Guest guest Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Okay, this seems so simplistic to me. How can you just measure density and call something good! A high density of sugar for example (measuring grape Brix for wine making) or heavy metals or a dehydrated product all would be good by this measure. Let get more specific. I admit I need to read the dialogue and recommendations before I complain too much. As far as soil depletion by farming. I hope all realize that not all soils were created equal. The nutrient composition depends upon the subsoil mineral composition, the water source and evaporation rate and other regional factors. That's the reason farming started in fertile areas. Man didn't ruin everything on earth. Some purists believe we shouldn't be improving soils because we lose endanged (non- productive) soil types. Good farming techniques improve soils but bad farming techniques can add too many nutrients (excess K and P, for example. Again, let's not be simplistic and acknowledge that if we are altering the soil it's like animal husbandry we assume the stewardship for a non-native ecology. Meg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 > Brix-schmix? > > >Okay, this seems so simplistic to me. How can you just measure >density and call something good! A high density of sugar for example >(measuring grape Brix for wine making) or heavy metals or a >dehydrated product all would be good by this measure. Let get more >specific. I admit I need to read the dialogue and recommendations >before I complain too much. Yes, good idea. The fact is that it's not as precise as telling you how much selenium or how much calcium or whatnot is in a given plant. But it IS a great tool to measure the nutritional quality of produce, even with a few caveats. Individuals and industries have been using refractometers for this purpose for several decades with consistent results - high brix = superb quality, abundant yield, disease-resistance and GREAT taste. It's hard to argue with the consistency of the readings they're getting. As well, I believe (although am not certain) Reams measured soil fertility directly against brix readings in his early work on brix=quality. As for other things that could " throw off " the reading. You mention heavy metals. Well, it so happens that high brix plants take up far FEWER heavy metals, EVEN when grown in soil that cotains heavy metals than do low brix ORGANIC plants in pristine soil. Think about that for a minute... As for a " dehydrated product " , that's not what refractometers are designed to measure. You're supposed to put a couple of drops of liquid from the plant you're measuring onto the refractometer lens then take your reading 30 seconds later. You don't wait til the liquid dehydrates. There ARE tricks that producers CAN use, if they're so inclined, to " spike " brix readings. However, most of us are taking readings on our own gardens or produce from local farmers who don't even know about brix measurements, and much less are engaged in sneaky practices to trick the refractometer-carrying consumer. Having said that, it's not *perfect*, but it IS a good tool that can reliably test the nutritional quality of produce. Why do simple scientific measurements have to be suspect? By that reasoning we should all be suspicious of measuring the pH of any liquid with a pH strip from the drugstore, or really be suspicious of any other scientific principle that simply and directly measures a substance. Besides that, if the hypothesis is tested over and over again (as it has been) and has come out with consistent results, that's a really good indicator that it works. I'd recommend reading the online brixbook, THEN complaining if you find something that doesn't make sense :-) http://www.crossroads.ws/brixbook/BBook.htm (hit cancel twice when the dialogue box comes up) > >As far as soil depletion by farming. I hope all realize that not all >soils were created equal. The nutrient composition depends upon the >subsoil mineral composition, the water source and evaporation rate >and other regional factors. That's the reason farming started in >fertile areas. Man didn't ruin everything on earth. Some purists >believe we shouldn't be improving soils because we lose endanged (non- >productive) soil types. Good farming techniques improve soils but bad >farming techniques can add too many nutrients (excess K and P, for >example. Again, let's not be simplistic and acknowledge that if we >are altering the soil it's like animal husbandry we assume the >stewardship for a non-native ecology. This is Dr. Northern's take on this subject. He was the one who inspired Carey Reams who went on to develop brix indexes based on soil fertility. " " Some of our lands, even in a virgin state, never were well balanced in mineral content, and unhappily for us, we have been systematically robbing the poor soils and the good soils alike of the very substance most necessary to health, growth, long life, and resistance to disease. Up to the time I began experimenting, almost nothing had been done to make good the theft. " The more I studied nutritional problems and the effects of mineral deficiencies upon disease, the more plainly I saw that here lay the most direct approach to better health, and the more important it became in my mind to find a method of restoring those missing minerals to our foods. " The subject interested me so profoundly that I retired from active medical practice and for a good many years now I have devoted myself to it. " The results obtained by Dr. Northern are outstanding. By putting back into foods the stuff that foods are made of, he has proved himself to be a real miracle man of medicine, for he has opened up the shortest and most rational route to better health. · He showed that it should be done, and then that it could be done. · He doubled and redoubled the natural mineral content of fruits and vegetables. · He improved the quality of milk by increasing the iron and the iodine in it. · He caused hens to lay eggs richer in the vital elements. · By scientific soil feeding, he raised better seed potatoes in Maine, better grapes in California, better oranges in Florida and better field crops in other states. " http://www.crossroads.ws/brixbook/BBook.htm#DOCTORS%20NORTHERN%20AND%20REAMS I don't know the methods he employed to improve soil fertility, but I imagine that info could be found in some of the references on the brixpage site or maybe in the files section of the brixtalk list. Suze Fisher Lapdog Design, Inc. Web Design & Development http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine http://www.westonaprice.org ---------------------------- “The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times.” -- Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher. The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics <http://www.thincs.org> ---------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 I wrote: " As for other things that could " throw off " the reading. You mention heavy metals. Well, it so happens that high brix plants take up far FEWER heavy metals, EVEN when grown in soil that cotains heavy metals than do low brix ORGANIC plants in pristine soil. " Sorry, that should read " toxins " (in general), not " heavy metals. " Suze Fisher Lapdog Design, Inc. Web Design & Development http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine http://www.westonaprice.org ---------------------------- “The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times.” -- Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher. The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics <http://www.thincs.org> ---------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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