We're living longer, but not healthier

Hot on the heels of my posts about giving the healthy gut bacteria some credit for disease (particularly obesity) prevention is the latest news from laureate professor, Alan Lopez of Melbourne University. Australia is now number five in the world for life expectancy. Females' average lifespan is almost 84 and males' nearly 80 and that’s a significant increase from 80 and 74 respectively in 1990.

But Lopez is quick to point out that obesity and the multitude of co-morbidities are not only a huge burden on health costs, but they will become more prevalent unless strong prevention strategies are implemented.

Couldn’t agree more! We need to not only encourage, but reward people who exercise regularly and put whole, fresh, unrefined produce on the top of their shopping and eating lists. We need to make it attractive, for those who take personal responsibility for their own health and that of their family without constant recourse to the healthcare system. But for those who are struggling with a legacy of several generations of inappropriate diet and lifestyle choices, burdened with the profound trans-generational effects thereof, we need to give them foundation nutritional support (e.g. probiotics) before we send them out to exercise and change their eating habits, especially if they're planning to start a family. 

C-sec and bottle-fed babies need probiotics

The World Health Organisation estimates that by 2015 there will be 1.5 billion overweight consumers globally, costing $117 billion in associated health costs in the US alone! By crikey, that’s a scary amount of fat and a scarily big dollar cost. My question is - when are we going to get right down to addressing one of the most fundamental issues that is underpinning the obesity epidemic, because the evidence keeps piling up. Here it is again - the link between deranged gut microbiota (unhealthy bacteria in your gut) and skewed energy/fat metabolism and appetite.

The study confirms earlier work, indicates the need for ongoing dosing with healthy bacteria (in the form of a fermented product or a probiotic supplement) and also confirms the ability of the mother to confer a healthy gut population on her newborn child. That means: attention to gut health before conception and during pregnancy, a normal vaginal birth and unrestricted breastfeeding, although if any of those factors are missing, a probiotic product can act as a surrogate.

So, improve your mood, boost your immune response and reduce the likelihood of a child with weight management issues. That’s just for starters! What are you waiting for? 

Should school canteens be held accountable?

A review of 263 school menus across Australia identified that only 30 percent of primary schools and fewer than 19 percent of secondary schools are compliant with nutrition guidelines. What hope do kids have when national nutrition guidelines are flouted by the very school canteens and tuck shops where they should be most firmly upheld?

I actually believe that the next generation’s preferences for healthy or unhealthy foods are established long before those kids first put food into their mouths and several recent blog posts highlight the mechanism for these epigenetic, trans-generational effects and the importance of making them positive rather than negative ones. School tuckshops come a long way down my list of potential positive influences.

But let’s face it, lots of parents have missed the boat in bequeathing their kids a taste for healthy foods. Lots of parents don’t have the knowledge or the intestinal fortitude that it takes to change the junk-food diet that their kids favour. So can we expect school canteens to set an example? I believe we can - but this recent report indicates that Australia still has a long way to go in getting rid of soft drinks, confectionery, cakes, pastries and other unhealthy fare. Legislation? Hardly a popular move, even though one Australian state has taken that step.  

I don’t know what my local high school serves at its canteen. But trending to green and healthy would explain why on recently queuing to pay for petrol, I was delayed by half a dozen teenage boys on their way to said school, scratching around in pockets for loose change. Eventually boys exited the servo with several litres of Coca-Cola and at least two cans of energy drinks apiece. Pity the teachers whose classes they will inhabit. But power to someone who can change those habits or limit the availability of such choices by school students at 8:00 am - maybe NYC Mayor Bloomberg has an idea?

How far have you strayed from your traditional diet?

Urbanisation, increasing wealth, aggressive marketing by the food multi-nationals, adoption of what are seen as “progressive Western eating habits”, changing work patterns, women in the workforce - I could go on, but the diets of the developing nations are at a watershed. Now Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) José Graziano da Silva has called for integrated nutrition strategies to help countries deal with rapidly changing diets. 

Well, I reckon he’ll be up against it, because big food companies see these regions as their new high-growth markets. However I’m heartened that da Silva appreciates and supports the need for and desirability of different crops for different regions and different diets for different communities. He indicates the need for individualised solutions that respect season, climate, soil, water and landforms.

Which begs the question, what would it take for communities around the world to revert to their traditional diets? When the world is one big melting pot, when the drift to the cities from rural communities is a global trend, I’d suggest that isn’t in the realm of possibility. However with the knowledge that we now have of the benefits of whole, unrefined, in season and non-processed, and the ill-effects of refined, sugar, salt and fat-laden, plain for all to see, “integrated nutrition strategies” are definitely called for. Let’s hope they make it off the FAO drawing board and into the developing communities around the world soon! And let's hope FAO start by enforcing the code for Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes!

Thoughts for Mother's Day

This article suggesting the most positive way that mums are responsible for the men that their sons become, made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It was penned by one grown man who clearly recognises the major influence in his life. I like to think my boys would recognise such an influence in their lives. Maybe I’ll ask them ... but actually it doesn’t matter. I just think both of them are the 'bees’ knees' and everyone who had a hand should take a big bow. 

Dr. Christian Northrup’s story also made me pause and think. This wise author and women’s health expert explores the profound influence that mothers have on their daughters. Northrup is the author of numerous books and her truly holistic approach to women’s health and wellbeing is a model to be emulated. However, her article raises the very valid point that no matter how diligently a woman attends to all of her recommendations, if the mother’s influence was less than positive, the results in the daughter’s health and wellbeing department will always be limited. In other words if a mother’s relationship with her daughter was supportive and nurturing, and if the daughter’s knowledge of her body and how to care for it was sound and sane thanks to her mother, she is already programmed for health and wellbeing. The converse unfortunately also holds true.

On Mother's Day,  two very timely stories to make you stop and think about the kind of mother you want to be (whether you have sons or daughters)!

The pain of childbirth? Does it fade or doesn't it?

Interesting story and not too surprising conclusion. Women who have a positive birth outcome, which can be measured by a number of different yardsticks, are more likely to forget or rate the pain of childbirth low down on the intensity scale. Compare those women who have a less than positive outcome and expect their rating to be much higher on the Richter scale of pain. It also seems that a small number (3-6 percent) of women are so traumatised by the pain and the overall birth experience that they suffer a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yikes - no wonder so many women reach for the nitrous oxide or call for an epidural. And yet the study also indicates that women who had an epidural may still remember the birth as painful overall. All of that said, my dear colleague, midwife and author Susan Ross who trains doulas and also teaches “hypno-birthing”  to prospective mums, dismisses the idea of painful labour. As a woman whose two short, straightforward labours, took place long before I met Susan and were indeed painful, I can’t give a first hand report on the likelihood of achieving pain-free birth.

However what I do know is that labours are presently much longer and more difficult than Nature intended. There are multiple reasons for this, and while I don’t suggest that I have all the answers, they include some factors that can be very easily dealt with and you can begin on that check list well before your pregnancy starts. 

Here are my suggestions for not only optimising your birth outcome, but for increasing the likelihood that your own memories (if painful) will indeed fade away ...

• optimise overall nutritional status - potent probiotic, comprehensive prenatal supplementation and zinc levels to be assessed and maintained throughout your pregnancy
• regular exercise - particularly include specific stretches for an active birth
• stress reduction - that includes giving some serious thought to where and with whom you will labour
• be informed - understand the downsides of the medically managed birth (which includes pain relief)
• avoid the doomsayers - listen to women who remember their birth experience as a high point in their lives (whatever pain they experienced notwithstanding)
• believe in the power of your well-nourished, well-prepared body and mind 
• believe in the normality of birth!

More in my latest mini ebook 

When your child needs a room of his own

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read this article ... “warm grey palette”, “intuitively calm space” “contemporary look while maintaining that intimate lived-in feel.”

I just hope this couple’s child was old enough to appreciate their care and attention to colour and form before he moved into his designer-space! I ask whose needs are the parents actually serving in “stringing a knitted flag garland under our Aesop’s fable artwork?” Let’s face it guys - little kids do best when they sleep within arm’s length of their parents. The things that matter are the warmth and comfort of another human body, a mum or dad they can reach out and touch, the security of other family members in their immediate night-time environment.

The time will come when they’ll want a space of their own, but chances are they’ll be on the way to choosing their own decor and furnishings when that happens!

Of course co-sleeping and family-bed are still a contentious issue. When raised however, I suggest those advocates for solitary sleeping (usually those at pains to decorate their child’s room long before his birth) heed the wise words of Margot Sunderland, Director of Education at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London and one of Britain’s leading experts in children’s mental health. Based on the most current findings in neurological and psychological development, she advises parents to adopt co-sleeping practices until their child is five, affirming that co-sleeping makes children more likely to grow up as calm and healthy adults. End of debate as far as I’m concerned ... reckon it’s unlikely that “a warm grey palette” would have the same effect!

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