Health & WellnessS


Apple Green

Why you should think twice about vegetarian and vegan diets

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There are many reasons why people choose to go vegetarian or vegan. Some are compelled by the environmental impact of confinement animal feeding operations (CAFO). Others are guided by ethical concerns or religious reasons. I respect these reasons and appreciate anyone who thinks deeply about the social and spiritual impact of their food choices - even if my own exploration of these questions has led me to a different answer.

But many choose a vegetarian diet is because they're under the impression that it's a healthier choice from a nutritional perspective. It is this last reason that I'd like to address in this article. For the last fifty years, we've been told that meat, eggs and animal fats are bad for us, and that we'll live longer and enjoy superior health if we minimize or avoid them. This idea has been so thoroughly drilled into our head that few people even question it anymore. In fact, if you asked the average person on the street whether a vegetarian or vegan diet is healthier than an omnivorous diet, they'd probably say yes. But is this really true?

Comment: The Naive Vegetarian
Do You Have to be Mental to be a Vegetarian?
Lierre Keith on 'The Vegetarian Myth - Food, Justice and Sustainability'


Muffin

Antinutrients - Your key to bad health

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Anti-nutrients in grains, beans, tomatoes, potatoes... play a major role in diseases.
You probably already know a lot about nutrients- macronutrients (fats, protein and carbohydrates and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytosterols etc). Now it's time to meet the rest of the family....... We all know that foods contain a variety of nutrients. There is less awareness that many foods contain small amounts of potentially harmful substances. These are toxins, as they have toxic effects. They are normally called "antinutrients" by the scientific community as toxins sounds too alarmist. Antinutrients are very real and for over 100 years research has been done on them- but it is generally only appreciated by a small group of specialized scientists. Antinutrients have an incredible range of biological effects. As you have probably already guessed, the vast majority and highest levels of antinutrients are in Neolithic foods like grains, beans and potatoes. The Paleolithic diet has incredibly low levels of antinutrients compared to the usual modern diet. I believe that this is the number one advantage of the diet.

Textbooks on antinutrients read like books on what not to eat- Neolithic foods are the most prominent. Professor Irvin Liener published one of the most famous of these books in 1980. In the first chapter he points out that when we started cooking inedible plants, new toxins entered the diet for the first time. Ironically, he wasn't trying to promote Paleolithic diets- his aim was to help agricultural scientists more safely feed the world on grains, beans and potatoes.

It's a technical subject, and I'll do my best to make it clear to you.

Comment: Don't miss:

Lectins and Auto Immune Disease
Beyond Gluten-Free: The Critical Role of Chitin-Binding Lectins in Human Disease
Lectins & the paleo diet
Viruses & Lectins- The Missing Links
Lectins worse than gluten
Wheat the Opiate of the Masses?


Bacon

Autoimmune disease treatment with the Paleo Diet

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Paleo diet addresses several of the factors- dietary proteins, the types of bacteria, SIBO and leaky gut can all be improved.

Autoimmune disease means a disease that is caused by a the immune system behaving wrongly and attacking the body. The proper role of the immune system is to attack viruses and bacterial disease etc. When the immune system turns on us it is abnormal and this is the cause of many diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and hypothyroidism. "Officially" the root cause of most autoimmune disease is not known (like most diseases), however there is a large body of scientific literature which indicates that diet can play a critical role in the cause of these diseases.

This has been recognised for many years, as fasting and elemental diets (very purified diets mainly used in research) sometimes cause reductions in many autoimmune diseases. It is now strongly proven in some cases, as people with Coeliac disease are completely better if they are on a gluten free diet, and people with Crohn's disease or Ulcerative Colitis can often be cured if they are on yeast free diet (particularly if their blood tests showed positive ASCA yeast antibodies).

Around 80% of the immune system resides in the gut in order to protect us against infections from our food and water, which until recent years was a major health problem in all countries, and still is a major problem in most of the world. The spleen is the largest immune organ in the body and blood from the spleen is mixed with blood from the gut which then travels to the liver for processing, so the immune system is intimately mingled with everything we eat.

Comment: See also:

Your "healthy" diet could be quietly killing your brain: Q&A with David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain

Non Responsive and Refractory Celiac Disease Study: A paleo type diet gives 100% remission for most


Bacon n Eggs

Paleo Diet Fights Back- response to US News Health & Wellness rating Paleo diet last

Dieta Paleolitica
© UnknownThe paleo is the most evidence based and sound diet ever developed, and the only one that is 2 million years old.
As The Paleo Diet has continued to grow exponentially every year, it is now creating some jealousy and detractors. Its growth is driven by the fact that it is a strong science, whereas most other diets have a weak scientific basis. Due to its strong science, The Paleo Diet works much better than other diets. The latest criticism has been from US NEWS Health and Wellness. Prof Loren Cordain has written a rebuttal to their comments which you can read here. And below is what I have to say on the topic.

The Paleo Diet is not just some diet that some guy wrote one weekend (unlike some diet books). It is a major international scientific movement involving thousands of scientists- doctors, dentists, dietitians, biochemists, physiologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, and other dedicated scientists.. It is the most evidence based and sound diet ever developed, and the only one that is 2 million years old. Because it is a SCIENCE, it can be IMproved but scarcely DISproved. Similarly you cannot disprove chemistry but you can improve it.

Because it is a science, Paleo diet gladly embraces all scientific research. Paleo diet concepts have steadily improved for the past 60 years or so, to the point where it is the most healthful diet known, and unlikely to make major changes in its recommendations.

Comment: See also Some anti-paleo arguments you might encounter and how to refute them


Bacon

Critics say: We don't know what constitutes a true paleo diet

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Critics often lambast the Primal Blueprint and other ancestral/paleo ways of eating for what they see as fatal flaws:

First, that we don't know what our ancestors were truly eating.

Second, that there wasn't just one paleo diet.

Third, that even if we could know exactly what our ancestors were eating, it doesn't mean those foods were the ideal foods; they were trying to eat whatever was available, not whatever was most nutritious or synergistic with their genome.

Before I address these, I want to make an important point. The anthropological record provides a framework for further examination of nutritional science; it does not prescribe a diet. It gives us somewhere to start so we're not flailing blind men dropped off in the middle of a strange city. That is why we're interested in what early humans ate (and didn't eat).

Syringe

Vaccine industry watchdog obtains CDC documents that show statistically significant risks of Autism associated with Thimerosal

Biochemist Brian Hooker, scientific advisor to A Shot of Truth, reveals CDC knew of risks for over a decade.

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“We must ensure that this and other evidence of CDC malfeasance are presented to Congress and the public as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence. Children’s futures are at stake.” -Brian Hooker, Ph.D, PE
For nearly ten years, Brian Hooker has been requesting documents that are kept under tight wraps by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His more than 100 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have resulted in copious evidence that the vaccine preservative Thimerosal, which is still used in the flu shot that is administered to pregnant women and infants, can cause autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr. Hooker, a PhD scientist, worked with two members of Congress to craft the letter to the CDC that recently resulted in his obtaining long-awaited data from the CDC, the significance of which is historic. According to Hooker, the data on over 400,000 infants born between 1991 and 1997, which was analyzed by CDC epidemiologist Thomas Verstraeten, MD, "proves unequivocally that in 2000, CDC officials were informed internally of the very high risk of autism, non-organic sleep disorder and speech disorder associated with Thimerosal exposure."

When the results of the Verstraeten study were first reported outside the CDC in 2005, there was no evidence that anyone but Dr. Verstraeten within the CDC had known of the very high 7.6-fold elevated relative risk of autism from exposure to Thimerosal during infancy. But now, clear evidence exists. A newly-acquired abstract from 1999 titled, "Increased risk of developmental neurologic impairment after high exposure to Thimerosal containing vaccine in first month of life" required the approval of top CDC officials prior to its presentation at the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) conference. Thimerosal, which is 50% mercury by weight, was used in most childhood vaccines and in the RhoGAM® shot for pregnant women prior to the early 2000s.

Apple Red

Children exposed to more brain-damaging chemicals than previously thought

children chemical exposure
© Reuters / James Glover
A troubling new study has found that the number of chemicals capable of impairing child development worldwide is more than double what was previously believed, according to a new story by Time Magazine.

Back in 2006, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai pinpointed five industrial chemicals that they linked to brain disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reduced IQ, and more.

These chemicals were lead, methlymercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (a coolant fluid in motors), arsenic (found naturally and also in pesticides), and toluene (in paint thinner, nail polish, and more).

In a review of their 2006 study, though, the same scientists have now discovered brain development in children could be negatively disrupted by another six chemicals. These chemicals are: chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, fluoride, manganese, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, tetrachloroethylene.

Alarmingly, the researchers discovered that manganese and fluoride, both of which are present in drinking water, can lead to poorer performance in school, lower math scores, and increased hyperactivity. High levels of fluoride, in particular, are potentially capable of lowering a child's IQ by seven points.


Chlorpyrifos, meanwhile, is a common pesticide that is still used in public areas and in agriculture despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency banned it from residential areas in 2001. According to a report by CNN in 2012, even low levels of chlorpyrifos could result in disrupted brain development.

"It's out there and we do not know what the longer term impact is of lower levels," Virginia Rauh, professor of Clinical Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told CNN. "But it does seem to be associated with cognitive damage and structural changes in brain."

As RT reported this week, some health experts believe the increased rate of severe birth defects in rural Washington state could possibly be linked to prolonged exposure to pesticides, though officials have been unable to determine the precise cause

Red Flag

Toxic chemicals linked to 'Global, Silent Pandemic' striking children worldwide

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"We have the methods in place to test industrial chemicals for harmful effects on children's brain development—now is the time to make that testing mandatory," stated study co-author Philippe Grandjean.
"The presumption that new chemicals and technologies are safe until proven otherwise is a fundamental problem," study authors write

Toxic chemicals including some pesticides and solvents may be behind the increasing number of cases of neurodevelopmental disabilities - including autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder - among children, researchers warn.

The findings are presented in a study by Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Philip Landrigan, Dean for Global Health at Mount Sinai published online Saturday in Lancet Neurology.

"The greatest concern is the large numbers of children who are affected by toxic damage to brain development in the absence of a formal diagnosis. They suffer reduced attention span, delayed development and poor school performance. Industrial chemicals are now emerging as likely causes," said Grandjean.

Ambulance

FDA reevaluating safety of pain medications following multiple studies showing major harm

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A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has rejected a petition filed by Bayer HealthCare to have its over-the-counter (OTC) pain medication Aleve (naproxen) declared to be safer for the heart than competing alternatives like Advil and Motrin (ibuprofen). According to reports, the drug giant tried but failed to take advantage of ongoing investigations into the safety of OTC pain drugs, which are increasingly being linked to heart attacks and strokes, by pushing for Aleve to be rebranded as a safer alternative.

But the evidence was severely lacking, according to information relayed by USA Today, and Bayer was ultimately denied asylum for its pain medication, which makes sense, because it is more than likely just as dangerous as ibuprofen when it comes to heart health. A host of new research, in fact, implicates virtually all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with increasing the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, liver damage, heart attack and erectile dysfunction, among many other conditions.

Smoking

Puppy dies from acute nicotine poisoning after chewing up its owner's electronic cigarette

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© SWNS.comStaffordshire bull terrier Ivy who died after eating an E-cigarette.

A dog has become the first pet in Britain to be killed by an electronic cigarette. Staffordshire Bull Terrier Ivy died within hours of chewing on a bottle of nicotine-laced liquid used to fuel the smoke-free vaporiser.

Her owner Keith Sutton, 56, bought the device in a bid to cut down on his tobacco habit. The battery-powered aid works by heating up the 'e-liquid' into a gas which the user inhales like real cigarette smoke.

Coach driver Mr Sutton, of Redruth, Cornwall, had left a bottle of the liquid on his dining room table when 14-week-old Ivy bit into it. She immediately started frothing at the mouth and vomiting and Keith rushed her to the vets, where she was given huge doses of steroids, but died from nicotine poisoning early the next day.

There are currently warnings on the bottles but grandfather Keith wants to see e-liquid become a controlled substance before it kills another animal.

He said: 'I peered round the corner from the kitchen and the dog was on the floor with the bottle of e-liquid. 'She had chewed it and pierced the plastic container. She had only ingested the tiniest amount but by the time I picked her up she was frothing at the mouth.