Refining is a chemical as well as physical process that transforms salt and sugar, for example, into a refined and completely clean substance. From their original contaminated form, salt and sugar are purified through multiple repeated heating and washing as well as cleaning to remove pollutants and heavy metals. Loss of nutrients and vital substances (macro- and micronutrients) cannot be avoided in the process, as these are either removed along with other food components, lost due to their susceptibility to heat and water, or degraded. During the refining of natural salt, which is contaminated from a chemical point of view, it comes into contact with over 200 chemicals, is heated and washed several times so that it is up to 100% pure and free of environmental pollutants and toxic metals. Of the natural substances it contains, only the highly pure chemical sodium chloride remains here. Considerable losses of nutrients and vital substances are to be expected. Sodium chloride is no longer usable for us and is therefore a cell poison. This stresses and damages the body. In excess, sodium chloride is responsible for various health disorders. For example, over time, the kidney‘s ability to regulate sodium chloride can diminish, resulting in a buildup of water and salt in the body [2.1]. The consequences of this, in turn, can be hypertension (high blood pressure), heart and kidney diseases, and apoplexy (strokes). The refining of vegetable oil, which removes pesticide residues, odors, flavors and colors, causes a vitamin E loss of 70%.
When cereals are milled into white wholemeal, without co-use of marginal layers and germ, and when rice is hulled and polished, vitamin E and B vitamins, most minerals and trace elements suffer losses of 50 to 95%. In fact, the marginal layers of the grain are particularly rich in micronutrients, but these end up in the waste or in animal feed. The outer layer of the grain is the most important source of the water-soluble and heat-sensitive vitamin B1, which is completely eliminated by milling. Deficiency of this essential vitamin is manifested by tachycardia (heart palpitations), nervousness and memory loss. Refined sugar also has only energy but hardly any other nutrients and vital substances. Natural whole cane sugar contains 600-1,000 mg of potassium, whereas refined sugar contains only 3-5 mg of the mineral. Original 60-120 mg of magnesium are completely lost through refining. There is also hardly anything left of numerous vitamins – vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 – as well as minerals and trace elements such as phosphorus, iron and manganese after this processing. If the essential trace elements manganese, zinc and selenium are missing, there is an accumulation of heavy metals in our body, since the essential trace elements mentioned are of great importance for the synthesis or for the function of important endogenous antioxidant enzymes. In contrast to the loss of vital substances (micronutrients), the caloric content of food remains the same, which results in a less than optimal metabolism of food, because nutrients and vital substances are involved in all important metabolic reactions at the same time. Consequently, optimal metabolism of our food is often limited.
