Nutrition beyond marketing - just because someone says something is healthy, doesn't mean it's healthy for you. Listen to your body.

I have been actively involved in educating and supporting people about health for the past 13 years. Prior to this I completed a Masters degree in Science – biology – including cellular and molecular biology, genetics and physiology. I feel I have a good understanding of how bodies work (physiology), and have always evaluated information and research according to the foundation of knowledge I learnt during my years at University. 

When I decided to study herbal medicine, I was most interested in nutrition, because from my understanding, if you didn’t have the building blocks for healing and repairing your body, no herbs, homoeopathic remedies or any other modality were going to be able to do their magic. Nutrition was the foundation to healing your body.

These days, with the explosion of internet-based marketing and YouTube, the amount of information available about health and nutrition is enormous, and unfortunately much of it is misleading and doesn’t ring true from a science perspective. People are duped into buying foods, supplements, products and diets with promises of miraculous health, but if these products actually worked there wouldn’t be a continuous stream of new wonder diets and pills.

‘If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit’ as quoted by W. C. Fields. I’m afraid to say, that these days many people have been well and truly baffled.

What I’m about to discuss are some of the common beliefs regarding modern or trendy food and nutrition ideas – what many people refer to when they ‘go healthy’. I will explore some of these beliefs from a different perspective so you can see how these so called ‘health practices or products’ may actually be interfering with your health rather than helping it.

At the Vibrant Health Centre, and in our 12 Week Programme, we teach nutrition in terms of basic principles and individual requirements. It’s vitally important to ‘listen to your body’, to tune in and realise the actual effects of foods and substances on your health and wellbeing, and not be conned by glossy ads, charming salespeople or your well meaning doctor or health provider.

Start taking notice and being aware of which foods upset your stomach or make you feel nauseous soon after eating them. Which foods cause flatulence or loose motions several hours later? Which foods or substances cause skin reactions or breakouts? Are there foods or drinks that send your nervous system into overdrive causing anxiety or wakefulness? Or have a draining effect and put you to sleep? Which foods or beverages give you a ‘hangover’ that cause you to wake up the next day feeling crappy after eating them?

Just because someone says a food or substance is healthy, doesn’t mean it’s healthy for you.

Just because a substance is marketed as a food, it doesn’t mean it is one.

You may have heard the terms ‘healing crisis’ or ‘detox reaction’ – these terms refer to a skin breakout, a feeling of nausea or even diarrhoea or a cold that occurs following a new ‘health’ regime. From my experience, if the changes you’re making are good for your health, you should feel better not worse. If you feel worse, there’s something wrong with what you’re doing.

Juicing and Smoothies

It’s very trendy and popular these days to consume nutrients in liquid form. Everyone’s in a hurry, and juices and smoothies are a quick and convenient way to nourish your body – especially green smoothies, right? Wrong!

There are a number of issues involved with liquefying your food:

1.          Often there are too many different foods mixed into one. If you react to the mixture, how will you know which of the foods caused the problem? Drinking rather than eating your food doesn’t give your digestive system enough time to prepare for the food that’s coming. Interaction of food particles with your taste buds stimulates stomach acid and digestive enzymes to be released into your gut to aid digestion. Too much food entering your stomach at any one time will overload it, and being liquid doesn’t make it any easier.

2.          Drinking rather than chewing your food will cause your jaw and facial muscles to atrophy and your teeth and gums to weaken. Facial muscles provide shape and tone to your face, and a nicely toned face is more attractive than a weak or gaunt face with no musculature.  Chewing hard foods such as carrots or nuts stimulates circulation to your gums and teeth, keeping them healthy. Saliva washing around your mouth during the chewing process initiates carbohydrate digestion, and alkalinises your mouth, thus reducing tooth decay.

3.          The amount of sugar in smoothies or juices can be through the roof. Yes even super ‘healthy’ smoothies made with heaps of fruit and vegetables. One product we found, a ‘Slimmer’s Delight’ from a juice bar contained 67 g of sugar in one serving. Sugar, upon digestion is broken down to glucose and fructose. Glucose is released into your bloodstream, resulting in a flood of insulin – a type of growth hormone – that causes glucose to be sent into your cells or converted to fat to get it out of your bloodstream as quickly as possible, as too much glucose in your blood is damaging to your tissues. Fructose, the other half of sugar, is metabolised in your liver, similar to alcohol. 30% of fructose is converted directly to fat. Excess fructose consumption can cause a disease called ‘non-alcoholic fatty liver disease’ from eating excess fruit, fruit juice, or sugar in any form. So even though your juice or smoothie may be 99% fat free, you will still gain body fat by the process of lipogenesis.

4.          When people ‘get healthy’ and start drinking their green smoothies, they put all the vegetables into their blender that they think are healthy, and swallow then down in 10 or 20 seconds. Why? Because they don’t want to eat them? If you don’t want to eat something don’t, it may not be that good for you.

If you were to eat your food rather than drink it, your body’s intelligence will tell you when you’ve had enough. One or two florets of broccoli may be enough. A small bunch of spinach or silverbeet may be enough. But a whole broccoli or 100 g or more of spinach or silverbeet may be too much. How many carrots would you realistically eat in one sitting? One, maybe two, but probably no more.

Secondly, green vegetables such as spinach and silverbeet contain a substance called oxalic acid, which is toxic to your kidneys. Calcium oxalate crystals form kidney stones, and oxalic acid toxicity can cause kidney failure and death. Precipitation of oxalic acid can cause pain due to crystals forming in your joints. If you feel nauseous or ill after your green smoothie, it may not be a ‘detox reaction’; it may be that you are in fact ingesting toxins. Steaming or cooking green vegetables makes them more digestible and less toxic, and if you eat them slowly, your body will tell you when you’ve had enough.

5.          Drinking your food can simply cause you to consume too many calories. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to get the signal that you have eaten, but if it only takes 20 seconds for you to drink your meal, you have time to spare to keep eating or drinking before your brain tells you to stop.

Our suggestion would be to slow down. Stop rushing about and take time to prepare a meal – and yes it’s OK to eat vegetables for breakfast, raw or cooked. But chew them well and enjoy your food.

Raw Foodism

Raw food is a flourishing trend by seekers of real, clean, unadulterated food. Their beliefs are that humans weren’t meant to cook their food, that raw food has a greater nutritional value, contains more enzymes, and promotes wellbeing and longevity. Most raw foodies are also vegetarian or even vegan, which adds further complication to the issue.

Since humans began cooking their food, our digestive systems have become shorter and our brains larger. We spend less time eating and digesting and more time thinking. Our appendix is the vestigial organ that was once a fermentative chamber for breaking down vegetation to extract the nutrition from plant foods. Human digestive systems are more like a dog than a vegetarian animal such as a horse or cow, from our teeth through to our bowel. Even chimpanzees and apes – our closest animal relatives- have much longer digestive systems, including a larger colon for fermenting vegetable fibre, and their teeth and mouth structure is designed for eating more rugged and larger amounts of food.

Cooking food may destroy a small proportion of the nutrients – about 10%, but enables more of the nutrients to be digested and absorbed. When we eat raw food, about 50% of the carbohydrates and protein go through undigested and unabsorbed, as measured by testing faecal contents of ileostomy patients.  This may explain the weight loss and constant hunger often experienced by raw foodies. A proportion of the weight loss is muscle wasting, which results in a slower metabolism and fatigue.

Cooking also disables some of the toxins present in plant foods. The purpose of grains, nuts, seeds and legumes is to grow into a plant.  Because of this seeds have developed mechanisms to dissuade animals from eating them by tasting bad, upsetting their stomachs, or preventing their digestion so they can travel right through an animals digestive system to end up in a nice pile of compost to grow in.

There are two types of compounds that prevent digestion.  Phytates, found in the seed coat or husk of seeds, bind with minerals (especially calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc) to form insoluble compounds thus preventing absorption of these essential minerals.  Wholegrains and some legumes (particularly soybeans) also contain protease inhibitors that interfere with the digestion of protein (e.g. the gluten in wheat and rye).

Lectins are sugar-binding proteins found predominantly in grains, legumes, nuts, dairy and nightshade plants (e.g. tomatoes and potatoes) that can affect digestion and cause inflammation and damage within the digestive tract, and agglutination (clumping of red blood cells) in the blood.

To make the nutrients in grains, legumes, nuts and seeds more bioavailable, traditional practices of soaking, sprouting or fermenting grains and seeds in water for varying amounts of time helps release enzymes which break down the phytates thus releasing the minerals. Whole grains such as oats or wheat need to be soaked overnight, while lentils and beans are best soaked for up to 24 hours.  Grains and legumes must also be well cooked to disable the lectins.

Raw cashew nuts contain a toxic resin called urushiol. Fortunately even ‘raw’ cashews have been steamed to release the urushiol to make them safe to eat.

All plant and animal tissue is full of enzymes that are active when the plant or animal was alive to enable metabolic reactions to occur. Some enzymes continue to be viable for a short while after the plant or animal dies. Enzymes are proteins made up of amino acids. When we eat food, any enzymes present will be destroyed as soon as they hit the acid pit of our stomach. Hydrochloric acid and the enzyme pepsin break protein into fragments in your stomach so they are no longer active as enzymes, and are broken down into amino acids for absorption.

Perhaps one of the main benefits of a raw food diet is the absence of processed food, full of preservatives, which act as enzyme inhibitors. Even though I haven’t studied the effects of eating preserved food per se, some of the substances used are so potent, they could quite possibly inhibit our digestive enzymes and even our liver enzymes if they are absorbed from the digestive tract. Eating fresh preservative free food is definitely recommended.

Sally Fallon-Morell of the Weston A Price foundation is an advocate of eating some food raw, particularly milk, egg yolks and meat, which are easier to digest raw, and have higher levels of nutrients such as vitamin B6. Fermented raw vegetables are lower in anti-nutrients and have higher levels of vitamins B and C. Sauerkraut is particularly high in vitamin C.

It costs a lot to be a raw foodie and green smoothie fanatic - $500 for an Oscar juice extractor that claims to retain the vitamin, mineral, antioxidant and enzyme content of your food – assuming the fruit and vegetables you’re juicing are nutrient rich to begin with. An Excalibur dehydrator will set you back at least $500, and of course the all important VitaMix blender, which will cost $1300 new.  In my view, you’d be better off investing your money in a couple of decent garden beds to grow quality food at home, picked fresh when you need it, and exercise your jaw muscles by eating your quality produce. And while you’re growing your vegetables, you’ll also be strengthening your body with the extra exercise you’ll be getting.

To gain maximum benefit from your vegetables – obtain nutrient rich organic vegetables – home grown are the best. Pick or purchase them fresh, and use them quickly. Steam or stir-fry your greens, cook peas and beans to remove the lectins, and have some vegetables raw – if they don’t upset your digestive system.

Low Fat, Low Cholesterol

Many people when they ‘go healthy’, choose low fat, low cholesterol options. Fat and cholesterol are essential nutrients required particularly by your brain and nervous system. Fat has a number of positive functions in your body including:

·            Fat is the major component of your cell membranes

·            Fat tissue provides insulation and support for your internal organs

·            Fat tissue softens your body shape, creating a normal, healthy form.

·            Dietary fat is an excellent source of fuel for energy - especially for your heart and muscles, which prefer fats over glucose as a fuel source

·            Fat from whole foods provides a source of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K

·            Natural fats found in whole foods help with protein digestion and assimilation

·            Specific fatty acids from fish, nuts and seeds help regulate inflammation, blood clotting and muscle tension in your blood vessels and gut

·            Some animal fats and fish oils, and their associated fat soluble vitamins, are important for brain development and nervous system health

·            Fats and oils aid efficient metabolism and energy production

·            Some fatty acids, and fat soluble vitamins, aid immune system function and are protective against cancer

·            Dietary fat regulates appetite and slows down digestion and absorption (CCK hormone)

CCK (cholecystokinin) is a neuropeptide and gastrointestinal hormone synthesised and secreted into the small intestine when fats and protein are detected in the stomach contents. CCK causes the release of digestive enzymes and bile from the pancreas and gallbladder, and tells the stomach to slow down the speed of digestion and stomach emptying so the enzymes in the small intestine can effectively digest the proteins and fats as they come through.  CCK also acts as a hunger suppressant by keeping the stomach full of food longer, but also signals the brain to tell you when you’ve eaten enough. 

Problems Associated with Low Fat Diets

·            Food doesn’t feel satisfying or nourishing, causing over-consumption of calories which leads to weight gain

·            Fat calories are replaced with sugar in low-fat foods, which causes lipogenesis due to the effects of insulin and fructose

·            Dry skin, hair and brittle nails from a lack of nourishment to the skin from within. Fats and fat soluble vitamins are imperative for healthy and lustrous skin, hair and nails

·            Blood sugar dysregulation as a result of excess carbohydrate consumption and subsequent insulin secretion causes fatigue, making it difficult to motivate oneself to exercise or be physically active

·            A restriction of fat consumption causes your body to crave fatty foods, often resulting in binges of poor quality fats and oils such as fried takeaway foods

·            Mental and emotional health deteriorates as your brain and nervous system are not being nourished

We’re told to eat more vegetable oils because animal fats are saturated and high in cholesterol, which causes heart disease right? Wrong!

·            Most vegetable oils found in the supermarket in clear plastic bottles have been extracted from plants not used traditionally for food e.g. canola, soy, and cottonseed; or they may be a by product of another industry e.g. rice bran oil and grape seed oil

·            Cheap vegetable oils are extracted chemically using hexane – a toxic solvent related to petrol, traces of which remain in the oil after it has been boiled off

·            The oil is refined to remove ‘impurities’ using sodium hydroxide (caustic) solution

·            It is then bleached using an adsorbent clay and deodorized by steam cleaning to remove cloudiness and rancid flavours

·            Antioxidants (Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) E320 and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) E321 – both suspected carcinogens) are added to prevent further deterioration

·            The original vegetable oil is now ‘refined’ – it has no aroma, no flavour and no nutritional value

·            Excess consumption of polyunsaturated oils (especially omega 6) has been shown to contribute to increased cancer and heart disease, immune system dysfunction, liver damage, infertility, digestive disorders, depressed learning ability, impaired growth and weight gain

·            Premature aging and wrinkles can be caused by consuming excess amounts of refined vegetable oils (observation by a plastic surgeon)

·            Polyunsaturated vegetable oils high in omega 6 and containing BHA and BHT are found in potato chips, crackers and other savoury snack foods, hummus, dips, mayonnaise, tinned fish, margarine and other spreads

Health Properties of Butter and Animal Fats, and the Fat Soluble Vitamins

Dairy products contain a mixture of saturated and unsaturated fats (approx. 40 %) and the valuable fat-soluble vitamins A and D. In processed milk, the fat soluble vitamins have been stripped from the most popular milks (e.g. Lite Blue, Trim) because of their very low fat content. While the dairy companies are adding more calcium to the milk they are reducing the vitamin D content required for the absorption of calcium. Without sufficient vitamin D, the calcium in milk is not absorbed.

Butter contains vitamins A, D and the ‘X’ factor described by Weston Price. Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has powerful protective properties against cancer, and is sold as part of weight loss programmes to aid in the burning of body fat. Butter contains glycosphingolipids to aid digestion, a blend of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and is rich in trace minerals (depending on the health of the soil and quality of pasture the cows are feeding on). Butter consumption in the early 1900’s was 8.2 kg per person per year and the use of vegetable oils was almost non-existent, yet cancer and heart disease were rare. Today butter consumption is around 1.8 kg per person per year while vegetable oil consumption has soared, along with the incidence of cancer and heart disease.

Butter has long been a valuable component of many traditional diets. It contains fat-soluble vitamins A, D and E with the naturally occurring constituents necessary to obtain maximum effect. Vitamin A from butter is more easily absorbed and utilised than from any other source, and is unaffected by the pasteurisation process. Butter was a staple food in many native diets. No indigenous or non-Westernised people consumed polyunsaturated oils. The deep yellow butter in spring from cows fed on rapidly growing fresh green grass was especially valuable, being extremely high in vitamin A. It was fed primarily to growing children, expectant mothers, and to young women prior to marriage. Vitamin E found in butter is the precursor to sex hormones. Many studies have shown the importance of butter in maintaining reproductive function. As butter consumption has declined, infertility has increased.

Butter can be added to vegetables and spread on bread. Cream can be added to coffee, soups and sauces, and used on porridge instead of milk. The presence of fats ensures proper digestion of protein, assimilation of minerals, and absorption of fat-soluble nutrients such as carotenoids and chlorophyll.

Special factors found in butter include the Wulzen Factor discovered by Dr Rosalind Wulzen. This is a steroid molecule similar to cortisone present in raw, unpasteurised animal fat such as cream, butter and whole milk. The Wulzen factor protects against calcification of the joints (degenerative arthritis), hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland. The X factor, discovered by Weston Price, is a catalyst, which helps the body absorb and utilise minerals. The X factor is found in organ meats (liver, kidneys) from pasture fed animals and yellow spring butter. Fortunately the X factor is not destroyed by pasteurisation.

Butter contains about 15% short and medium chain fatty acids, which are absorbed directly from the small intestine without the need for bile salts. These short and medium chain fats include butyric acid and propionic acid – both unique to butter, and lauric acid, which have shown anti-tumour, antimicrobial and immune supportive properties. Caprylic acid from butter also has antifungal effects, and is often sold in supplement form in the treatment of intestinal Candida infection. These short and medium chain fatty acids are more easily utilised by people with digestive, liver and gall bladder problems.

Fat Soluble Vitamins

During my years in clinic, I have found that many of the conditions people are coming to me for help with are a result of chronic deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins. They have been trying so hard to stick to the low fat recommendations, cutting out cheese and butter, and having low fat milk and only a couple of eggs per week, yet their health has suffered for it. Even still, it is challenging to change their view because of the persistent message that animal fats are bad. Here are some of the health benefits of the fat-soluble vitamins many people are missing out on:

Vitamin A

·            Antioxidant – protects cells against pollution, free radicals and cancer causing agents

·            Stimulates the immune system – increases phagocytosis, antibody production, T-cell production and apoptosis (controlled destruction of old, diseased or infected cells)

·            Required for building strong bones and teeth and maintaining health of connective tissue i.e. gums, blood vessels

·            Essential for health of skin and mucous membranes and especially for the respiratory system

·            Stimulates secretion of stomach acid and enzymes for digestion and absorption of protein

·            Facilitates liver detoxification

·            Increases absorption of iron and folic acid for good haemoglobin and rich blood

·            Helps balance excess oestrogens

·            Involved in steroid hormone synthesis

·            Required for good thyroid function

·            Essential for healthy eyes and good eyesight

·            Implicated in mental functions such as memory, learning, attention, sensory perception and language processing

Apart from butter and dairy fats, vitamin A is found in egg yolks from chickens free ranging on green vegetation, liver and other organ meats, and fish liver oils.

Vitamin D

·            Cholecalciferol (D3) is found in animal foods such as dairy fats, organ meats, fish liver oils, egg yolk, and sun dried mushrooms (shiitake). Vitamin D is produced in the skin when exposed to UVB light from sunlight.

·            Important for the absorption of calcium for healthy bones and teeth, and prevention of arthritis

·            Maintains health of nervous system, heart and muscle function

·            Essential for normal blood clotting

·            Regulates cellular differentiation, making it preventative against cancer. Good vitamin D status increases survival rates in people diagnosed with cancer. People with higher vitamin D levels are found to have smaller tumours

·            Anti-proliferative agent in the colon, protective against bowel cancer.  Used in the treatment of coeliac and other diseases of the large intestines. People with Crohn's disease have particularly low vitamin D levels

·            Necessary for cognitive function and mental processing, helps prevent Alzheimer's, and increases clearance of amyloid plaques

·            Improves mood, and reduces incidence of depression and anxiety. Treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) with vitamin D completely resolved the symptoms

·            Reduces risk of cardiovascular disease including stroke, congestive heart failure, and risk of hear attack. Vitamin D supplementation worked ‘as well as drugs’ to reduce blood pressure

·            Multiple sclerosis is linked to vitamin D deficiency during adolescence and young adulthood

·            Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy can be a risk factor for autism spectrum disorders, ADD, type 1 diabetes, asthma, allergies including food allergies in the child, and an increased risk of the child becoming obese as a child and subsequently an adult.

·            Good levels of vitamin D during pregnancy reduced the risk of miscarriage, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes

·            Children born to mothers who were deficient in vitamin D were more susceptible to developing schizophrenia, recurrent depression and bipolar disorder

·            Good vitamin D status reduced the risk of catching common infections including colds and the flu, tuberculosis, pneumonia and MRSA

·            People with optimal vitamin D levels recover more quickly from surgery and go home sooner, have fewer post surgery complications and are less likely to catch an infection while in hospital.

·            Vitamin D is linked to sexual performance and fertility. Incidence of erectile dysfunction, sperm health, testosterone and androgen levels in men are linked to vitamin D status

·            In women, vitamin D improved fertility, and normalised the menstrual cycle in women with PCOS.

·            Vitamin D is protective against melanoma. Research has found that indoor office workers have higher melanoma rates than outdoor workers, and people who get outside in the sun at weekends are less likely to get melanoma than people who stay out of the sun

You can request to have your vitamin D levels tested directly through the Pathlab – it costs $30 (your doctor cannot request this test as it’s too expensive). International standards for vitamin D levels are between 125 and 200 nmol/l, not the 50 – 150 range set by the NZ Ministry of Health.

Why are we Deficient in Vitamins A and D?

·            Children and teenagers spending more time indoors on the computer or X-box rather than being outside playing

·            Liberal use of sunscreens, hats and shaded areas especially at day care centres, pre-schools and primary schools

·            Adhering to advice to stay out of the sun between 10am and 4pm

·            Adhering to advice to reduce animal fats in our diet

·            Consumption of eggs, chicken and pork from animals housed in barns without access to green grass or sunlight. Free range pork fat (lard) is a rich source of vitamin D

·            Avoidance of eating organ meats (offal)

Our Recommendations

·            Eat foods rich in vitamins A and D (butter and cream, full fat dairy, fish liver oils, organ meats from quality suppliers of pasture fed animals)

·            During the summer, sunbathe for half an hour in the midday sun and you will generate somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 IU of vitamin D. Build up stores over summer to carry you through the winter.

·            Take vitamin D supplements (4000IU per day) if necessary

Our take home message is to love your body – give it the foods and nutrients it needs for your optimal physiology and health. Don’t deny or deprive your body. Avoid putting toxic or indigestible substances into your body – your body is not a rubbish bin.

Give your body some exercise – move it and stretch it, have fun, go for a walk, ride a bike, dance or play tiggy with your kids. And while you’re at it, enjoy the sunshine. Develop hobbies and interests that are active and get you outdoors – gardening, tramping or golf.

Get enough sleep, relax more, and develop healthy and nurturing relationships.

This is the essence of Vibrant Health.