Who needs another project to optimise research into diet and health?

Enter a newly-announced, EU-backed project to optimise research into diet and health by pulling together scientists and research tools in order to make realistic recommendations in the area. Sounds like an overdue initiative to me when current estimates place 86 percent of deaths and 77 percent of the disease burden in Europe firmly on the doorstep of diet and lifestyle. I reckon the rest of the Western world would boast similar figures...

But talk about fiddling while Rome burns ... how’s this for a mouthful of meaningless waffle from the scientific coordinator of EuroDISH which is designed to assess the “current state of play” when it comes to diet and health before making “advanced and feasible” recommendations to the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures.

“To go beyond existing mappings, we will synthesise the results by integrating the needs for hard and soft research infrastructures as well as how these may be governed; as this may identify new emerging gaps and needs.”

While EuroDISH scientists are busily reinventing the wheel and the associated policy makers are issuing bland statements of meaningless jargon, the majority of the population continue blithely on their merry way doing all the unhealthy things and eating all the unhealthy foods that they know they shouldn’t. Meanwhile another, smaller segment of the population knows what it should be doing and should be eating and does it, while a smaller segment yet tries to spread a true wellness-focused, health-promotion message. Sadly, while these messages are already well-researched, well-documented and well-understood, they are much less well-funded than those of the big multinational corporations who market junk food and beverage, promote instant gratification and generate huge commercial profits above all else. I could add fear-mongering, disease-promoting, health and wellness-averse to the characteristics of these companies, but until individual consumers are rewarded for establishing and maintaining their health and wellbeing I expect it will be ever thus ... and yep, call me a cynic if you like.  

Milk - is it really perfect food for all ages and life stages?

As if it weren’t enough that infants around the globe are now being fed on something infinitely less suitable than their mother’s breastmilk, the dairy attack on health and wellbeing continues.

Milky drinks are everywhere, and have enjoyed exponential growth in recent years, most notably in the developing world. There, a newly affluent middle class perceives them as Westernised, progressive, nutritious and of course, easy to prepare and always readily-available. In the West, they’re a big feature of subsidised lunches (USA), of weight management or meal replacement offerings and bone-building and regenerative options for the elderly. Then there’s the massive sports nutrition market. Trust marketers to find some more niche markets very soon - milk drinks for specific health outcomes are just around the corner!

Which brings me to the question of additives. In the US, there’s a strong likelihood that sugar as a sweetening agent will be replaced with the chemical sweetener “aspartame” with no listing on labels. Dr. Mercola suggests that aspartame is one of the most toxic chemical additives in the US food supply today - the differing metabolic pathway for aspartame in humans means that animal studies fail to demonstrate its toxicity. 

Which brings me to a simple conclusion - mother’s milk until your toddler weans himself, then purified water. Nothing more in the way of drinks is really ever required! 

The healthcare budget ... what savings we could make ...

If you follow my blog you’ll know that my work over 30 years is all about foundation preventive healthcare and that my Healthy Parents Healthy Baby program could save health departments unquantifiable sums of money! It’s just a question of an enlightened government funding the education, subsidising the supporting products and mandating for a baby-bonus that is dependent on prospective parents following the program! A tall order you may say, but then surely anything would be better than the cost of the present statistics. 

• 1 couple in 6 is infertile
• 1 woman in 4 will suffer a miscarriage 
• 1 baby in 10 is born prematurely
• 1 baby in 30 is born with a congenital abnormality
• 1 baby in 15 is low birthweight (indigenous babies twice as likely to be affected)
• 1 woman in 3 has a Caesarean section
• 1 woman in 7 suffers from post-natal depression
• Only 1 woman in 10 breastfeeds beyond her child’s first birthday
• 1 child in 10 has a learning or behaviour problem 
• 1 child in 5 suffers from asthma 

In fact metabolic, immune, neurological and digestive (MIND) disorders are at epidemic levels and rising. The subtle and not-so-subtle disorders that make up the MIND spectrum require concerted and ongoing effort from health professionals, parents, caregivers and teachers and represent a huge loss of potential throughout the sufferer’s lifetime. A recent blog highlights the fact that 10 percent of Australians now suffer from a “rare disease”!

But the Australian statistics pale into relative insignificance alongside those of the USA. Americans spend twice as much on health care per capita than any other nation on the planet, yet still rank dead last in terms of quality of care among industrialized countries.

• In 2013 Americans will spend approximately 2.8 trillion dollars on health care, projected to rise to 4.5 trillion dollars in 2019
• If the US health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy on the entire planet
• Approximately 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the US are related to medical bills
• Since 1998, the US health care industry has spent more than 5 billion dollars lobbying politicians in Washington DC
• The US. ambulance industry makes more money each year than the movie industry

What would it take for governments around the world to promote a fundamental health-promotion measure that lies at the heart of improved health for future generations?

Making junk food healthy?

The only pragmatic and workable solution to help beat the global health battle against obesity and non-communicable diseases is for industry and policy makers to work together to reformulate processed foods with better nutritional values, says Jack Winkler.

Jack’s got a point - he says “the problem is processed foods, the greedy companies who make them and the cowardly governments who fail to control them.” 

He’s right on other counts too - he says that diets don’t work and 30 years of education about healthier food choices haven’t worked either. The population has just got fatter and fatter (and more and more unhealthy). 

So now, with the horse well and truly bolted - what’s the answer? Winkler suggests there are 3 options - altering agricultural policy, taxation on foods, or regulation. But he also says that as solutions these are technically ineffective, politically impossible or both. His suggestion is to take the foods that we have - and make them healthier, citing the example of iodised salt. In other words, “rather than trying to change the people, we change the foods instead!”

Good luck with that one mate! I’d like to meet the manufacturer who can put all the trace elements, phytonutrients, antioxidants and vitamins, ensuring all the synergies that sustain optimal health, into a Mars Bar ... and make it affordable! And he says that's the pragmatic approach ... ? In your dreams Jack.

Milk - the perfect food for the young of the species

I’ve always been a fan of the adage that milk is the food that Nature designed for the young of the species and that cow’s milk is great food ... for baby calves. Which makes "soy milk” an ideal drink for baby soybeans - and "almond milk” for immature almonds. But jokes aside, seems like I’m in a tiny minority and when asked what my kids drank, the fact that they never had a “milky drink” leaves folk perplexed, and certainly no wiser about what they should choose for their own offspring.

Interesting that as a passionate and unashamed advocate of breast-feeding and infant-led weaning, some recent consulting work has seen me involved in some serious fact-finding about the growth and growth of markets for infant formula and other milk-based products, in Asia. The shift away from breast-feeding and the embrace of artificial formula is scary - in the developing world a fall from 45 percent breastfeeding at 6 months to 29 percent means massive increases in infant mortality, immune-related illnesses and long-term compromises in physical, mental and emotional development. I was compelled to comment on a recent story that likened Infant Formula to gold dust ...

What would it take for all babies to get their birthright?

As an author specialising in natural ways to healthier happier babies, and unashamed breastfeeding advocate, I watch with dismay as the developing world follows blindly in the footsteps of the west, casting breastfeeding aside in favour of "progress" in the guise of infant formula. In Australia we try to stem the tide of artificial feeding by promoting breastfeeding as NORMAL, not better, healthier, easier, cheaper, all of the above - just NORMAL. Our b/f rates stay much the same. Maybe South Africa has an answer? There, infant formula is now only available on prescription. What would it take to ensure that babies get their mother's milk? Legislation to enforce the breastfeeding marketing code globally? IF company representatives who are legally responsible for compliance with rigorous policing thereof? Offset the current, very significant commercial returns to the IF companies, with a punitive tax? This would go to fund the massive cost of compromised health (physical, mental and emotional), because let's face it, the adverse consequences of formula feeding affect the whole of society via increased disease rates and subsequent penalties for all taxpayers! 

Eat your greens - grandma was right!

Immune cells that play an essential role in protecting intestinal health could be boosted by consuming leafy greens, say researchers.

Hot on the heels of yesterday's (and earlier) blogs about the cancer-protective effects of cruciferous vegies in pregnancy, comes this study showing how those very same greens boost gut immunity! They do that by controlling the activity of vital immune cells through the activation of a particular gene known as T-bet. These immune cells play a pivotal role in protecting the body from infection by bad bacteria in the gut. They may also have a role in controlling food allergies, inflammatory disease, obesity and bowel cancer.

If you’re taking notice of the fact that a gene can be switched off or on by simple dietary manipulation, multiply that by many more and you have the reasons for this blog and all of my work in the area of preconception health ...

If you’re wondering what other factors can positively impact gut health, a premium probiotic is the best way to jump start those good bacteria  ... 

If you’re asking what on earth are cruciferous vegies ... think cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, broccolini, Brussel sprouts, kale ...

For some wonderful creative recipes that include these vegetables ... check my latest books and new mini ebook. 

        

A generation of fat kids - who's really to blame?

Researchers confirm that junk food consumption during pregnancy will program your unborn child for the same unhealthy preferences. 

If you watch the latest edition of Australia’s The Biggest Loser, even if you only watch the pre-screening ads, you’ll be seeing the trans-generational effects of poor dietary choices at first hand. Now the researchers shed some light on the mechanism and I can’t help but say “I told you so!”

Junk food addiction is indeed an addiction! The consumption of junk food stimulates the opioid receptors and just as with heroin, morphine and other opioid substances, tolerance develops ... more junk food is required to give the same “feel good” effect! And just as a heroin-addicted mother bequeaths the addiction to her infant, the same story applies in the case of junk food!

Good news is, you can program your baby for a different outcome, program her to enjoy a wide range of healthy tastes in exactly the same way. Even better, consumption of things like cruciferous vegetables during pregnancy can confer cancer-protective effects on your baby. 

So get rid of the high-sugar, high-fat, fried, additive-laden and get some clean, green, whole, in season fruit and vegies into you! Where to begin? Try some of the simple, truly nutritious recipes that my very own healthy baby (now 27 years old) has created for you. 

After all, you know that a baby addicted to narcotic drugs is a tragedy, but equally tragic is one addicted to junk food. Do you really want to be the one to blame for your fat family?

Refined sugar - you don't need it!

Sugar consumption levels may have a ‘direct and independent’ link to the risk of developing diabetes, according to new research.

Well I thought this fact was already a given - seemingly not so in the eyes of the scientists. But I clearly remember reading a recommended text, right back at the beginning of my studies in nutritional and environmental medicine ... and that was 30 years ago. Pure, White and Deadly by John Yudkin was actually published in 1972 but from 1957, Yudkin demonstrated that consumption of sugar and refined sweeteners was linked to the development of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The studies he conducted on sugars indicated that they raised blood triglycerides and insulin levels. 

Through the years, the focus has shifted to obesity and over-consumption of calories from any source as the culprits in the diabetes epidemic. In fact, Professor Sanjay Basu, from Stanford University School of Medicine, who led the research team identifying sugar as an independent risk factor said “it was quite a surprise!”

Yudkin died in 1995, but Wikipedia mentions that in 2013, Yudkin’s arguments and evidence for the dangers of sugars were the focus of several articles in the British Medical Journal. Well I guess if you are prepared to wait long enough, your work will eventually see the light of day and maybe even impact the public consciousness. Pity no-one was listening back in the 1950s - we might have saved a lot of lives and a lot of healthcare dollars! Let’s just hope someone’s paying attention now!

Go nuts ... eat them, they’re good for you!

NUTS - protein, fibre, healthy oils, vitamins, trace elements and antioxidants, along with what we’ve always thought was a hefty dose of calories. But high nut consumption is associated with lower incidence of obesity, so what’s the real story? 

Well if you’ve always believed that what Nature put on the trees and in the ground for your consumption was intrinsically healthy, you’re probably still eating nuts despite the fact that they’ve been demonised as high-calorie, high-fat, “eat only in small quantities” etc. Nuts are a bit like eggs - inappropriately maligned - but now back on the “eat lots” list. Nuts are a real Renaissance story according to researchers!

And now they can tell us why. First of all, it seems that eating nuts in the morning will cause you to eat less later in the day, for example 100 calories of nuts in the am, and you’ll reduce your later food intake by 65-70 calories. Full explanation for the reason not yet forthcoming, but scientists say it’s not due to nuts’ effects on the hormones controlling your appetite. Reason number two, if you eat whole nuts, some bits of the nuts pass through your gut unchanged, taking that potential caloric contribution with them, which means the caloric content of nuts has been have over-estimated by up to 20 percent. Finally, it appears that regular nut consumption has the ability to increase your metabolic rate.

And here’s my thought ... could it be that nut consumption positively affects the health of the gut microbiota and consequently energy metabolism is increased? Furthermore, if nuts have a presumed caloric value, do they exert the same metabolic effects as an iso-caloric, high-fat biscuit or cake?  More on the iso-caloric vs iso-metabolic story in my recent blog. To sum up, a nut is a nut except when it’s a peanut* and a calorie is not always a calorie. Whatever, and all things considered, every reason for you to go nuts and eat more of them!

 

BTW Peanuts are legumes ... not nuts!

Protection from sun damage? Nutrients can help...

New research from the UK confirms that supplementation with omega-3s could help to protect against skin cancer.

If those scary skin-cancer TV ads still have you running for cover despite the need for a moderate amount of sunlight exposure for vitamin D production, then listen up. Skin cancer isn't just about sun exposure, nor is it's prevention just about staying out of the sun or slathering on the sunscreen.

Readers of previous posts will know how important omega-3s are for the formation of your baby’s brain and eyes and that omega-3s can also help prevent pre-term birth and post-natal depression. You’ll also know something about the best sources of these well-researched, marine-based products and their sustainability or otherwise.

Now the research tells us that omega-3s can also protect against skin cancer! YAY - for years I’ve been saying that the skin-cancer story isn’t a simple equation of too much time in the sun. Now here’s some proof that nutritional status is a fundamental part of that story. Omega-3s, anti-oxidants, phytonutrients, trace minerals ... robust, comprehensive, balanced supplementation, but most important of all - an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruit, fish, legumes, healthy oils, nuts -  easy on the red meat and dairy. Click on the images for my previous posts on the value of the Mediterranean diet!

        

RIP Mayor Bloomberg’s soft-drink initiative? Maybe not ...

Mere hours before it was to take effect, a judge reversed the proposed ban on the sale of jumbo sized soft drinks in New York. Wonder who paid him to “permanently” stop Mayor Bloomberg’s much-touted ban on drink sizes greater than 480ml in cinemas, sports stadiums and other public places. Never mind who paid the judge, whose interests could possibly be served by a soft drink size that openly boasts 64 ozs. (that’s 2 litres or close to 1/2 US gallon), 800 calories and almost 1/2 lb. (224g) of sugar?

Certainly none of the 6000 NY residents who die every year from complications of obesity or those suffering from diabetes - now estimated to be 1 in 8 New Yorkers!

But the good Mayor Bloomberg is undeterred by a small set-back, unfazed by claims that he is running a “nanny state.” During his 11 years in office his successful initiatives include obligatory posts of calorie counts in fast-food restaurants, bans on the use of artificial trans-fats and reduction in salt levels. NYC has successfully outlawed smoking in bars and offices, promotes breast-feeding over infant formula and last week, the Bloomberg administration announced a campaign to warn young people they risk hearing loss from cranked-up earphones. NYC is no stranger to defending its health-promotion measures in court either. But this time Bloomberg believes that the tide of public opinion is already turning and that voluntary adoption of his soft-drink initiative is underway.

"We are confident that we will win that (appeal), but while the legal case plays out, the conversation we started about the dangers of the portion sizes of sugary drinks has prompted many people ... to take action," he said. A few hours later, the city filed formal notice of its plan to appeal.

May the force be with you Michael Bloomberg!

Don’t wait til you’re pregnant to improve your diet ...

Pioneering studies by molecular geneticist, Robert A. Waterland shed some light on how the foods that an about-to-be or newly-pregnant mother eats in the days and weeks before and around the time of conception, may affect the way genes function in her children, and consequently her children's health. 

Waterland, funded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has examined subsistence farming villages in West Africa, tracking the epigenetic changes and linking them to the dramatic seasonal differences in the diets (both amount and types of foods) of women in the villages. His research not only confirms the vital importance of pre and peri-conception diet and supplementation habits, but sheds light on how the epigenetic mechanism actually works. If you’re not familiar with the term “epigenetics”, it simply means above and beyond genetics. For those who are interested in the actual mechanisms, they can impact, for example, the levels at which an everyday biochemical process, DNA methylation, occurs at regions of certain genes. DNA methylation is essential for cell development and for stabilizing cell function.

So epigenetic changes occur at the most fundamental cellular level and are exhibited across generations. While Waterland observes the negative genetic impact of dietary restriction (for example during the peak rainy season) his work provides yet more compelling incentives to get your diet into great shape before you conceive. Then back it up with robust supplementation to ensure those epigenetic effects are positive not negative ones!

       

More in my latest mini ebooks

Enhance your fertility naturally, stop the “ticking clock”

This week there was a full page ad in the Sunday supplement, promoting IVF. Following hot on its heels was the story of an IVF Clinic giving women the myths and the facts about age and declining fertility. The fact that this lecture was held in Sydney’s trendiest bar and nightspot made it pretty clear that IVF have identified a big market in the upwardly mobile women in corporate and professional Sydney and are going after it aggressively!

Then there was the news that infertile Australian women are paying $19,000 to ship in eggs from a US egg-bank to deal with a local shortage!. 

I have to ask the question...What would it take for equal resources and publicity opportunities to be available for the promotion of Healthy Parents, Healthy Baby program and products? I’m putting it out there, because couples really need to hear the other side of the story. 

One important fact they need to know is that 2010 (most recent) statistics for combined Australian & NZ Assisted Reproductive Technology, offers just 18.1 percent live baby. Turn that around, it becomes close to 82 percent failure rate! How many intelligent, high-achieving couples would spend money on a service or technology that failed in 82 cases out of 100! I wonder...?

But the good news is, increasing age isn’t the fertility death-knell that it’s cracked up to be. There are healthy, natural ways to stop the ticking clock, and dramatically improve the health of eggs and sperm and your chance of conception. Best of all the likelihood of having a truly, happy, baby are also dramatically increased, an important by-product of conception that the IVF clinics blithely ignore along with their miserable “success” rate.

Now I’ve got brand new mini-ebooks to get you and your partner on the right track to a healthy natural conception (and healthy pregnancy)!

         

Spend some time in the sun

Consumption of high doses of vitamin D supplements during pregnancy may raise the risk of children developing food allergies after birth, says research.

Vitamin D has been in the news a lot lately - most notably because of the widespread incidence of deficiency that has been noted in Western populations. These are largely a legacy of cancer-council scare-mongering and lifestyles and working environments that are focused mostly indoors rather than out.

Now along with the identified deficiencies comes the debate about supplemental dosage forms and levels and now concern about the potential for Vitamin D during pregnancy to lead to food allergies in the baby - something the supplements would in fact be designed to prevent.

Makes a good case for moderate exposure to sunlight as the best way to prevent deficiency and get the appropriate dose in the appropriate form. So avoid sunburn, limit exposure to the strong midday sun, but ensure some regular, unprotected exposure when the sun is more than 50 degrees above the horizon (it’s at 90 degrees when it’s directly overhead). Vitamin D is manufactured when your skin takes on a very slight pink tinge. 

Safe food additives? Does your government care?

20,000 chemicals used in food production and manufacture, 3,000 added directly to the food supply, only ten percent of those appear on labels...

Even more disturbing is the fact that many of those chemicals approved for use in the USA are banned in other countries. The countries whose regulatory approvals are more enlightened than those of the US, might actually surprise you. Russia for example has just banned all US meat and meat-product imports, due to ractopamine, a growth stimulant found in the meat.

Since I’ve been following developments in the food, beverage and dairy industries along with developments in nutritional and environmental medicine, I know there’s no excuse for America dragging the anchor in her embrace of non-toxic food additives. Safe alternatives are available and other countries have acted responsibly by placing a ban on the long-list that have been proven toxic. Ractopamine for example is banned in 160 countries, but not yet in Canada and the United States.

Of course the whole issue is not likely to concern you if you grow your own or buy organic, prepare it at home and eat it freshly made. If you also make that home-grown meal a Mediterranean-style one you’re home and hosed. But if jars, cans and packets still go regularly into your super-market trolley, you need to make sure you're not consuming potentially toxic additives along with the convenience! 

Reduce those food miles - buy local or grow your own!

A new study shows that consumers will pay more for locally produced foods! And why not? Any intelligent human being, who has concerns for the planet, their own and their family’s health, but most of all for the taste, freshness and safety of foods, would be crazy to select any that have criss-crossed the country, let alone the globe! But the fact that a product, even with the cost of a multitude of food miles added, is cheaper than a locally produced competitor really beggars belief. This study indicates that labeling with “food miles” is a good way to encourage purchase of the local produce. 

Well I guess if that’s what it takes to get consumers to do the right thing... Maybe at the same time we can find a way to turn them from foods that have been fertilised artificially so they grow in all seasons, then refined, processed, partitioned before being reconstituted through a variety of manufacturing processes and made tasty and stable with a range of chemical additives? What would it take to switch consumers to choosing sustainably grown, Nature-given varieties of fruits, vegetables and animal produce?  If common sense doesn’t prevail, maybe clever labeling will?

But there's no doubt that we all need to be a lot more aware of our food purchases. Marion Nestle, commenting on the publication of NY Times investigative reporter Michael Moss’s new book: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us says: “Anyone reading this truly important book will understand why food corporations cannot be trusted to value health over profits and why all of us need to recognise and resist food marketing every time we grocery shop or vote.”

What would it take for us all to become more conscious shoppers? We can start by looking beyond the marketing hype, reading labels very carefully and asking tough questions of our produce providers! Social media, blogs, tweets and online conversations can play a very important role in raising consumer awareness. Of course growing some vegies in your backyard garden is the best way to minimise food miles. Not as hard as it sounds - all the details in Healthy Parents, Healthy Baby.

Eat a rainbow every day!

In February 2013, The 6th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition (ICVN) revealed the study damning the American Heart Association’s “low-fat diet” but promoting Mediterranean-style eating habits to protect against cardiovascular disease and stroke. Now they reveal that those who eat predominantly plant-based diets are healthier than their meat-eating mates. Vegetarians are consistently slimmer and have a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer!

There’s yet no consensus on the “why”, many ideas have been proposed. Lower BMI, increased intake of fibre and phytonutrients, vegetarians likely to be better-educated and less likely to drink or smoke are some of the them. Since this finding is one of the most “consistent of nutritional epidemiology” I’d like to propose that the answer might partly lie in the very different gut microbiota that would be found in the plant vs meat eaters!  The National Institutes of Health makes it clear that plant-eaters have a more diverse gut population than meat-eaters.

Apart from getting on the gut health soapbox yet again, I might have to modify my mantra which has always been “healthy food, grown on healthy soil” to something like the one proposed by David Jacobs PhD Mayo Professor in Epidemiology at University of Minnesota who gave the ICVN conference “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. In colourful variety. Maximize nutrients per bite.” Couldn’t put it any more simply than that!

Make mine Mediterranean!

I blogged a few weeks ago that the Mediterranean diet was under threat - thanks to the financial constraints imposed on consumers by the GFC. 

But this new study, showing the Mediterranean diet is able to cut the risk of heart disease by 30 percent also makes it clear that these particular eating habits should be enshrined as a healthy legacy for all! Of course generations have lived by its precepts and many more regularly enjoy this fine cuisine in its multiple guises. This so-called “landmark” study, which began in 2003 was terminated in 2011, cut short because the findings were so significant and because those following the standard “low fat diet” as recommended by the American Heart Association were at such a disadvantage! How’s that for damning the dietary pundits ...?

Wondering exactly what constitutes the Mediterranean diet? Think ... Spanish, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Middle Eastern. Think ... very high in fresh vegetables and fruit (red, orange, purple, green), whole grains, legumes, seafood and mono-unsaturated fats from olive oil, olives and nuts such as walnuts and almonds. Also think ... much reduced meat and dairy!

Oh and along with food lovingly prepared from a cornucopia of fresh ingredients, you’ll usually find a fine glass of red wine and convivial surroundings in that Mediterranean mix!