2024 Essay Contest Winner

Entry by Annette Hollingshead

The phrase, ”You are what you eat,” may be more important than you think. Food can impact your life in many ways, but did you know that soil can as well? It can affect your mental health, nutritional count, and overall quality of life. The significance of soil is paramount to our well-being.

Many things can affect your mental health, and soil is one of them. Decreased soil nutrients play a large role. Crops suffer when soil lacks nutrients. Therefore, when you eat these crops, you do not get enough nutrients. This can cause mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.

Believe it or not, nutrition can seriously affect your health. An example of this is hidden hunger. Hidden hunger is “the presence of multiple micronutrient deficiencies” (Earth.org). This can cause “fatigue, exhaustion, loss of appetite, and make you susceptible to infections and skin diseases” (Earth.org). Depleted nutrients in soil can weaken immune systems. Nutrients are needed for immune systems to make antibodies. Antibodies are “protective proteins that attach to antigens, foreign substances, and remove them from your body” (Earth.org).

Finally, soil can affect your overall quality of life. Now, I know this may sound weird, but physical touch with soil is one example. Humans share many interchangeable bacterial groups with soil (Earth.org). Plus, research has proven that the amount of human to soil contact can positively affect the diversity of human gut microbiota and gut health for humans (Earth.org). This is one clear example of how soil can affect your overall quality of life.

In conclusion, soil is important to mental health, daily nutrition, and overall quality of life. Food affects humans a great deal, and so can the soil where food grows. So tell me, do you believe soil has affected you yet?