How to Get the Nutrients Modern Food Misses

Nick Urban [00:00:01]:
You’re listening to High Performance Longevity, the

Nick Urban [00:00:05]:
show exploring a better path to optimal health for those daring to live as an outlier in a world of averages.

Nick Urban [00:00:13]:
I’m your host, Nick Urban, bioharmonizer, performance coach, and lifelong student of both modern science and ancestral wisdom. Each week we decode the tools, tactics and timeless principles to help you optimize your mind, body and personal performance span things you won’t find on Google or in your AI tool of choice. From cutting edge biohacks to grounded lifestyle practices, you’ll walk away with actionable insights to look, feel and perform at your

Nick Urban [00:00:46]:
best across all of life’s domains. There’s this entire genre of mainstream health advice telling you that supplements are a waste of money. You eat a balanced diet, you’re fine, you don’t need any of this stuff. I’ve been reading those takes for years and I think they’re some of the most irresponsible advice in mainstream health media. Not because the authors are stupid, not because they have any issues, but because the model that they’re working off of is decades out of date. Modern food, even the most organic, biodynamic, regeneratively cultivated, pasture raised where relevant. Grass fed and grass finished. All of these labels no longer carry exactly what your body needs.

Nick Urban [00:01:35]:
Perhaps the one exception being if you cultivate all your food at your house and you adhere to all the best practices. But very few people do that. Obviously, that’s unrealistic for the vast majority, the minerals are no longer in the soil, the vitamins are processed out of the foods that we buy, and then your body burns through what’s left faster than ever. The gap is real, it’s partially measurable, and the easiest way to close that gap is with a smart supplement stack. Today, I’m going to walk you through every place along the chain where modern food fails you. We’re not going to be covering how to pick a supplement tonight. That’s the next episode. This one is focused on the why.

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Why is it Even important in 2026 and beyond? Let’s go. Let’s walk through the full chain from the material inside that seed all the way to where your cells either use or don’t get the opportunity to use that nutrient. For all you holistically minded folks tuning in, you might have thought I was going to start with the soil, but it actually starts even before then, before food gets grown. The seed it comes from has been purposely selected for yield, shelf life and pest resistance, not for nutrient density. To make things even worse, we’ve collapsed the varietal diversity over the last century or so. What do I mean? There used to be over 17,000 named apple varieties cultivated in North America alone. Today the the grocery stores carry maybe 10. And that would be a high end grocery store with lots of choice.

Nick Urban [00:03:21]:
Different varieties have different nutrient profiles, different polyphenol concentrations, different mineral uptake, different shelf life, different nutrient trade offs. We specifically picked the most durable ones. We can also look at tomatoes. There were previously thousands of heirloom varieties of tomatoes, and now there are four, maybe five that dominate the supermarkets. The ones that survived were chosen for their thick skin, making shipping easier, and uniform red color, which has greater shelf appeal and therefore is more likely to be purchased not for flavor or nutrient density. For the wheat eaters, modern wheat has between 19 and 28% less zinc, iron, copper and magnesium than the cultivars from before 1965. The upside of all this is that food is now more affordable, but it has come at the cost of nutrient density. And that is the theme that you’re about to see continues on throughout.

Nick Urban [00:04:21]:
Number two. The soil is where every mineral in every item on your plate originated, including if you’re a carnivore. The soil today isn’t what it used to be. One study looked at 43 crops between the years 1950 and 1999. They documented that protein levels in the food decreased by 6%. Riboflavin down by 38%, iron down 15%. And then a follow up 2024 review found similar declines. Potassium down 16 to 19%.

Nick Urban [00:04:56]:
Calcium down 16 to 46%, zinc down 27 to 59%. If your soil is depleted of magnesium, it’s likely to grow crops with up to 40% less magnesium in them. Then you have what are called mycorrhizal fungi networks. Plants use these to extract trace minerals from soils. Then you have what are called mycorrhizal fungi networks. Plants use these to extract trace minerals from soils they otherwise could not. Tilling destroys those networks, as does the application of fungicides, one that we’ll touch on perhaps later. Glyphosate destroys them again.

Nick Urban [00:05:34]:
So even where minerals exist in deep, deep soil, the plants still can’t access them. We also have the issue of acid rain, leaching base cations from soil Calcium, magnesium and potassium specifically. This is caused because industrial sulfur and nitrogen oxides acidify rainfall, which strips minerals from forest and farm soils over decades. This has been documented for over half a century. Specifically, soils in the eastern United States and northern Europe show calcium and magnesium depletion attributed Specifically to acid deposition. Luckily, we have NPK fertilizers, which are applied to add back some nutrients into the soil. So plants do get more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but that’s it. There’s no boron, copper, zinc, selenium, manganese, iodine.

Nick Urban [00:06:32]:
All the other essential nutrients are lacking. Just those three are there. Now, how the plant actually grows determines what protective compounds it makes. Many of the things that people supplement can also be obtained from food if the plant is grown in the right conditions. Ironically enough, those right conditions tend to be stressful environments for the plants. And modern industrial agriculture eliminates most of the stresses plants need to produce these substances in therapeutic quantities. Produce today is often grown in greenhouses, and greenhouses without UV stress result in less antioxidant content. That’s because UV light triggers polyphenol production in plants.

Nick Urban [00:07:15]:
Greenhouse glass blocks most of the uv. So although they might look prettier, greenhouse tomatoes are nutritionally weaker than tomatoes grown in the field. Similarly, hydroponic produce has lower mineral and polyphenol density than soil grown produce. That’s because in the hydroponic setup, there are no soil microbes, no drought stress, no pest pressure, which means that there is little to no defensive compound production. Polyphenols are the plant’s stress response. This also isn’t just limited to polyphenols or flavonoids. For example, tobacco uses nicotine as a deterrent to pests, and humans use nicotine for recreational purposes. Wild tobacco often has higher levels of nicotine as well.

Nick Urban [00:08:08]:
One area that might seem a bit strange is that rising CO2 levels actually can improve the size of produce as well. But that comes at the cost of lower nutrient density, at least According to a 2014 study I read by Lolitz et al. Even if the food was nutrient dense at the field where it was grown, what happens between harvest and your plate burns? Most of what was there? Fruits and vegetables headed to grocery stores are harvested before they’re ripened. Ripening on the vine is when peak vitamin C, polyphenols and carotenoids accumulate. Picked green food never reaches that same peak. How long does that whole process take? It can vary. Produce can spend weeks to months in cold storage. Some imported fruit travels half the world over many weeks before hitting your fridge.

Nick Urban [00:09:05]:
For example, apples can sit in storage for up to a year in a controlled atmosphere. Vitamin C and other nutrients start to oxidize and break down the moment it comes off of the tree. Now, that’s not an issue over a short time horizon. Days, maybe weeks, but as you start getting to the months level, what you receive is often very different from what is harvested. There are some great technologies here such as wax coatings and controlled atmosphere packaging and that extends shelf life by slowing respiration. Slowing respiration comes with the unfortunate trade off of also slowing the metabolic processes that produce some of the bioactives. Even, even your fresh supermarket spinach can lose up to half 50% of its vitamin C within one week of refrigerated storage. And these are with the natural foods.

Nick Urban [00:10:01]:
When it comes to the foods that receive industrial food processing, that’s where most of the remaining nutrients exit the food. Wheat is probably the most egregious milling. White flour strips 70 to 90% of B vitamins and and 50 to 80% of minerals. Thiamine drops by 90%. Vitamin B6 down 85%. Magnesium down 80%. Zinc down 70%. Vitamin E down 95%.

Nick Urban [00:10:33]:
So called enrichment puts four nutrients back out of about 30 or so lost. A 2025 review showed that around 80% of magnesium is destroyed during food processing. And this isn’t also unique to ultra processed food. Even boiling leafy greens destroys about 95 to 99% of vitamin C and about 68% of folate, according to a 2018 study. There is good news though on that front. Steaming or microwaving with minimal water preserves about 80%. Not that I recommend microwaving. So if you typically boil, try steaming with minimal water instead.

Nick Urban [00:11:16]:
Some of the others Pasteurization destroys heat sensitive vitamins and enzymes in milk, juice and other liquids. Industrial juicing removes fiber and as a result oxidizes polyphenols rapidly. Fresh pressed juiced fares much better. High heat oil extractions use solvents like hexane as well as temperatures often exceeding 200 degrees Celsius. So if you’re going to choose a product, look for something that is cold press instead of solvent extracted. This next one actually applies to supplements as well. Spray drying powders, which is a common practice used for protein powders, vitamin C products, fruit and vegetable powders that destroys most of the heat sensitive nutrients, but lets the companies market them as concentrates. Then we have the issue of agricultural chemicals.

Nick Urban [00:12:11]:
The chemicals that we spray on our foods do exactly what’s most harmful to your nutrient status. They strip minerals and kill the gut bacteria that handle nutrient extraction. One of the most common chemicals applied throughout the entire food manufacturing process is a chemical called glyphosate, also known as the active ingredient in Roundup. What you might not know about it is that it was patented in 1964 as a mineral chelator. What does that mean? It binds calcium, iron, copper, manganese, zinc and cobalt. Not just that, but it was patented again in 2010, this time as an antibiotic. A 2022 study showed that it kills up to 54% of common gut bacteria species at residue level doses. So you don’t need to be drinking the stuff to have a negative effect.

Nick Urban [00:13:06]:
Although, according to one CDC estimate, it was found in 81% of American urine samples, I think that number is vastly deflated. Even people eating fully organic diets often have high levels of glyphosate in their body. If you want to explore more about glyphosate, specifically, look into the work of Dr. Stephanie Seneff at MIT. She’s spent the last decade or so documenting glyphosate’s interference with sulfur metabolism, gut microbial diversity, glycine disruption, and a whole lot more. Then you have the other pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides, and other biocides like atrazine paraquat, chlorpyrifos and neonicotinoids. The EU has banned a dozen of these. The US has not.

Nick Urban [00:14:00]:
You might remember from earlier when I mentioned fungicides kill mycorrhizal fungi in soil, but they can also disrupt human gut yeast balance. Two others that fly under the radar in this category include food grade antimicrobials, such as the chlorine wash they use on produce and specific washes for poultry. This is done to extend shelf life and kill the pathogens on the surface of the food. They also reach the gut and disrupt microbial diversity. Then there’s the issue of antibiotic residues in conventional meat. Now, this probably won’t cause an issue in itself, but those trace residues reach consumers and that contributes to an overall ecosystem that is disrupting the gut microbiome. Perhaps everything we’ve covered so far doesn’t really apply to you as much because you are on a strict carnivore diet. Well, there’s some things to dig into there as well.

Nick Urban [00:15:00]:
Animals raised on industrial feed produce different molecules than animals raised on what they evolved to eat. This is without the company doing anything to fortify the eggs or chicken with additional Omega 3 as well. Also, earlier I mentioned that the soil quality matters for both the omnivores, the vegans and carnivores, really for everyone. That’s because even animals must graze and eat produce at some point in the food chain. And they cannot manufacture essential nutrients out of thin air. They must get them from the produce itself, and the produce must have it, even if you aren’t actually directly eating the produce. Then there’s the issue of ancestral foods leaving the modern diet. Most of us are not consuming organ meats and other things that were staples in the earlier diets.

Nick Urban [00:15:54]:
In fact, organ meat consumption dropped about 90% since the 1970s. Beef liver alone is one of the most nutrient dense foods on earth, with among the highest levels of the bioavailable form of vitamin A as retinol and also of vitamin B12. More than 90% of American adults fail to meet the adequate intake levels for a nutrient called choline. And the highest food sources of choline are liver and eggs. Fermented foods were daily staples in nearly every traditional culture. The standard American diet has next to zero live culture fermented foods unless they’re intentionally added. The same can be said about wild plants and herbs. Dandelion, nettle and others were daily greens for most of human history.

Nick Urban [00:16:46]:
It’s not just what we’re eating though, it’s also what we’re drinking. Mineral content in water used to be a contributor to daily nutrient intake. Modern water removes a lot of that. Previously, drinking water would provide between 5 and 20% of daily magnesium and calcium. Now reverse osmosis, ion exchange, softening and modern filtration strips more than 95% of that. The World Health Organization has flagged demineralized water as a public health concern since the 1980s. Now, there are things inside our water supply that also disrupt or displace nutrients. For example, chlorine and chloramine in tap water disrupt gut bacteria when consumed in significant quantity.

Nick Urban [00:17:37]:
Fluoride is more electronegative than iodine and competitively blocks iodine uptake into the thyroid. Then there’s also the issue of heavy metals and microplastics and pharmaceutical residues in the tap water. And at the very least those pull bodily resources to neutralize them. Speaking of, modern bodies have a lot to clear that the pre industrial humans didn’t and that clearance costs nutrient stores. Let’s take the one everyone has been ranting about for the last couple years. Microplastics. Microplastic concentration in human brain tissue rose roughly 50% between 2016 and 2024. Now, those don’t come out of the body easily.

Nick Urban [00:18:24]:
The liver attempts to by burning glutathione, glycine sulfate and and B vitamins. Over 95% of tested Americans have high levels of phthalate metabolites. The higher the levels, the lower the testosterone in men. According to 2014 and Hanes Research. These are cleared through glutathione and methylation. Then you have the heavy metals cadmium, lead and aluminum. They hijack the iron and zinc transporters in the gut and iron and zinc deficiency opens that gate wider. Then there’s the issue of PM 2.5, air pollution, which depletes airway and systemic glutathione.

Nick Urban [00:19:09]:
This applies to 99% of the global population. Even if you’re indoors, you have VOCs, volatile organic compounds off gassing and those come from things like furniture and paint and cleaning products. And those create a low grade detoxification burden if you happen to have issues with mold and mycotoxins, which often come from water damaged buildings. Also from poorly stored grains and coffee, mycotoxin clearance burns, liver cofactors. All right, after all of this, there is a massive list of things that we ingest. Whether it’s other supplements, it’s over the counter medications, prescription medications, recreational substances. Many of these can also worsen the picture. Now this episode would get really long, so I’m going to leave the links in the show notes and you can also do your own research.

Nick Urban [00:20:06]:
But if you’re on any of the following, I would look into what they deplete. First of all, acid blockers or PPIs, statins, metformin, birth control, GLP1 drugs, antidepressants, broad spectrum antibiotics, diuretics, corticosteroids, chemotherapy, hormone replacement, NSAIDs, antihistamines, over the counter sleep aids, activated charcoal, specifically when taken with meals, EDTA or chelation products, high dose single nutrient supplements and then some detox greens powders that contain binders. All right. Oh, that’s a mouthful. A few more. Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, stimulants, mdma, psychedelics. If you take any of the following supplements, note that they compete. Zinc and copper share a transporter.

Nick Urban [00:21:03]:
Calcium and iron compete. Calcium and magnesium compete. Iron should not be taken with coffee, tea or dairy. High dose Vitamin C and B12 can degrade vitamin B12, selenium and zinc. High zinc can lower selenium status. Clearly it’s complicated. What you’re taking can displace other nutrients and make supplementation a very smart idea. I’m not a doctor.

Nick Urban [00:21:32]:
Check with your doctor because this is not medical advice and they can help guide you in this realm beyond the substances you’re ingesting. The modern lifestyle and the current metabolic state might influence what nutrients you need to obtain beyond what you get in your food. Chronic low grade inflammation consumes glutathione, selenium zinc and vitamin C. 88% of American adults are metabolically unhealthy. And if you are processing hyperglycemia, you’ll be burning through thiamine and magnesium faster. If you sweat heavily, as I do, sauna, exercise and hot climates and each of these will cause you to lose sodium, potassium, magnesium and zinc through your skin much faster if you’re stressed. Chronic cortisol promotes urinary magnesium excretion in real time. Stress not only depletes magnesium, but also zinc and selenium.

Nick Urban [00:22:32]:
According to an old 1984 study, every cup of coffee measurably increases 24 hour urinary calcium and magnesium excretion as well. If you’re a drinker, alcohol is an acute magnesium diuretic and it depletes vitamin B1, B6 and folate among others. Even if the food and the lifestyle was perfect, the digestive front has also gotten weaker. Stomach acid, bile, pancreatic enzymes all reduced today versus the pre industrial human. Currently one in seven Americans is on a stomach acid blocker. That means that every one of them has stomach acid that is intentionally suppressed. Without enough stomach acid, vitamin B12 stays bound to food protein, iron can’t ionize, and calcium absorption drops, to name a few. Now I already know someone’s going to comment below and mention yeah, but our ancestors didn’t take supplements.

Nick Urban [00:23:38]:
It’s true that nobody before 1900 was popping pills from a flashy white bottle. That’s accurate. They also did take massive amounts of what we now call supplements. Liver weekly, bone broth daily, fermented vegetables, raw dairy, fermented vegetables, raw dairy from grass fed pasture, raised cattle, organ meats, wild plants and herbs that aren’t in modern grocery stores. Their bodies were also subject to very different conditions, different stressors. Most of the issues that we’ve discussed throughout this episode were not as applicable to them when they did need them. The medical systems of the day, such as Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, those are the two that I’m most familiar with. They did have a rich materia medica.

Nick Urban [00:24:28]:
They talked about many of the currently trending supplements of today, such as many of the herbs, the adaptogens, shilajit, all of these date back at least 5,000 years for the system of Ayurveda. They certainly use them and they cherish them as well. Now none of this is a justification, an excuse to have a junk diet and think that the supplements will make up for everything in spades and flights fully optimize you. It’s not an excuse to jump on the latest trend because some influencer said so. I still recommend eating as clean as you can, choosing the highest nutrient density foods however you can, eating seasonally if you’re able to, and then where appropriate to add in the right nutrients and supplement accordingly. So this episode was a laundry list of the reasons that supplementation, as I view it, is no longer optional. The next solo soda record will be the practical companion to this one. How to actually pick a supplement that’s worth taking Brand evaluation Where to buy Beyond Amazon the industry tricks to recognize the testing you should run on yourself.

Nick Urban [00:25:39]:
First, my context lens for matching a supplement to your situation and the stack workflow I use. Subscribe so that you don’t miss it. Until next time, Be an Outlier thanks

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someone who’s ready to upgrade their healthspan. You can find all the episodes, show notes and resources mentioned@outlier.com until next time, stay energized, stay bioharmonized and be an outlier.