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Watercress superfood
Neat fibre no longer adviced in diet
Fizzy drinks can break
bones
Blue green algae contamination
Mercury in seaweed
Excitotoxins in our food
Funding influences
aspartame safety research
5 apples a week increase lung capacity
Olive oil inhibits bowel cancer
Selenium reduces liver cancer risk
Sperm love selenium
Coffee and conception
Artichokes aid digestion
Peanut and soy allergy
Milk in pre-packed salmon causes allergic
reaction
High pressure kills bacteria
Vitamins and heart disease
Too much iron increases risk of heart
disease
High iron intake can produce free-radicals
A natural sweetener
Vitamins need to be absorbed
Very low fat diets may be damaging
Toxins released with sudden weight loss
Research into adding mood altering chemicals foods
Two types of vitamin E need to be taken together in the
correct ratio
Breast cancer diet
Vegetarian's immune systems react faster
Chocolate and long life
Watercress superfood
Watercress superfood
Forgotten by many now, and reduced to a garnish, watercress used to be
a staple source of nutrition. Provided it is grown organically, watercress
is a veritable powerhouse of goodness:
• just 100 grams (3.5 oz.) supplies 100% of the recommended adult
intake of vitamin C, and 52% of the recommended vitamin A intake
• it delivers more iron than spinach and more calcium than milk by
weight
ä the mustard oil which gives its leaves their peppery taste is thought
to be anti-carcinogenic.
One US study showed that smokers eating 50 grams of watercress a day were
able to rid their bodies of higher levels of tobacco carcinogens through
their urine. Some scientists consider that it may also help slow the development
of prostate tumours.
(7284-85) Gail Vines. Independent 4.8.00
p8
Neat fibre not so neat
Doctors from the Cancer Prevention Organisation in Dijon (France) are
no longer convinced that supplementing diets with neat fibre like wheat
bran or ‘fibre-full’ breakfast cereals helps prevent cancer.
Their advice is to get the fibre you need from natural sources like vegetables,
fruits and unprocessed cereals like porridge oats.
552 people who had had benign growths called colorectal adenoma removed
from their bowel wall were divided into three groups. The first was given
a calcium supplement (thought to protect against cancer). The second group
was given 3.5 grams of neat fibre. The third was given a placebo. After
three years the neat fibre group had fared worst. 29% had developed new
adenoma compared to 20% of the placebo group and 16% of the calcium group.
This research confirms the conclusions of previous studies. The results
of a much larger study involving 25,000 patients are due in 2001.
Bowel cancer kills approximately 18,000 Britons each year and is the second
commonest cause of cancer death in the more industrially developed countries.
Nearly 90% of bowel cancer cases start as colorectal adenoma.
Ed.- Studies have consistently shown a dose relationship between sugar
intake and the risk of bowel cancer.
(7224-26) Beezy Marsh. Daily Mail 13.10.00
p7
A study of 460 US girls aged 14-15 has found that those who drank fizzy soft drinks were three times more likely to break bones. They suspect that phosphoric acid, found in some brands, may reduce bone mass. Dr. Grace Wyshak of Harvard Medical School in Boston (US) pointed out that there were serious implications for women in later life, and that there were also concerns about carbonated beverages and obesity, tooth decay and osteoporosis.
(6838) David Derbyshire. Daily Telegraph 15.6.00 p1
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Blue green
algae contamination
Whilst increasing attention is being given worldwide to the dangers of drinking and recreational waters being contaminated by toxic blue-green algae (BGA), the potential risks from contaminated BGA health food supplements are still largely ignored. The risks are very real. Toxic BGA can be collected inadvertently when harvesting beneficial BGA.
When the Oregon Health Division (US) analysed 87 samples from Upper Klamath Lake (a major source), 85 were found to be contaminated, with 63 of the samples (72%) containing toxin levels exceeding 1 microgram. Poisoning from BGA supplements is more likely than from drinking water for two reasons. Firstly, BGA blooms and pollutes rivers and lakes seasonally, allowing the human liver to clean out any toxicity regularly and recover. Secondly, our daily intake of BGA in drinking water is limited by our capacity for drinking water per se (on average 1-2 litres/day). People who take BGA supplements tend to take them everyday, giving their liver no chance to clean out any toxicity and recover, and it is possible to take large amounts of BGA supplements, leading potentially to a massive intake of toxicity.
(6998-90) Gilroy,DJ et al. Environmental Health Perspectives 2000;108:5,435-38
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Mercury in
seaweed
Seaweed has long been recognised as a rich source of iodine. In recent years its medicinal properties have been promoted, leading to increased consumption worldwide. The benefits derivable from consuming seaweed, however, may be outweighed by negative properties, depending on where it was grown. Seaweed’s ability to absorb metals is not limited to beneficial ones. It is also rather good at absorbing arsenic, mercury, uranium, copper, molybdenum, aluminium, chromium and some radioactive isotopes. A small study of eight samples picked at random from, primarily, Japan and Norway, found worrying levels of mercury. The main value of the study is to highlight the need to regulate seaweed sales in much the same way as sales of vegetables and fruit.
(6976-77) Van Netten,C et al. Science of the Total Environment 1.02.00 p1
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Excitotoxins
The amount of monosodium glutamate (MSG) added to our foods - and, indeed, now in almost all processed foods - has doubled every decade since 1948, i.e. 32-fold. The use of another well-known excitotoxin, the artificial sweetener aspartame (also called Nutrasweet or food additive E951), has also soared. (Ed.- It is now estimated that aspartame is in over 9,000 products, many of which (e.g. flavoured crisps, fizzy drinks, jellies) are intended for children.)
Excitotoxins (chemicals - usually acidic amino acids - which react with specialised brain receptors) are present in nearly all processed foods, but they are often disguised as “natural flavouring”, “spices”, “yeast extract”, “textured protein”, “soy protein extract”, etc. Liquid excitotoxins - found in soups, gravies and diet soft drinks - are more dangerous than their dry counterparts because they are absorbed more readily by the body and reach higher levels in the blood and thus in the brain.
In most cases, excitotoxins do not kill people, but they are suspected of worsening the effects of other toxins and thus being the ‘final straw’ which tips a person from, for instance, a mild, almost harmless form of Parkinson’s disease into full-blown Parkinson’s. The same goes for many other neurological disorders: migraine, seizures, infections, learning disorders, AIDS, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s, episodic violence, etc. The brains of people with brain disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimers’ disease produce higher levels of glutame (in MSG) and aspartate (in aspartame) naturally, but levels with which the brain can cope in many cases. Introducing more through MSG and aspartame in food may make all the difference and should therefore be minimised by such people.
Many studies have also shown that excessive levels of excitotoxins increase the levels of cancer-causing free radicals, which themselves damage DNA and cell protein. Free radicals have also been shown to prevent astrocytes (star shaped cells) absorbing excess glutamate in the brain, thus creating a vicious circle leading to spiralling damage.
(6667-71) Russell L. Blaydock. Nexus 1.6.00 p31
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They
who pays the piper ...
A meta-analysis (review) of the results of research to date on the safety of the artificial sweetener aspartame has produced some interesting findings. Of the 166 studies judged relevant to human health:
• 74 were funded by the Industry, 92 were independently funded
• Whereas 100 % of the industry- funded studies could find no evidence of any danger whatsoever, 92% of the independently funded studies identified dangers
• A bibliography supplied by the aspartame manufacturer Nutrasweet included many studies of questionable validity and relevance, and mentioned several studies up to six times
Original source: Dr. R. Walton, Center for Behavioural Medicine, Youngstown, Ohio (US) - email: rwalton193@aol.com
(6709-10) Nexus 1.8.99 p7
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A five-year study of 2,512 men living in Caerphilly (Wales) has shown that eating five apples a week can increase lung capacity by an average 138 millimetres. Originally it was thought that a diet generally high in citrus fruits, fruit juices and vitamins A, C and E would benefit the lungs but, after adjusting for other factors, it was only possible to form a significant link with apples and vitamin E. The researchers believe that the beneficial effect may be due to quercitin, an antioxidant which abounds in (e.g.) apples, onions, tea and red wine.
(6117-18) Mark Ward. Daily Telegraph 20.1.00
Researchers at University Hospital Germans Trias Pujol in Barcelona (Spain) have found that olive oil in the diet may 'significantly inhibit the development of colon cancer'. They suspect that it is not the oleic acid in olive oil that is the inhibiting ingredient - this is also found in beef, poultry and other vegetable oils - but more likely the flavonoids it contains. These, also present in high concentrations in onions, tea, red wine and apples, have been shown to provide a variety of health benefits.
(6138-39) Daily Telegraph 25.1.00
Chinese researchers believe they have shown that selenium protects against liver cancer. In a study comparing two towns containing together 130,000 people, they supplied table salt enhanced with 15 parts per million sodium selenite to one town and unsupplemented table salt to the other. After eight years the incidence of liver cancer in the two towns was compared. The town using supplemented salt had half the number of cases (27 per 100,000 as opposed to 50 per 100,000).
(6484) David McNamee. Lancet 13.11.99 p1707
A Scottish study has demonstrated close links between selenium levels and male infertility. 96 men divided into eight groups in a double-blind placebo-controlled study were given either a composite tablet containing selenium and selected vitamins and minerals or a placebo. In those taking the selenium tablet sperm mobility increased by up to 80%, but fell back when they stopped taking the tablets.
The study found that a daily intake of 130mcg was needed to produce optimal improvement in sperm quality.
(2121) Alternatives in Health 1.5.97 p14
A multi-centre European study into the relationship between caffeine intake and fertility has established that women taking over 500mg of coffee a day take longer to conceive after contraception has been stopped (planned pregnancies). In all five countries involved coffee was the main source of caffeine and smoking increased the delay.
The researchers caution that coffee drinking may simply be a marker for a stressful lifestyle and that the stress may be more significant than the coffee.
(2059) Nygard, O et al. Nutrition Research 1.3.97 p. 30
Norwegian research may explain the link. Making allowances for coffee drinkers' increased tendency to smoke and reduced tendency to eat green vegetables, the research discovered that heavy coffee drinkers had significantly higher levels (18.4% men, 28.9% women) of the chemical homocysteine in their blood plasma. Homocysteine is linked with heart disease and problems in pregnancy.
Heavy smokers with high coffee intakes had particularly high levels.
(2065) Bolumar, F et al. Nutrition Research 1.5.97
Artichokes contain a chemical, cynarin, which helps break down fat and alcohol and maintain a flow of bile, thus aiding digestion.
(6043) Celia Hall and Aisling Irwin. Daily Telegraph 22.12.99
Following a fatal case of severe allergic reaction to soybean in 1992, all Swedish physicians were asked to report every case of severe allergic reaction to food. From 1993-1996 61 cases were reported, including 45 from peanut, soy and tree nuts. Four of these were fatal. The researchers also included 2 cases which happened in 1992. What struck the researchers most was that all four of the deaths from severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to soy were asthmatic children already known to be severely allergic to peanuts, but who had previously shown no sign of allergy to soy. The suggestion is that sensitivity to one can mean or cause sensitivity to the other.
(6206-07) Foucard,T et al. Positive
Health 1.12.99 p39
Original research: Foucard,T et al. Allergy 1999;54(3):261-65
Stef J. Koppermann and colleagues wrote to the British Medical Journal describing a case where a woman with milk allergy had a severe reaction to pre-packed salmon. The cause appeared to be a newly introduced food process where the milk protein casein is used to bind fish particles to create 'restructured fish'! The scientists calculated that eating 10 to 50 grams of 'restructured' salmon would deliver 10 to 50 milligrams of casein, sufficient to trigger an attack. The process is also used for meat.
(6494) British Medical Journal 18.3.00 p814
The US firm Flow International has developed a way of killing bacteria in food by crushing them to death. Apparently, pressures of 100-800 megaPascals - the equivalent of two elephants standing on a five pence piece - applied to food immersed in water is sufficient to damage their outer cell membranes. Because food contains water, which is relatively incompressible, it causes minimal damage to the texture or taste of the food itself. Dr. Martin Cole of Food Science Australia is now working with Flow International to see whether the technique could replace heat treatment (e.g. pasteurisation) or the use of chemical preservatives.
(6401-2) Times 1.3.00 p41
Homocysteine, often termed 'the new cholesterol' by US doctors, is a by-product of cells converting animal protein (as in meat) into energy. High levels in the blood increase the risk of heart disease. Professor Ren‚ Malinow has reported to this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that a daily dose of vitamins and folic acid can reduce homocysteine levels, and believes that a vitamin therapy could prevent up to 50,000 deaths a year.
(6397) Roger Highfield. Daily Telegraph 18.2.00
In 1980, medical student Jerome Sullivan, now a pathologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in Charleston, South Carolina, noticed an apparent correlation between high iron levels (as ferritin) in the blood and increased risk of heart disease. Further research showed that iron levels were a better indicator of risk of heart disease than high cholesterol, but also that ingesting iron could lead to higher cholesterol levels. Iron excess to requirements for making red blood cells is stored in the body. The only way it can be lowered is by losing blood, which women do through menstruation. Women's iron levels are consistently lower than those of men until after menopause, when women's average ferritin levels creep up to equal those of men. As their ferritin levels increase, their risk of heart disease also rises to match that of men. Traditional heart specialists brought up on hypertension, smoking, cholesterol, inactivity, age and gender as causes of heart disease contested Jerome's hypotheses and the debate continues.
Whilst the academics argue, it is simplicity itself to take control of your own health. A 'transferrin saturation blood test' is free on the NHS if you can persuade your GP to prescribe one, or around £32 privately. Healthy levels of ferritin are:
• menstruating women 12-40 milligrams per litre (mg/l)
• men and postmenopausal women 70-150 mg/l
Ways to reduce iron/ferritin levels if necessary include: eating less red meat; avoiding iron supplements or breakfast cereals fortified with iron; giving blood. A Finnish study showed that giving blood four times a year can reduce ferritin levels to less than 50 mg/l in men, and down to 25 mg/l in women.
(5702-05) Suzanne Chazin. Readers Digest 1.12.95 p67
Iron supplements are often taken by people suffering from anaemia, by pregnant women and by people pursuing a balanced diet. The recommended daily intake is 10mg for men and 12mg for women during reproductive years, but many people take much greater doses.
Research funded by MAFF and confirmed by the British Institute of Food Research, now suggests that a high intake of iron in capsule form can stimulate the production of free radicals - the cells suspected of triggering cancer - and may increase people's risk of colon cancer. The research subjects took 100mg of iron in capsule form a day for two weeks. The researchers do not recommend stopping iron supplementation, but that a safe level needs to be established.
It is generally accepted that refined sugar is bad news, and that artificial sweeteners like Nutrasweet and Aspartame hold their own, potentially cancerous, dangers. (US Health Authorities suspect that 92 separate health related problems may be linked to aspartame - Ed.) Stevia is a South American plant that has been used by the Guarani Indians to sweeten their bitter mat‚ tea. Paraguayan doctors have used it for fifty years in the treatment of diabetes. Brazilian researchers have discovered that it also has impressive antimicrobial qualities. It is regularly used there to improve digestion and in dental preparations. Japanese food scientists have put it through extensive safety testing and it is now used widely there to sweeten foods and drinks.
After beating off a strong attack from the sugar and artificial sweetener lobbies, Stevia has now won a US Food and Drink Administration license as a supplement and has now also been launched in the UK.
(5920-21) Positive News 1.9.99 p9
Low fat diets may be useless or even damaging for up to two thirds of the population, according to Dr. Ronald Krauss of the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory in California, US. It all depends on your genes. There is a 'bad' type of cholesterol, called low density lipoprotein ( LDL), which sticks to the artery lining, and a 'good' type of cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), which protects against disease. Dr. Krauss has discovered a further factor. A third of adult men and one in five to six postmenopausal women have a particular type of LDL called pattern B, which gives them raised risks of both heart disease and diabetes. It is these people who are most likely to benefit from low fat diets. For the rest, with pattern A, the opposite may be true. Most experience no benefit from a low fat diet and, worse, in roughly a third of men they flipped over to pattern B LDL. Dr. Krauss agrees that the standard advice to reduce the total amount of calories taken as fat to 30% can do little harm but cautions against lowering fat levels further.
Genetic susceptibility to certain illnesses is beyond doubt. People with a genetic trait called apoE4 tend to have higher blood cholesterol concentrations and higher risks of heart disease and Alzheimer's. People with another genetically-influenced condition, low density lipoprotein (LDL) subclass pattern B, run a higher risk of developing diabetes mellitus and three times the risk of heart disease. Only these people, Krauss suggests, should consider an extremely low fat diet.
(2744-46) British Medical Journal 21.2.98 p573
Babies are often given iron-fortified and relatively zinc-rich foods. A Swedish team wanted to see if this had the intended effect and found that, disappointingly, 26% of the babies studied had low iron levels and 36% low zinc levels. No direct explanatory link was found but the researchers suspect that the high cereal intake of Swedish babies may have limited their ability to absorb the iron and zinc.
(3788) Persson, LA et al. Acta Paediatrica 1998;87:6,618-22
Blood samples taken from a research team living on a meagre diet in a biosphere in the Arizona desert have shown that sudden loss of body fat (e.g. through dieting or illness) can release toxins into the bloodstream, putting a strain on the immune system. (As the team were living within the controlled environment of a biosphere, the researchers knew that the toxins could not have come from their environment.)
The research team's average weight fell from 67
kilograms to 56 kilograms. There were some beneficial effects of moving
onto the low-calorie diet - blood pressure dropped and cholesterol levels
fell from an average of 195 to 123 milligrams per decilitre, - but also
negatives. Tests for DDE, a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT, and
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) soared in blood levels by as much as
fivefold. As the team persisted with the diet, however, the DDT and PCB
levels slowly fell, suggesting that the chemicals were being gradually
flushed from the body.
Roy Walford, a team member and a researcher into ageing at the University
of California, Los Angeles (US), believes that a single, successful diet
is probably not too dangerous, as the exposure to toxins would be transient,
but warns against yo-yo dieting where the process of toxin release and
then re-absorption would be repeated time and time again.
Ed.- Interestingly, a similar mechanism has been suggested as a trigger for myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.), which can follow on from a severe viral illness (e.g. glandular fever), which can often cause sudden loss of body fat. Possibly the combined stress of virus and toxins is sufficient to overwhelm the immune system's smooth functioning.
(5378-80) New Scientist 30.1.99 p13
A US study which followed 7,800 male Harvard graduates across 80 years has found, amongst many other things, that those who ate chocolate or sweets 1-3 times a month cut their risk of early death by a third. Disappointingly, however this averages out at only one extra year of life. Those who ate chocolate or sweets 1-2 times a week cut their mortality risk by 25%, and 3+ times a week eaters by 15%. Oddly, those with high sugar intakes also seemed to take in less fat and tended to be slimmer!
Dr. I-Min Lee of Harvard University believes that the key may be the phenol chemicals which chocolate contains. A 1.5 ounce piece of chocolate contains the same amount as a glass of red wine. Phenols have been shown to prevent dangerous forms of cholesterol building up on artery walls and to inhibit agents which may help cancer develop.
Another study showed that Chilean red wine contained the most phenols glass for glass. The largest grapes with the thickest skins contain the most, generally speaking.
(5069-70) Aisling Irwin. Daily Telegraph 18.12.98 p11
The UK's Medical Research Council and Unilever (owners of (e.g.) Wall's Ice Cream, Bird's Eye and Flora margarine) are funding research to investigate the possibility of adding chemicals like tryptophan to food. The logic is that happier people eat less and so become slimmer! Ed.- Tryptophan affects mood, behaviour and sleep patterns by altering levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) in the brain.
(3621) Nexus 1.10.98 p8
A recent German study has found that the immune systems of vegetarians react at almost twice the speed of those of omnivores, making them much more effective at destroying cancer cells.
(2136) GreenLine 1.4.97 p6
Women with high density breast tissue are 4-6 times at greater risk of developing breast cancer. This is only one of several risk factors but also one which can be easily changed.
800 Canadian women aged 30 to 65 took part in a two year study. Half were helped to change their diet to ensure that more of their calories came from carbohydrates rather than from fats whilst the other half were only given general nutritional advice. Dense fat tissue was reduced by 6% in the women on the high carbohydrate/lower fat diet compared to 2% reduction in the general group.
(1835) David Fletcher. Daily Telegraph 4-4.97 p11
New research by Dr. Stephan Christen of the University of California now suggests that the beneficial effect of Vitamin E against heart disease and cancer may only occur if people take the two forms (alpha and gamma tocopherolin) in the proportion found naturally in fruit and vegetables - 70% gamma, 30% alpha. Most vitamin E pills contain 80% alpha 20% gamma.
Dr. Christen is now conducting further research to test the hypothesis that taking the two forms in the wrong ratio may actually reinforce the damaging effect of toxic chemicals such as peroxynite (similar to chemicals found in cigarette smoke).
(1869) Aisling Irwin. Daily Telegraph 1.4.97 p10
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