News regarding traditional wisdom and native diets regarding nutrition.
Therapeutic Use of the High-Fat Low-Carb Ketogenic Diet in Autism Spectrum Disorders
A new study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics has concluded that the high-fat low-carb ketogenic diet may improve mitochondrial function in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The ketogenic diet was originally developed at John Hopkins Hospital in the 1920s to treat children with epilepsy. The diet has proved successful over a long period of history of stopping seizures in children where drugs fail. The diet fell out of favor in recent years, due to the bias against saturated fats. However, with several meta-studies being published in recent years showing that there is no scientific basis of linking saturated fat consumption to heart disease, the ketogenic diet is being studied in many disease applications, including cancer, diabetes, and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS. There have also been studies conducted and published regarding the ketogenic diet's effect on ASD. One study published last year (2013) in France showed a ketogenic diet improves multiple autistic behaviors.
Study: Low Salt Intake Associated with High Death Rates
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine (August 14, 2014) studied the sodium levels in 101,945 persons from 17 countries. The scientists examined the association between sodium excretion and the outcome of death and major cardiovascular events. Sodium excretion correlates directly with sodium ingestion. This article is another in a long-line of salt articles debunking the myth that we need to lower our salt intake. I have tested thousands of patients for their salt levels. I can assure you that the vast majority of patients are low in salt.
Baking with the Ancient Grain Einkorn
Einkorn is an ancient grain that is not yet commonly known in the western world, but used often in the Mediterranean region and in the mountainous areas of Europe. This grain is slightly finicky, completely delicious, good for you, has a slight yellowish tinge, and smells (and even looks) a little like corn flour. Because of einkorn’s lower gluten elasticity, the following baking tips will help you bake successfully with einkorn and avoid a lot of frustration.
A Low Carbohydrate Diet Cures Diabetes
Diabetes is the great failure of the medical system. A generation of following the high-carb low-fat USDA approved food pyramid, along with Big Food's highly processed carbohydrate-rich products, have produced a national epidemic of obesity and diabetes. The medical system's answer to type 2 diabetes is drugs. These drugs, however, are highly toxic with serious side effects, and they don't work. A recent study that showed that insulin may actually accelerate death in type 2 diabetes, for example. Diabetes, however, is not a condition that is caused by a lack of drugs. Research clearly links type 2 diabetes (and now type 3 diabetes) to insulin resistance caused by excessive carbohydrates in the diet. This issue is finally starting to get more attention in the mainstream media, fortunately. In a recent article published in the journal Nutrition, the authors showed that there is continued success in using low-carbohydrate diets in the treatment of diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Food as Medicine: How One Hospital Is Using Organic Produce to Help Heal Patients
Recently, Rodale Institute, in partnership with the nearby St. Luke’s University Health Network, launched a true farm-to-hospital food program. The Anderson Campus at St. Luke’s has more than 300 acres of farmland, much of which had historically been farmed conventionally to raise crops like corn and soy. The hospital administration recognized the impact that providing fresh, local organic produce could have on patient health and approached Rodale Institute to transition the land to organic and farm vegetables to be used in patient meals and in the cafeteria.
Salt is Good for You
One of the most pervasive and stupid things that we are currently told to do is to reduce salt intake. This advice has never been based on controlled clinical studies, ever. Yet, as with the cholesterol myth, the dogma that we should all reduce salt intake has become impervious to facts.
Large Study Adds to Evidence that Organic Food Is Superior
A comprehensive new study published this week in the prestigious British Journal of Nutrition shows very clearly that how we grow our food has a huge impact. Organic food is superior to its conventional counterparts and is higher in antioxidants and lower in pesticide residues.
Processed Foods Hurt Your Immune System and Gut Health
Diets loaded with processed foods are leading to increased inflammation, reduced control of infection, increased rates of cancer, and increased risk of allergic and auto-inflammatory diseases. A poor diet causes shifts in your body’s microbiome that have lasting effects on your own health and the health of future generations. A mother’s diet may shape her child’s taste preferences in utero, skewing them toward vegetables or sweets, for instance. There’s evidence that children inherit their microbiome from their mother, and part of this may be “seeded into the unborn fetus while still in the womb;” a father’s diet may also impact his child’s future health. Replacing processed foods with whole and fermented foods is crucial for optimal health.
U.S. Congress: Americans Are Too Stupid For GMO Labeling
The U.S. continues to be isolated around the world regarding their lax GMO labeling policy. We are losing millions of dollars in exports because countries such as China, Russian, Japan, Korea, and most of Europe will not buy our products if they are contaminated with GMOs. A recent Congressional meeting, however, concluded that the push to label GMO products in the U.S. was due to the ignorance of the American consumer. One has to wonder where the ignorance actually resides?
Is the Best Honey Really “Local” Honey?
John Thomas does an excellent job of addressing the common belief that healthy honey has to be "local" honey produced nearby where you live. Considering the fact that most honey bees in the United States today are transported all over the country to pollinate commercial agricultural crops dependent on the use of toxic herbicides and pesticides, it is obvious that simply being "local" is not a guarantee of a higher quality product. John investigates the current science on this topic of "local honey," and discusses what issues are far more important in selecting a high quality honey.
Study: Fats More Complex Than Previously Thought – Essential to Good Health
Throughout most of the history of human nutrition, fats and oils (lipids) have been considered healthy and desirable. In the Bible, the most ancient writings known to man and the world's best-selling book, oil is always mentioned in a positive light, whether it be aromatic anointing oils or dietary oils: "He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil..." (Deuteronomy 7:13) "When the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me; When my steps were bathed in butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!" (Job 29:5-6) "There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise..." (Proverbs 21:20) Modern dietary history has been an anomaly in condemning certain dietary fats, especially since the 1970s when official USDA dietary guidelines condemned saturated fats, in spite of their long history of use in human nutrition. Much of modern science is based on Darwinian evolution, however, and faulty premises that often don't hold up in real science. Much of the "science" regarding dietary fats and oils has today been proven false, and the field of lipids (fatty acids) is bringing to light what the ancients inherently already knew: that fats and oils were key nutritional components essential to good health. Evolution and News brings a good commentary on the journal Nature's June cover issue regarding lipids, showing how they are the building blocks of membranes, and pointing to a master designer rather than a result of pure chance via evolution.
Big Pharma to Educate Registered Dietitians on “Benefits” of Artificial Growth Hormones and Antibiotics in “Animal Health”
"Registered Dietitians" (RD) is a title reserved for dietitians and nutritionists registered with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND - formerly ADA). However, this group has been quickly losing credibility the past few years as the influence of the processed food industry and Big Pharma have been clearly exposed in terms of their dietary advice. Much of this corporate sponsorship and influence has been published by Michele Simon in her free online publication: And Now a Word From Our Sponsors - Are America’s Nutrition Professionals in the Pocket of Big Food? We reported earlier this year how continuing education courses sponsored by the AND and Big Processed Food companies held a seminar in California where RDs were informed that "GMOs are safe and gluten intolerance is a fad". As you will read below, Andy Bellatti of Civil Eats is reporting how Elanco–the global pharmaceutical company behind recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), an artificial growth hormone, and various antibiotics used on livestock farms–is reaching out to dietitians to educate them about the "benefits" of artificial growth hormones and antibiotics in "animal health". The AND and registered dietitians have long sought to maintain a monopoly on nutrition advice, and squash freedom of nutrition speech by other groups with different nutritional values. This attempt to monopolize the field of nutrition has suffered some major setbacks, however, in recent months. For example, a recent federal ruling that all qualified nutrition professionals—not just Registered Dietitians—may order therapeutic diets in hospitals, leveled the playing field between alternative nutrition professionals and Registered Dietitians in hospitals, where funding from Medicare and Medicaid is involved.
Tropical Traditions Introduces Black Cumin Seed Oil to its Product Line
Tropical Traditions announced today that it had added Black Cumin Seed Oil (nigella sativa) to its line of premium quality edible oils. The oil originates from Turkey, where some of the world's highest quality black cumin seeds grow. Black cumin seeds have been uncovered in Turkey from the ancient Hittite empire, dating back to 1650 BC. The seeds are rich in nutrients and antioxidants. Nigella sativa is known by various other names such as: black caraway, fennel flower, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander, kaljeera, habbat al-barakah, among others.
Butter is a Health Food
For the past 60 years, saturated fat and cholesterol have been wrongfully vilified as the culprits of heart disease. Refined carbs, sugar, and trans fats found in processed foods are the real enemy—not the saturated fats found in foods such as butter, lard, or eggs. Butter, especially raw butter from grass-fed cows, is rich in beneficial nutrients including vitamins, trace minerals, CLA, and beneficial fats.
Boost Your Antioxidant Levels and Fight Cancer by Eating Bok Choy
Bok choy contains powerful antioxidants like vitamins A and C and phytonutrients such as thiocyanates, lutein, zeaxanthin, isothiocyanates, and sulforaphane, which stimulate detoxifying enzymes and may protect against breast, colon, and prostate cancers.
FDA Backs Down from Consumer Outcry over Raw Artisanal Cheese Restrictions
Does the FDA have a legitimate concern when it comes to aging cheese on wooden boards? Is it true that they can’t be “adequately cleaned or sanitized?” Simply put, no. As thoroughly documented by the American Cheese Society, there are a number of effective ways that wooden boards can be safely cleaned. Some of “the most awarded and well-respected” American artisanal cheeses are aged on wooden boards, since it brings a richer, more complex flavor that can’t be duplicated when aged on other materials. In fact, many artisan cheese recipes are specifically formulated to be aged on wooden boards. This rule could have irreparably harmed thousands of small artisans and businesses. The business about wood boards is just an excuse, a distraction, from the issue at hand, which is the FDA’s determination to harass and even shutter as many artisanal cheese makers as it can. The FDA’s demand that artisanal cheese producers, which depend on friendly bacteria for the taste and nutritional benefits of their product, essentially create a sterile environment, isn’t unlike what’s happened to the rest of our society with a push for sterilization of food and the environment, all the way to the ever-present hand sanitizers. Unfortunately for small cheese producers, the only entities that can successfully produce cheese in a sterile environment are the corporate producers, whose cheese fewer and fewer people want.
Health Benefits of Cashews
Native to Brazil, cashews are crescent-shaped nuts with a sweet flavor and a plethora of uses in the kitchen. Considered third in consumption among all the tree nuts in the world, they're delicious in a wide variety of recipes. Cashews are the number one crop in the world (after almonds), cultivated in more than 30 countries and are a great mineral source, containing 31% of the daily recommended value for copper, along with 23% for manganese, 20% for magnesium and 17% for phosphorus,add to that 12% of the daily recommended value for vitamin K. What does this mean for the body? Studies show that magnesium helps diminish the frequency of migraines, improve cognitive ability, and also lowers blood pressure, which can prevent heart attacks. Copper contains antioxidants that render free radicals harmless. This protects against heart disease and cancer. Enzyme components like tyrosinase convert to the pigment melanin, which provides not just our skin and hair color, but protects our skin from UV damage. Magnesium works with copper to provide bone strength, and with melanin and elastin to provide joint flexibility, giving the nerves just the right tension.
Medicare Ruling Levels Playing Field Among Nutrition Professionals and Registered Dietitians in Hospitals
A landmark federal ruling that all qualified nutrition professionals—not just Registered Dietitians—may order therapeutic diets in hospitals, has leveled the playing field between nutrition professionals and Registered Dietitians. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) ruled that: “all patient diets, including therapeutic diets, must be ordered by a practitioner responsible for the care of the patient, or by a qualified dietitian or qualified nutrition professional as authorized by the medical staff and in accordance with State law.” The ruling adopts the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists’ (BCNS) formal recommendation to CMS that qualified nutrition professionals obtain any privileges granted to Registered Dietitians.
Time Magazine: We Were Wrong About Saturated Fats
Reversing over 50 years of negative press on the "dangers" of saturated fats, Time Magazine has finally admitted that the war on saturated fats was based on bad science and was wrong. Why this sudden change of heart, and can we expect other mainstream media sources to follow suit? Will the USDA dietary guidelines now finally change? Don't count on it. There is much more at stake here than just butter verses margarine. At stake is a multi-billion dollar statin drug industry to lower cholesterol. The cholesterol drug war rages on.
3 Types of Foods You Probably Didn’t Know Have MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is not a nutrient, vitamin, or mineral and has no absolutely no health benefits. It is a processed food and pharmaceutical additive that is an extremely dangerous neurotoxin (excitotoxin) that kills brain cells in the hypothalamus and has been linked to migraines, seizures, ADD/ADHD, heart palpitations and is now officially officially linked to obesity and disorders associated with metabolic syndrome including progressive liver disease. What is more shocking is that it's found in three types of foods most people are not even aware of.