This paradox may seem incomprehensible: how can we lack essential nutrients when our store shelves are overflowing with products? That's precisely where the problem lies. Behind the illusion of comfort food, our lifestyles, consumer choices and agricultural transformations have profoundly altered the quality of our food.
In this article, we'll explore why nutritional deficiencies have become so common, even among people who think they're "eating right".
A modern diet disconnected from nature
Industrial food has made a promise: to simplify our lives. Ready-to-eat, long-life foods, processed dishes, convenient snacks... But this promise comes at a price.
Behind the reassuring appearance of well-designed packaging, the actual nutritional density is often extremely low. It's not just a question of hidden calories or sugars, but of a profound depletion of micronutrients: vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, essential fatty acids...
Some foods are so processed that they contain almost no living substance. Fibers are removed, vitamins destroyed by heat, hydrogenated fats and refined sugars ubiquitous.
This progressive imbalance contributes to silent cellular hunger: our body looks for what it needs, but can't find it.
Soils don't nourish like they used to
Another determining factor is less visible, but just as crucial: soil depletion.Since the 1950s, intensive farming has boosted yields to the detriment of quality. Monocultures, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and deep ploughing have unbalanced underground ecosystems. Soil, once alive and complex, has become a neutral support.
This means that plants grown on these soils receive fewer minerals, such as magnesium, zinc, selenium, iodine or iron - elements essential to our biological balance.
Numerous studies have shown that the nutrient content of certain fruits and vegetables has fallen by 30-70% in just a few decades.
Even if we eat "five fruits and vegetables a day", we're not ingesting the same richness as before. Quantity does not compensate for loss of quality.
Chronic stress: an invisible but decisive factor
Our times generate an almost permanent level of stress: professional pressure, mental overload, constant information and notifications, economic uncertainties, fatigue...
This stress has a direct impact on our biology. In situations of prolonged tension, the body uses more of certain nutrients to maintain its equilibrium:
Magnesium is mobilized en masse, as are the B vitamins needed by the nervous system.
Vitamin C is more rapidly depleted in the context of inflammation or chronic fatigue.
Iron can be poorly absorbed in cases of hormonal or digestive imbalance.
Add to this disturbed sleep, poor exposure to natural light, a microbiota weakened by antibiotics or a diet low in fiber: it's a vicious circle that leads to multiple deficits.
Digestion weakened by lifestyle
Even if we eat nutrient-rich foods, we still need to be able to assimilate them.
But the quality of our digestion is often compromised: stress, eating too quickly, acid-base imbalance, a sedentary lifestyle, lack of chewing... All these factors disrupt the absorption of nutrients.
In fact, digestive disorders are becoming increasingly common: bloating, reflux, constipation, intolerance... They often reflect an imbalance in the intestinal flora, essential for the proper assimilation of vitamins and minerals.
So a person can eat healthily and still be deficient.
At-risk populations: far more numerous than you might think
Deficiencies are not confined to the elderly and the underprivileged. They also affect teenagers, pregnant women, athletes, vegetarians or vegans, stressed office workers, people undergoing prolonged medical treatment...
Let's look at a few concrete examples:
An active woman, often stressed by her mental workload, may be lacking in magnesium, iron, zinc and B9.
A growing adolescent may suffer from iodine or vitamin D deficiency.
An unsupplemented vegan is often deficient in B12 and omega-3.
An athlete who sweats a lot regularly loses zinc, sodium and magnesium.
Modern deficiencies are multifactorial. They are not a question of "poor lifestyle hygiene", but of living conditions that have become too far removed from human physiological needs.
Back to living, intelligent nutrition
Faced with this reality, should we give in to food anxiety? No. But it is time to regain control over our vitality by reintegrating simple, powerful gestures into our daily lives:
Choose raw, minimally processed foods. Living feeds living.
Give preference to local, organic, seasonal, short-distance and peasant-farmed products.
Learn to cook again. Even simply. Even quickly.
Reintroduce diversity. Every natural food is a small pharmacy.
Take time to eat. Digestion begins with presence.
Consider supplementation (iron, magnesium, iodine, vitamin D, B12, omega-3...) as an intelligent support, punctual or regular, depending on your real needs.
And above all: be curious. Listen to your body. Dare to question your habits.
Rethinking our relationship with food
Beyond numbers and nutrients, eating is a symbolic act. It's a way of connecting with nature, with our culture, with our physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Modern deficiencies also reflect a break with intuitive, connected and joyful eating. By reconnecting with this dimension, we're not just correcting numbers in a blood test: we're restoring our deep-rooted vitality.
Nutritional deficiencies are not simply a biological problem.
They are an invitation to relearn how to fully nourish our bodies, our energy and our lives.