Absolute and Marginal Deficiencies

Most people have heard about nutritional deficiencies, that is, not having enough of a specific nutrient or nutrients in your diet, but are not always sure what this really means, or how you get this problem. First of all, it must be realized there are two entirely different types of nutritional deficiencies, absolute nutritional deficiencies and marginal nutritional deficiencies.

Absolute deficiencies are based upon depletion of nutrients because these nutrients are almost wholly absent from the diet. In contrast, marginal deficiencies are just lack of specific nutrients in large enough quantities to handle "peak" demands for these nutrients.

With marginal deficiencies, at normal levels of activity and function the nutrient levels present are sufficient to support basal body and brain function. However, when the level of activity or intensity of the function reaches a certain level, the body or brain just runs out of enough of specific nutrients to maintain optimum function.

Back to Top

Absolute Nutritional Deficiency: Too Little for Too Long.

Most people suffering from absolute nurtitional deficiencies 'know' they have these deficiencies because absolute deficiencies are usually associated with specific nutritonal diseases, such as scurvy resulting from an absolute deficiency of vitamin C. This is the reason the British sailors were called 'limes', as even before vitamin C was discovered, the British Admiralty had observed that having the sailors eat limes prevented scurvy. Hence all British sailors were required to eat a lime or the juice of a lime every day on long voyages, of course they needed a bit of grog or rum to wash it down!

Likewise, the discovery of vitamins resulted from observing chickens fed rice that had been milled to remove the husk and nutrient-rich outer layer. A Dutchman, Herr X, was living in Indonesia during WW II, and because of food shortages could only get milled rice to feed his chickens, whereas before the war he had feed them whole brown rice. To his surprise, even though the chickens appeared to be getting 'enough' to eat, they began to show abnormal behaviour and became sick, often becoming so weak they were unable to walk. So he reasoned that since the only difference in their food was the husk and outer layer of rice milled away during processing, this must contain something the chickens needed to be healthy.

Analysing the husk and outer layer, he discovered that this material contained high concentrations of Thiamine, and that when he supplemented the diet of chickens receiving the milled rice with Thiamine, they again became healthy. He called this new type of dietary requirement for healthy function a vitamin, and thus Thiamine is known today as Vitamin B1.

The origin of absolute deficiencies is generally obvious, the absence or far too little of a particular nutrient in your diet. This usually results from just not eating enough food, called starvation, or eating only foods that are almost totally devoid of these particular nutrients. The bountiful amounts of most basic foods in western societies means that absolute nutritional deficiencies are relatively rare in the developed countries, while the lack of sufficient food in many developing countries often leads to absolute deficiencies.

Back to Top

Marginal Nutritional Deficiency: A Hidden Problem.

While absolute nutritional deficiencies announce their presence by creating observable dyfunction, marginal nutritional deficiencies often go unnoticed. Since marginal deficiencies permit normal or low levels of activity and fucntion, and only result in decreased mental and physcial performance when we are under stress, they are often not acknowledged. Rather, the dysfunction caused by these marginal deficiencies is often attributed to other factors such as being stressed or being physically tired, which are actually the symptoms of marginal nutritional deficiencies.
In marked contrast to people in developing countries suffering absolute nutritional deficiencies due to lack of food, people in developed countries often suffer from marginal deficiencies because of life style and food choices. Many people eating a typical Western diet are overfed, but malnourished leading to marginal nutrient deficiencies. This results partly because much of the diet is made up of highly processed foods rich in simple sugars that provide adequate energy, but virtually 'no' nutrients. Pure white sugar is indeed one of the purest things you can eat, virtually 99+% pure sucrose, but is almost totally lacking in nutrients.

Sugar is not a 'bad' food, in fact it is an essential food, as the body uses glucose to produce energy and the brain runs entirely on glucose. However, many people may consume up to 40% or more of their total kilojoules (calories) from sugar. Yet think they don't eat much sugar -'I only use a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee/tea!' because there is considerable 'hidden' sugar in many processed foods and soft drinks.

In addition, food processing also overtly destroys B-vitamins including vitamin B6 and folates, which affect the brain and central nervous system function. A Junk Food diet is deficient in thiamine (vitamin B1), which has been associated with increased aggression. According to Dr. Mercola, about 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food today is spent on processed foods.

The Western diet has also been shown to be deficient in iron and zinc, resulting in brain dysfunction and learning impairment, including reduced IQ. Iron and zinc are co-factors for dopamine and serotonin synthesis in the brain, neurotransmitters that affect mood and behaviour, and zinc is an important co-factor in many enzyme systems supporting both brain and body function.

Junk and Fast foods are commonly lacking in adequate amounts of many nutrients, as convincingly demonstrated by a young healthy film-maker, Morton Spurlock, who made a documentary using himself as the central character, Super Size Me. He first had a complete set of physical examinations including blood tests and was found to be very fit and healthy.

As an experiment, he then proceeded to eat all three meals every day at MacDonalds. In three weeks he had gained 15 kilograms, was lethargic, and moody, and new blood tests showed major liver problems, especially with detoxification.

You might ask 'How could someone eating supposedly healthy food end up in such strife after only three weeks of consuming this food? '

If you are eating truly 'healthy' food, you should be able to eat it every day for the rest of a long healthy life! Interestingly, the symptoms he developed are all classic symptoms of marginal nutritional deficiencies.

Indeed, one of the most commonly noticed results of broad based vitamin and mineral supplementation is an immediate increase in energy levels, clearer thinking and often better memory. And this is generally with people who think they already eat a reasonably 'good' diet!

How can this be? How can someone be eating a reasonably 'healthy diet' according to most western standards, yet end up with marginal nutritional deficiencies that decrease physical and mental performance?

This is because most western standards are based upon the concept of Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or Daily Values (DV) of a nutrient. This value is said to represent all of this nutrient you need to eat every day to be "healthy" as opposed to being sick. Secondly, western doctors and nutrionist often make the blanket statement - "All you need to be healthy is to eat a balanced diet!" And by a "balanced diet" it is meant the ingestion of the RDAs of all of the major nutrients.

Back to Top