Attack on All Things Natural: Undermining Health

It has been a rough few weeks for all things natural with back to back scientific studies and lay articles undermining the value of eating organic foods, taking omega 3 supplements, and questioning the benefits of the Paleo-diet.

NYTimes: Sanford Scientists Cast Doubt on Advantages of Organic Meat and Produce
Huffington Post: Organic Food is Not Healthier Than Conventional Produce: Study

"After an extensive examination of four decades of research comparing organic and conventional food...they concluded that fruits and vegetables labeled organic were, on average, no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts, which tend to be far less expensive. Nor were they any less likely to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria like E. coli. The researcher also found no obvious health advantages to organic meats."

NYTimes: Weighing the Evidence on Fish Oils for Heart Health

"People who put their faith in fish oils supplements may want to reconsider. A new analysis of the evidence casts doubt on the widely touted notion that the pills can prevent heart attacks in people at risk of cardiovascular disease.

Huffington Post: Paleo Diet: Healthy or a Hoax

"Does the Paleo Diet really lower cholesterol and help with many of the conditions that lead to metabolic syndrome? On insofar as they cut out sugary, fatty, and processed foods. But you can do that without eliminating whole food groups or imitating the eating patterns--most likely dictated by food scarcity--of pre-agrarian ancestors.''

 

Really?

As for eating organic verses non-organic conventional foods: 

The argument for eating organic foods has NOT centered so much around what nutrients are in the foods, but rather on:

     1. What is NOT in the food: as much pesticide residue and antibiotics which are harmful to all of us,        especially pregnant women and developing fetuses.

     2. Growing food organically is better for the environment. It is sustainable agriculture that enhances the soil rather than poisons it with toxic pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics; all of which ultimately enter into, and contaminate, the ground and drinking water becoming a secondary source of chronic toxic exposure.

 

In addition, organic farming does not use genetically modified seeds which:

     1. are creating crop mono-cultures more prone to plague

     2. make it illegal for farmers to harvest seed, making them dependent on Monsanto to buy seeds every year.                 (NOTE: make sure to click on and read the Monsanto link--an eye opener!)

     3. along with the pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, are creating adaptation strains of super antibiotic-resistant bacteria and crop super pests.

 

As for taking Omega3 (DHA) supplements for health:

The biggest flaw with this article is that it addresses the Omega3 fish oils from the allopathic perspective; like a medication--a specific treatment for a specific problem. 

"They found insufficient evidence of a protective effect against future cardiovascular events in the large number of heart patients who were studied."

...a typical blanket conclusion for research from a paradigm of care centered on fighting disease, rather than adding and nurturing health.

This completely misses the point of Omega3 supplementation.

 

DHA plays many important roles in the human body, that we know of. Its presence in the brain, nerves, synapses, and eyes are vital to their very structure and healthy functioning. In the mitochondria it serves as a source of fuel. The body also uses fatty acids as the starting material for special chemicals called prostaglandins, which are important in a whole array of body functions...among other things.

Omega3's are essential fatty acids; meaning that the body does not synthesize them, and that they have to come from dietary sources. As recently as 50 years ago, we would eat land and sea-based animals that grew in their natural habitats and green things (grasses and algae), from which they would get their Omega3's and, in turn, would pass them onto us when we ate them. It turns out that all animals are what they eat. Today, almost all livestock and fish are fed corn. So, they are deficient in Omega3's, and we are no longer getting what we need from them in our diets. Therefore, supplementation is essential to support good health.

 

As for the Paleo diet:

This unfortunate article also takes the allopathic approach, insanely obsesses with lowering cholesterol, as if that was a cure-all. And, it implies that the primary purpose of the Paleo diet is weight loss. 

As the  article correctly states: "the Paleo diet (also known as the (Paleolithic) "caveman diet") prescribes a pattern of eating that mirrors the way your ancestors ate way-back in the day...a hunter-gatherer diet of meat, fish, fruits and vegetables (and nuts, seeds and water)."

The reason to follow this hunterer-gatherer diet is that our genes have not changed (evolved) in 43,000 and are still consistent with those of our Paleolithic ancestors. As such, our genetic requirements for a healthy life match theirs, both in terms of what we eat (diet) and how much exercise we need.

The reason to minimize, or eliminate, dairy and grains--wheat, corn, and rice--are because these were not added to our diets until about 10,000 years ago, with the beginning of agriculture. Our genes have not yet caught up to eating and digesting these foods, making them the most highly allergic foods that we eat. These food allergies cause all kinds of misdiagnosed and un-diagnosed problems, often leading to cascades of unnecessary, invasive, and dangerous medical tests, procedures and medications. 

The reasons to eliminate processed chemical foods (masquerading as food) and sugars, are obvious.

Articles such as these are dangerous to our health. Their dismissive and patronizing tone belies their bias against all things natural and their reverence for medical/corporate science. They contribute to the confusion about health that only serves to undermine our belief in our true innate capacity for health, and our ability and will to nurture it with all things natural.

School Lunch & Social Justice

School Lunch & Social Justice

Convenience: The state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or no difficulty.

Perhaps one of the greatest driving forces of change in America in the latter part of the 20^th century was convenience. In a world that was becoming increasingly more complex, fast-paced and stressful; a world where both parents had to work and latch-key kids became the norm; a world that was increasingly built on consumerism to fuel corporate growth...convenience emerged as a common denominator , a means to an end, and a marketing bonanza.

Convenience trumped quality and we became a throw away economy. And, convenience trumped health and we became a fast food nation.

“In 2000, Americans spent more than $110 billion on fast foods. Americans now spend more more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars.”

$17-$20 billion/year is spent marketing fast foods to kids alone.

The proliferation of these chemical concoctions masquerading as food changed both the perception and definition of food to the extent that many of our kids can no longer identify real foods. 

The impact of this dramatic shift, to eating super-sized portions of calorie and sugar dense, nutrient deficient, chemically-laden fast foods and snacks, cannot be understated.

The toll on our children's health has been enormous.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC):

- 32% of American children are obese or overweight.

- More than 7% of teenagers (2 million) are estimated to be pre-diabetic, with symptoms of high blood   pressure and high blood glucose levels.

- at this rate 40 to 45% of all school-aged children could be insulin-dependent within a decade.

- 1 in 6 US children now has a developmental disability such as autism, learning disorders, ADD/ADHD

- 1 in 5 kids is on some prescribed medication.

- This generation of kids will be the first with a shorter anticipated lifespan than their parents.

I believe that saving our children and life on our planet must begin with a renewed understanding of the absolute inter-connectedness between the health of our planet and human health, ie: that there is no separation between environmental issues and human health. The best place to start is to change our kids' relationship to, and help them reconnect with, the food that they eat. Kids need to learn where real food comes from, how it grows, and how to store and prepare it...to restore instincts and traditions that were stolen from us by agribusiness, chemical companies, the food industry and their marketing, as enabled and aided by the US government.

This video with Chef Ann Cooper, The Director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley Unified School District, gives us hope and shows that one passionate person can make a big difference. We need to follow her lead and make these changes in every community across America.

Obesity in America: A Growing Problem (Part 2)

Why are 70% of Americans overweight and obese?

The simple answer is we eat too much and exercise too little (Note: hours in front of the television/computer is one of the best predictors of overweight). These are our choices and personal responsibility.

So, what’s changed?

Have we just become too careless and lazy when it comes to our own health? It certainly appears so. Again, personal choices and responsibility.

Don’t we care about our health and the health of our kids? If we do, then why are one third of our kids overweight or obese?

The irony is that we are a nation obsessed with health (gym memberships, home gyms and work-out equipment and dvd’s, diet books/plans, diet foods, and ‘health foods,’ vitamin sales, etc.). We spend trillions of dollars pursuing or medically trying to restore ‘health,’ yet we are the sickest nation in the world.

What could cause us to go so far astray?

Simple, corporate profits.

The primary mission of pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies and so-called health-care delivery systems, is current profits and annual growth. This system feeds on disease.

“The primary mission of food companies, like that of tobacco companies, is to sell products. Food companies are not health or social agencies, and nutrition becomes a factor in corporate thinking only when it can help sell food.” This system creates disease.

As always, one need only to follow the money along the trail of corporate power through government influence, as supported by corporate ‘science’ and the purposeful obfuscation of the public by the media.

What has changed is what we eat and how much of it. And that is precisely what has been manipulated by the food industry. To generate sales, the food industry, by what it makes and how it markets, has encouraged Americans to eat more cheap, but highly profitable, processed calorie-dense/nutrient-deficient chemical foods (high in fats and sugars /total calories) and less of the less profitable whole natural foods (nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables).

In short, the profit margin on food is small. Therefore, the marketing imperative of the food industry is to get people to eat more cheap foods.

Marketing, in the food industry, concerns four key factors:

1. Palatability: how food engages all of our senses (taste, aroma, texture, visual appeal, mouth-feel, swallow-ability and. for fast-food dining, a clean, fun, family atmosphere). The precise sugar-fat-salt content has all been engineered to increase the amount that we eat, and how quickly we eat, chew and swallow it so that we can move on to our next bite asap. Nothing is left to chance.

2. Costs: government agribusiness subsidies (corn, soy, sugar, cattle and chicken) and the processing of these cheap ingredients into chemical foods keeps their prices low compared to unsubsidized farming and sales of unprocessed whole natural foods.

3. Convenience: creating and selling food products that can be consumed quickly and with minimal preparation. Nearly half of all meals are consumed outside the home (fast foods, snacking)

4. Public confusion on dietary/health advice: the language of the food industry exploits dietary recommendations to sell food products. A chemical processed food is promoted and sold using sales-driving pseudo-health claims so that a vitamin C and calcium fortified, omega-3and fiber enhanced Twinkee prevents cancer and is heart-safe as it is low-fat, has no cholesterol, no triglycerides and no trans-fats. Verses, say, an apple, a tomato, a pear, etc, which have no loud packaging or repetitive flashy marketing to honestly make those claims.

Marketing works, or the food companies would not spend $33 billion dollars annually to do it. Plain and simple. We have been so brainwashed by their incessant and pervasive ads and dominating presence in our schools and government that we no longer know what FOOD is. We believe that food comes from fast-food restaurants and in fancy packaging in the center ailes and frozen food sections of the supermarket and convenience stores. Our kids can no longer identify basic foods, and have no taste for natural foods.

The result has been astoundingly successful and profitable for both the food and medical-insurance-pharmaceutical industries, and completely disastrous for public health. We are sicker than ever, and we are poisoning and killing our kids at increasingly younger ages.

I strongly encourage you all to watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC and to support First Lady, Michelle Obama’s, initiative (Let's Move Campaign) to change the way we eat. Your life and the lives of your children are at stake.