary truth is that we’re getting fewer and fewer of them through our food than ever. Not only are our fruits, veggies, and livestock feed less nutritious than they were just a few decades ago,^6,7 the soil that produces most of our food is rapidly disappearing. In 2012, World Economic Forum experts estimated we had only 60 years of usable topsoil left.⁸ In 2024, scientists predicted as much as 90 percent of the remaining topsoil will likely be degraded by 2050.⁹

So what’s happening to the topsoil?

Though erosion and soil degradation are natural processes that impact our farmlands,^10,11 the rate of both processes may be speeding up thanks to large-scale industrial processes like clear-cutting and tillage.^9,12,13 Clear-cutting exposes delicate earth to strong winds, rain, and fire (think slash-and-burn/deforestation), which can wipe out the soil’s microorganisms and wash away vital nutrients that were once trapped in the ground.^10,14 Tillage, while useful for keeping pests away and prepping the land for seeding, can “increase the likelihood of soil erosion, nutrient runoff into nearby waterways, and the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”^10,15(And those are just a few of the side effects.)

Remember we said the soil was kind of alive? The other major villains in this story are antibiotics and pesticides, which can do incredible damage to us and our precious topsoil.

You’ve probably already heard that antibiotics are bad for you and your gut microbiome in the short term,¹⁶ but long-term overuse can also create antibiotic-resistant superbugs.¹⁷ The same is true for livestock farming, where antibiotic use is even more prevalent.¹⁸ The more antibiotic-resistant bacteria lives in your cows, chickens, and pigs, the more antibiotic-resistant foodborne illnesses you can expect from the meat and dairy products you buy from the grocery store.¹⁸ Antibiotics can also leech from animal manure into nearby waterways and crops, impacting the diversity and normal activity of the topsoil biome by suppressing or killing the resident microorganisms.^19,20

Pesticides are also doing their fair share of damage. According to a review of 400 studies conducted in 2021, pesticides negatively impacted the invertebrates living in the soil more than 70 percent of the time.²¹ Part of the problem is that these products don’t necessarily differentiate between the organisms they’re meant to target and other organisms that happen to be nearby. For example, you may be trying to kill one type of pest and end up harming your local bee population by accident. The uncontrolled spreading of pesticides is all too easy and common, and it means bad news for the food supply chain and your health.^22,25 These chemicals can impact photosynthesis (potentially reducing crop yields), contaminate our food, and pollute our environments (through runoff and wind drift).^23,24,25

Altogether, these issues are contributing to greater soil damage, loss, and pollution, setting us up for a nutrient-deficient world. As helpful as our new technologies and medicines can be, we can’t let our ambition to feed the world overshadow the importance of a healthy foundation, life-giving mother nature herself. As Dr. Wallach says, “We had better understand the basic mineral needs of our own emotions and bodies here on earth before we fly off to space stations and find ourselves having gone a bridge too far.”

What You Can Do About It

Good news! There’s actually a lot we and our communities can do to protect our health and the health of our remaining topsoil today. Read on for a few ways you can turn a new leaf and make a difference:

Take Your Supplements

Your health comes first. After all, how can you put your best foot forward and help your community without it? Since the food we eat is no longer providing us with the nutrient content it once did, we can lean on supplementation to fill in the gaps in our diet. Did you know there are a handful of key nutrients that you can only get through diet, like Selenium and Essential Fatty Acids? If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend checking in with your doctor about your diet and getting some bloodwork done. You can also read through Dr. Wallach’s 90 For Life™ program and Good Foods vs. Bad Foods list on our website. For recipe suggestions and healthy eating tips, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and check out our YFast program!

Spread the Word About Regenerative Agriculture

To fix the soil, we have to change the way we think about it. Is it just dust under our feet, or is it a precious, life-giving ecosystem? Regenerative agriculture is centered around restoring the land to a healthier state and feeding into its natural self-sustaining cycle to maintain it. For example, the Natural Resources Defense Council says some farmers are limiting their tillage and ditching chemical pesticides for more natural alternatives. Others are finding ways to incorporate farm animals, native plants, time-tested Native American teachings, and more to help the land recover its natural fertility.^25,26 Here are some easy ways to give back to your soil at home: Always compost, start growing mulch, and leave fallen leaves alone! If you can’t get by without pesticides, you can try companion planting (planting key herbs/flowers/crops nearby to repel pests/cycle nutrients in the soil) or misting your plants with a DIY essential oil repellent.

If you want to take it to the next level, you can also encourage your neighbors and local officials to consider regenerative agriculture. Find your U.S. representatives here, senators here, and other elected officials here.

Vote with Your Dollar

You have the power to “vote with your dollar” by choosing farmer’s markets and other small-scale food producers over giant conglomerates. Big brand names are more likely to use non-regenerative farming practices at scale and leave a bigger footprint on the environment.^27,28,29 (You can also make a difference by buying bamboo³⁰ or second-hand furniture, which can help curb deforestation.) By shopping small and local, not only will you likely avoid the many recalls grocery stores are experiencing these days,^31,32 the food will also taste better and you’ll be giving back to your community! If there’s anything we’ve learned today, giving back seems to offer the biggest reward in the long run.