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What you really need to know about nutrition

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HAT YOU really need to know about nutrition’ is the theme of my latest book, The Food State Revolution.

This is a book that I just had to write because the public are now the target of too many misleading messages on what they should be eating and what supplements they should be taking. For example, do you really want to be taking iron supplements made from rust, calcium supplements made from chalk, and tablets made with talc – supplements that have no relationship with food? Surprisingly, this is what you’ll find in many over-the-counter vitamin and mineral supplements.

But, there have been significant advances in nutritional science in recent years, and The Food State Revolution shows how state-of-the-art supplements can be used to dramatically improve your level of health and how many chronic illnesses can be cured or controlled without the use of drugs. For more information about this book please email me at info@davidpotterton.co.uk

Naturopathy in the fight against
acute and chronic infections

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HEN FACED with an acute infection the body’s immune system springs into action and unleashes a host of reactions, one of which is to produce a cocktail of natural compounds with antimicrobial effects. Fasting, the time-honoured naturopathic treatment for infectious and other conditions, speeds this process, so that bacteria and other infectious agents have to contend with an inhospitable acid environment as well as a variety of other immune-defence processes, including bug-eating blood cells, sticky mucus, and the burning heat of fever.

In otitis media (glue ear) the inner ear has access to at least 30 different immune defence mechanisms to kill off unwanted visitors. Not surprisingly, if an eardrum bursts what comes out is a sterile glue containing the remnants of dead bacteria. A healthy body is not a comfortable habitat for pathogenic trespassers…

To read more of this article on Naturopathy and acute and chronic infections click on:

http://www.davidpotterton.co.uk/articles/mrsa.htm

Fruit and Veg Reduces Risk of Stroke.

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ATING more than the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day can significantly reduce the risk of stroke. People who eat three to five cut their risk by 11 per cent compared with those eating fewer than three, says a report in The Lancet.

It was 26 per cent lower for people who ate more than five servings.

The research from the University of London was based on data on 257,500 people.

Five or more daily portions cuts risk of heart disease, cancer and other problems. Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the most common cause of disability in most developed countries.

More than 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke each year.

Strokes kill an estimated 67,000 people in the UK each year.

More than 250,000 Britons live with a severe disability caused by stroke.

For more information go to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4649508.stm

BBC Feature on Naturopathy

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EAD BBC Radio Berkshire’s web feature on David Potterton and Naturopathy.

You can get to the page simply by clicking “Nature Heals”

Naturopathic Treatment for Asthma

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ATUROPATHY offers an effective treatment approach to asthma. This has been known for many years. In many cases asthma can be controlled with an individually prescribed diet and with good nutritional supplements. Even serious cases can be vastly improved, although the treatment programme may need to be stricter.

The reason that I know this is that I used to have asthma and was kept alive by relying on inhalers.

Inhalers, such as Ventolin, can be life savers, as they expand the airways allowing one to breathe more easily. However, they do not cure asthma, or any other lung disease.

The only method that tackles this condition properly is Naturopathy.

In my practice I mainly use a combination of herbal medicines, nutritional supplements and diet, although back treatments are also be very helpful.

I cured my asthma and mentioned this in my book “All About Asthma” (now available through the public library system).

So I have read with interest the results of a recent double blind research study from the University of Washington that has found that taking antioxidants – Vitamin E and Vitamin C – improves lung function compared to taking a placebo, even when the participants were exposed to two common air pollutants – sulphur dioxide and ozone (from car exhausts).

One of the researchers, Dr Jane Koenig, is described as an international expert on the respiratory health effects of air pollution.

The participants took a daily course of vitamins E and C or a placebo for separate five-week periods. They were then exposed to ozone and sulphur dioxide. I won’t comment on that!

Test results showed an overall decrease in sensitivity to ozone exposure when volunteers took vitamins as compared to placebo. The improvements in lung function were especially dramatic in six participants whose lung function deteriorated by 13 per cent while on placebo but was five per cent better than normal while taking the antioxidants.

I would have added other nutrients into this trial and expected even better results. However, I would not recommend any vitamins and minerals that are synthetic, buffered or slow release, as they bear little resemblance to the nutrients in food. The best results are obtained with vitamins and minerals that are as close to food as possible. Further information about Food State nutrients is available on this website.

The researchers commented that they should “investigate whether regular antioxidant vitamin intake could ultimately reduce the need for medication or frequency of use among people with asthma.”

I think we already know the answer to that one.

What’s more, antioxidants are of benefit to people with other lung diseases

For more information on this, please see my book, “Foods, Vitamins and Herbs for Emphysema”. Anyone with a lung condition, or at risk of one, should read this as the information applies to lung disease in general.

Email me at info@davidpotterton.co.uk for the current price.

Facts About Magnesium

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AGNESIUM is an essential mineral, and 70 per cent of the body’s supply is found in the bones, along with calcium and phosphorous. Magnesium helps to promote the absorption of calcium, and also enables the body to use the B vitamins, vitamin C and vitamin E. Requirements are higher in people who take calcium, have high cholesterol, or who have a high-protein diet.

It is found in fresh green vegetables, soya beans and flour, meat, milk, fish, seafood, nuts, whole rice, apples, avocado and bananas. However, only 30-40 per cent of dietary magnesium is absorbed. Deficiency is associated with migraine, muscle aches and cramps, chronic fatigue, insomnia, low blood sugar, pre-menstrual tension, palpitations, brittle bones, tremor, anxiety, dizziness and confusion.

Magnesium can be taken as a dietary supplement in tablet form. It is popular with athletes as it improves muscle performance and reduces muscle fatigue and cramps. The one I recommend and keep in the dispensary is Food State magnesium as it is better absorbed and utilised than the various magnesium compounds on the market.

For further information email me at info@davidpotterton.co.uk

13^th January, 2004 – Diet As Good As Drug For Lowering Cholesterol

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VEGETARIAN diet can lower cholesterol as effectively as a drug treatment, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.*

The vegetarian diet lowered levels of LDL cholesterol – the "bad" cholesterol known to cause clogging in coronary arteries – by almost 29 per cent, compared to a 30.9 per cent decrease in the people taking the drug, lovastatin.

The vegetarian diet included almonds, soya, high-fibre foods such as oats and barely and a vegetarian margarine.

A typical dinner for people on the special diet was tofu bake with aubergine (eggplant), onions and sweet peppers, pearled barley and a selection of other vegetables.

In the US the Food and Drug Administration has approved these cholesterol-lowering foods as having legitimate health claims for heart disease risk reduction.

*JAMA, July 23, 2003.

Do You know The Fourth Cause Of Death !

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OST people know that the leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer and stroke, but few know what comes next in the league table of serious illnesses. David Potterton's latest book focuses on lung disease — now the fourth leading cause of death in the Western world.

"Herbs, Foods and Vitamins to fight Emphysema" emphasises the natural approach to lung health using herbal, homeopathic and naturopathic medicines. Although smoking is still a major contributory factor to lung disease, particularly emphysema, there is a growing death rate as a result of industrial and chemical pollution in our towns and cities. Breathing problems and lung disease, causing serious incapacity, are increasingly affecting non-smoking town and city dwellers.

There is also a worrying increase in the resistance of bacteria and fungal organisms to conventional treatments for bronchial infections.

This concise (68 pages) spiral-bound paper book should be read by all who want to prevent lung disease and for anyone who smokes or suffers with breathing difficulties. The book covers foods and diet for emphysema, vitamin and mineral therapy, herbal and homeopathic medicine and other natural treatments.

Organic Food benefits

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RUIT and vegetables grown organically show significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than foods grown with pesticides, according to a new study.

The research from the University of California, suggests that pesticides and herbicides thwart the production of chemicals that are good for our health as well as those that are involved in the plant's natural defences.

Foods grown with fertilisers, but without pesticides, also seem to boost the levels of anti-cancer compounds, say the researchers.

The findings appear in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

It seems that if an insect nibbles on a leaf, the plant produces antioxidant chemicals to defend itself.

This helps explain why the level of antioxidants is so much higher in organically grown food.

In the study, the total amount of antioxidants in foods grown organically (no herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers) was compared with the total found in foods grown with fertilisers (but no herbicides or pesticides) and with foods grown with pesticides.

The results showed that organically grown-food and food grown with fertilisers had significantly more antioxidants.

Restricted Diets and Protein

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S IT possible to get enough protein from a purely vegetable diet?

Proteins are large molecules made from smaller units called amino acids. There are twenty amino acids commonly found in both plant and animal proteins. The body can make most of these itself, but there are eight that are described as "essential", and need to be obtained from the food we eat. These are isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.

Infants additionally need food sources of histidine and possibly taurine. Proteins are necessary for maintaining tissues and for sustaining growth. They are also used to make hormones and other physiologically active substances.

Protein Requirements

Nutritional experts are still not entirely sure how much protein we need and estimates have been revised often in recent years.

The national and international organisations that advise on nutrient requirements suggest standards which are calculated to meet or exceed the requirements of practically everyone in the population.

They take into account individual variation and so the levels have a wide inbuilt safety margin.

The recommendations below are based on the complete digestibility of milk or egg protein.

Since protein from plant sources may be slightly less digestible, the UK's Department of Health recommends that vegetarians and vegans multiply the figures by 1.1.

The UK Reference Nutrient Intakes (RNI) for protein are as follows: (The RNI is a daily amount that is enough or more than enough for 97% of people. The RNI is similar to the Recommended Daily Amount used previously in the UK.)

Type of person (Amounts Required)

Infants/Children

0-12 months (12.5-14.9g/day)

1-3 years (14.50g/day)

4-10 years (19.7-28.3g/day)

11-14 yrs (boys) (42.1g/day)

11-14 yrs (girls) (41.2g/day)

15-18 yrs (boys) (55.2g/day)

15-18 (girls) (45g/day)

Women

19-50 yrs (45g/day)

50 + yrs (46.5g/day)

During pregnancy (extra 6g/day)

Breast feeding 0-6mths (extra 11g day)

Breast feeding 6+ mths (extra 8g/day)

Men

19-50 yrs (55.5g/day)

50+ yrs (53.3g/day)

The U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances introduced in 1989 are similar to the UK values.

Vegan Sources of Protein

The foods which commonly supply the most protein in a vegan diet are pulses (peas, beans, lentils, soya products), grains (wheat, oats, rice, barley, buckwheat, millet, pasta, bread), nuts (brazils, hazels, almonds, cashews) and seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame).

The chart (below) lists plant foods providing 10g of protein which should give an indication of the amounts of foods that should be eaten on a daily basis.

Examples of amounts of foods providing 10g of protein

Type of food (Quantity)

Peanuts (39g)

Almonds (47g)

Brazil Nuts (50g)

Hazel Nuts (71g)

Soya flour (24g)

Whole lentils dried & boiled (114g)

Chickpeas dried & boiled (119g)

Kidney beans dried & boiled (119g)

Wholemeal bread (95g)

Wholemeal spaghetti boiled (213g)

Brown rice boiled (385g)

Pumpkin seeds (41g)

Sunflower seeds (51g)

Sesame seeds (55g)

Are Plant Proteins Second Class Citizens?

Modern research shows that this is untrue. Nutritionists once believed that plant proteins were of a poorer quality than animal proteins. And even now plant proteins are sometimes called 'second class' proteins while animal proteins are elevated to the 'first class' department.

This belief centred on early research on the poor laboratory rat, which showed that giving extra amino acids of weanling rats reared on a plant-protein diet improved their growth. The same was assumed to be true for humans. However, the parameters of the experiments were set in such a way that differences in the quality of plant and animal proteins were exaggerated.

Also, rats and humans have different nutritional requirements, since weanling rats grow at a much faster rate, relatively, than human infants and therefore need more protein. A comparison of rat and human milk makes the difference quite clear: protein comprises only 7% of the calorie content of human milk, while rat milk contains 20% protein.

If weanling rats were fed only human milk, they would not thrive. These tests over-estimated the value of some animal proteins while under-estimating the value of some vegetable proteins.

The World Health Organisation has now abandoned this inadequate method of assessing the value of proteins to the human body.

Protein Combining. Is It Necessary?

No, it really isn't necessary. Research on laboratory rats also led to the misleading theory of protein combining (2).

Protein combining has unfortunately gained momentum over the years. It was based on the idea that complementary protein foods with different limiting amino acids, such as beans and grains, should be eaten at each meal in order to enhance the availability of amino acids.

Proteins in foods have a distinctive pattern, being higher in some amino acids and lower in others.

For many years the quality of a protein reflected its amino acid pattern and was measured against the protein in a hen's egg, which counted as 100%.

By this method, in each protein the amino acid furthest below the standard reference is known as the limiting amino acid. This is not necessarily the one present in the lowest absolute amount but the one present in the lowest proportion compared to protein in a hen's egg!

In most grains and seeds, the limiting amino acid is lysine, while in most pulses it is methionine. Tryptophan is the limiting amino acid in corn (maize), and in beef it is methionine.

Although each food has a limiting amino acid, most foods have all amino acids in adequate amounts for human health. Even vegetarians are sometimes advised to combine vegetable proteins with dairy foods. This advice is now very old fashioned.

Protein combining may reduce the amount of protein required to keep the body in positive protein balance but several human studies have indicated that this is neither necessary nor even always the case.

Diets based solely on plant foods easily supply the recommended amounts of all the indispensable amino acids, and protein combining at each meal is unnecessary.

Soya protein is actually equivalent in biological value to animal protein.

Protein - Too Much of a Good Thing?

Studies show that vegan diets provide the ideal amounts of protein recommended by the World Health Organisation and by the UK's Department of Health.

On the other hand, many omnivores eat more protein than guidelines recommend and this may have disadvantages for their health.

Excessive protein consumption may be associated with health risks.

Kidney function can be compromised by too much protein in older people and in patients with kidney disease; also, a high protein intake may adversely affect calcium balance and contribute to mineral loss from bone.

The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys 1990 survey of British adults (3) showed that average protein intakes are 84g/day for men and 64g/day for women which are higher than recommended.

Different types of dietary protein may have differing effects on cholesterol and fats in the bloodstream. Greater hormonal responses resulted in a meal derived from casein (milk) than from soya beans.

This suggests that milk protein leads to higher levels of cholesterol and fats in the blood.

These, in turn, are risk factors for coronary heart disease.

A survey of 620 women in Singapore revealed that, among pre-menopausal women, those who regularly ate soya protein and soya products in general had about half the normal risk of developing breast cancer.

In contrast, the consumption of red meat and animal protein was linked with an increased risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women.

Diets rich in meat protein lead to more uric acid in the urine, and a general increase in urine acidity. because of the acidity, the uric acid does not easily dissolve and can form into kidney stones.

Is there Enough Protein for Growing Children?

Children's over-riding nutritional need is for energy rather than protein per se.

As long as children's energy needs are being met they will thrive on a diet in which protein is available from a mixture of plant foods.

Infants and children reared on a varied vegan diet obtain adequate protein and energy, and are healthy and grow normally.

Although they tend to be of lighter build than omnivore children they are within the normal ranges for height and weight.

Regular consumption of suitably-prepared high-energy foods, such as grains, pulses and nuts, with smaller amounts of bulky, less energy-dense fruits and vegetables, will ensure a satisfactory intake of protein and energy.

There have been only two recent reports of protein and/or Calorie malnutrition in infants reared by vegan parents on a vegan diet, and these were due to over-dilution or inadequate variety of weaning foods.

Other published cases of protein and energy deficiency in infants given alternative diets involved restrictive macrobiotic or fruitarian regimes, or dietary limitations imposed by non-vegan parents for perceived health reasons.

Further Details

For more details on protein and the vegan diet in general see Vegan Nutrition by Gill Langley.

This book is the most comprehensive survey of scientific research on vegan diets.

It is ideal for vegans, would-be vegans and health care professionals.

It includes highlighted key points, easy-to-follow tables and chapter summaries.

References

(1) Food & Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization/United Nations University (1985). Energy & protein requirements. WHO Technical Report Series 724. Geneva: WHO.

(2) Lappé, F.M. (1976). Diet for a Small Planet. New York: Ballantine Books.

(3) Millward, D.J., Newsholme, E.A., Pellett, P.L. & Uauy, R. (1992). Amino acid scoring in health and disease. In: Protein-Energy Interactions ‑- Proceedings of a workshop held by the International Dietary Energy Consultancy Group. Switzerland: IDECG.

Credit: The above information has been supplied by the Vegan Society (0845 45 88244)