For whom is the diet balanced?
In the nearly three to four decades that the balanced diet has been promoted by Government and Private sectors, the incidence of chronic illness conditions has increased by approximately 40%. In terms of killer diseases, Obesity and Diabetes have increased by 42% and 300% respectively, Cancer is escalating out of control, especially breast cancer for which there has been no decrease in mortality rates whatsoever for the past 60 years.

The balanced diet is graphically illustrated as a pyramid from the top listing:

Dairy & eggs

Protein

Vegetables & Fruit

Cereal, grains, bread, pasta

These are designed to supply Carbohydrates 60%. Protein 20%. Fats 20%. The pyramid is the brain-child? of the United States Department of Agriculture.  Surely not vested interests?

Properly conducted nutritional research shows that a diet consisting of 40% Carbohydrates (Low Glycemic) 30% Protein (Low Fat) and 30% Fats (as mainly omega-3 rich monounsaturated oils) will prevent and effectively treat obesity, heart disease and diabetes as well as most other illness conditions. Research also shows that the high consumption of breads, cereal grains  and pasta tend to upset the body's Glucagon to Insulin response leading to hyperinsulinism (too high) and consequent Insulin resistance (diabetes). Check this out via http://www.drsears.com/

Now for the balanced diet

Digestion and the Myth of The Balanced Diet

Health authorities have promoted the balanced diet for many decades. Since the National Academy Of Sciences in the United States released the nutrient analysis of foods (1946), with regard to vitamins and minerals and which foods contained them, to afford good nutrition to people in good health, all western countries have promulgated the Recommended Dietary Allowances/Intake, and in particular, where to obtain the allowances from. The Food Groups are:

Dairy products including Eggs

Meat, Fish and Poultry

Vegetables and Fruit

Bread, Cereal Grains and Pasta

There can be little doubt that many of these foods have sustained humans, at least through the last 30,000 to 40,000 years, with some variations. In fact, the protein foods such as meats, eggs, fish and to a lesser chronological extent the vegetables and fruits have done so since the beginning of mankind, although the types of produce differed slightly, and sometimes markedly, from today's fare. For instance, almost all of the meat eaten even a few hundred years back was "game", that is, wild, undomesticated animals with a low saturated fat ratio, rather than a high saturated fat ratio. However, one would be more than justified in asking: for whom is the diet balanced?
 

The greatest dietary variable has been in the form of grains, cereals, and milk. Man did not begin to cultivate grains until about 6,000 years ago. These were basic grains like Spelt, Amaranth, Quinoa. Corn, as we know it today along with, oats, barley, rye and wheat are differing from the ancient grains. The consumption of wheat is comparatively, very recent, in the diet of western societies. Especially  in Anglo-Celtic-Saxon terms. Earlier forms of bread, usually unleavened (yeast-free), were produced from spelt, barley, and yellow corn. Many cultures today, still rely on these early staples for their daily bread. It is important to recall that these three grains, the early breads of our ancestors, were more like cakes or biscuits. One such bread was the famous griddle-fried "Bannocks", made from ground oatmeal and consumed by the Irish Scots.

The first wheat eaten, by those we know as Celts, was not until the mid-nineteenth century. The Irish were first exposed to wheat, as a staple grain for bread making in 1845 during a potato famine. As a consequence the Irish have the highest incidence of Celiac Disease (gluten enteropathy) in the world. Celiac Disease is a chronic intestinal disorder caused by intolerance to gluten. In contrast, the people of the Middle East have used wheat for thousands of years and do not manifest a high incidence of Celiac Disease..

Wheat intolerance is a very common problem in our society although seldom recognized as such, affecting predominantly Anglo-Celtic societies, and more certainly those migrants from Asia and the Orient. Because most of these latter-day citizens have never been exposed to wheat per se, until arrival in the adopted country. Research shows that the O, A and B blood types are most often intolerant to wheat and other grains due to genetic intolerance to the dietary lectins contained in those foods. That, by the way, approximates 70% of the population. Recall we are exhorted to eat from 6 to 8 servings of cereal grains, pasta and bread daily.

What is about to follow may be radical by established dietary regimens. The changes in diet would have far reaching implications and complications, especially monetary complications for both the farmer and the food manufacturer. But one thing is certain, this information has been thoroughly researched and is well documented by the most reliable and impeccable authorities.

Man The Hunter Gatherer
Anthropological research, and medical anthropology, has confirmed that early man was a "hunter gatherer"; lived frugally on wild game, which often required sustained physical effort and performance to achieve a "kill". In the earlier pre-tool age he would have eaten the vital organs rather than the steaks for which he lacked appropriate butchering tools. He/she grubbed for roots, tubers, vegetables, gathered wild berries, fruits, herbs and seeds. It is almost certain that foods were eaten one at a time; that is, as single foods. Can you imagine our early forbears cutting off a roast of meat and taking it back to the cave where the women cooked it with roasted potato, pumpkin, carrot or onion and then served it with a green vegetable, all liberally covered with gravy, to be placed one, two or three ingredients at a time on the fork and shoveled into the mouth, then to be washed down with a glass of good red? Is not that how many of us dine today? And as a consequence of this, and many other nutritional errors exacerbated by living within an industrialized environment.

We now live in a society which boasts a chronic illness average of 66% of the population, increasing at something like 10% per decade. These include, in particular, the killer diseases of heart, stroke, cancer, liver and obesity. The less fatal, but severely debilitating diseases including: osteoporosis, arthritis, asthma, Parkinson's disease, Hodgkin's disease, Addison's disease, digestive disorders and musculoskeletal disorders. Then we have the latter day exotics, which our grandparents had never heard of. These include multiple sclerosis, twentieth century syndrome, myeloencephalopathy and many, many more.

Diseases Of The Affluent
If we look at the documented research of anthropology and more particularly medical anthropology and go back in time to the Paleolithic period which existed about 40,000 years ago, we find that the people living in that period did not suffer the killer diseases or many of the chronic conditions which exist in our society today. Arteriosclerosis, stroke, cancer, obesity, liver cirrhosis, hypertension and diabetes did not exist. In fact, coming forward to 1940, research shows that diabetes did not exist in the Native Americans whereas today, among certain tribes such as the Pima Indian, the incidence of diabetes mellitus is higher than for any other society or race. Also rare among the hunter-gatherers was and is still is, osteoporosis, hearing loss and dental caries.

We may, of course, discuss some of our latter day diseases. Arthritis did occur as osteoarthritis, probably some asthma, but not on the scale as we know it today. Most of the other chronic conditions were yet to come. Of course there were some birth defects, some mental disease and so on but not on an epidemic scale. As against this they did suffer life threatening and life-taking infections, which rather developed over the millennia.

What is important is that these chronic diseases of western society are still rare in primitive and even what we call semi-advanced third world countries, where the problem is more one of famine and consequential starvation. Many other factors may of course contribute to our current life-style that were non-existent forty thousand or more, or even one hundred years back including atmospheric pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, and even the measurement of time by watches and clocks, which contribute to our mental stressors, but this chapter is about diet so:

Man The Adaptive Animal
Let us now skip briefly to genetics; it is very probable, and well acknowledged, that there have been no changes in the genes of man over the past 30,000 years. We do know that changes in gene frequency result from mutation, which is an extremely slow process, or from selection and genetic drift leading to redistribution of the genes that already exist. Changes due to this process of selection can be very rapid indeed.

Through anthropological research, we can be sure that our skeletons have not altered much at all since Cro-Magnon man who lived some 30,000 years ago, to the present day. The exception is that Cro-Magnon man had much larger bone mass than modern man. It has been established that the Paleolithic diet probably offered on a daily basis a calcium intake of some 1,800mg. And a vitamin C intake of about 475m

Since the advent of agriculture 10,000 years past, and more particularly, since the establishment in the last 500 years of cities to house the people necessary to operate the industrial machinery, we have been exposed to a great many changes in both diet and life-style. Because, prior to industrialisation, man habitually lived in a rural environment.

Scientists in the field of human nutrition and medical anthropology seem to agree that if the conditions of life of an animal deviate from those which prevailed in the environment in which the species evolved "there is a distinct likelihood that the animal so affected will be less well suited to the new conditions than to those to which it has become genetically adapted through natural selection, and consequently, some signs of maladjustment may be anticipated." Without doubt, such a principal will have a bearing on both the physical and the mental processes and health of the individual.

This can be seen today by those old enough and astute enough to make the observation in the difference in the physical build of both sexes (youth) in our society compared with the physical appearance of youth during the poverty stricken years of the 1920's and 30's. The boys of today are considerably taller and weigh more whilst the girls mature sexually, at an earlier age than perhaps their parents or certainly, their grandparents did. However, a price has been paid. Antisocial behaviour which was practiced by an occasional individual or rare, street gang in the pre 1940's, has today, become a major problem in our society. Mental and emotional illness and behavioural problems abound. Chronic disease conditions now afflict the majority 66% of the 15 to 24 year age group.

In terms of foods available and commonly consumed, man has undergone extremely rapid changes in the past 50 years or so. The result of these changes in diet, environment and social pressures may affect both physical and mental function including behaviour.

Maladaptive Addiction
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had no cereal grains, no milk or milk bi-products, other than human milk, which was available at frequent intervals to the infant for the first three years, and few vegetables, as we know them today. Meat of the wild game variety, fish, and some wild berries, and fruit were the main fare of the day augmented by roots, leaves, tubers and vine fruits. Today's balanced diet should supply meat or fish, cereal grains, mainly as bread and breakfast cereals, milk and milk products and fruit and vegetables usually in abundant supply. We are urged by health authorities to consume several portions from each group daily.

In fact, for many people things are somewhat different. There are currently in excess of 3000 manufactured or processed foods on the supermarket shelf available to today's consumer. And consumed they are. It has also been estimated that the average diet may contain as much as 2 kilos of disordered chemicals, per annum, that is disordered by the producer, and/or the manufacturer. These include pesticides, rodenticides, herbicides, preservatives, coloring agents, fungicides, antibiotics, emulsifiers and thousands more. Even our drinking water, once obtained clean from a stream or well, is treated with chlorine and other toxic substances in addition to being contaminated by many and varied hazardous chemicals and heavy metals.

Carbohydrates
By far the most commonly consumed foods in our society, now, today, are those produced and prepared from and with white flour and sugar. In other words from refined carbohydrates. As an experiment, go to any "take-away" fast food hall and see how many foods? you can buy that do not contain wheat in any form. I often ponder whether or not the term "fast food" refers to the bowel transit time, because almost all fast foods lack the dietary fiber necessary for normal (time-wise) bowel function.

Once off the breast (usually within six months of birth) our children may become hooked for life on sugar and to a lesser extent salt. Many children refuse to eat their "veggies" simply because they are too bland in a food chain which offers so much piquancy. It is well documented in the specialized field of "Clinical Ecology" that we may become addicted (mal-adaptive addiction) to those foods to which we are actually intolerant or allergic. A good analogy is cigarette smoking; the first one makes you feel absolutely rotten, but the addiction is soon established, ten to fifty a day and you no longer feel the side effects. However, the disease process goes on unchecked. Sooner or later a chronic disease condition will manifest. The same applies to food if you are maladapted to it. Many cancers are the result of food allergy, and other cancers (epithelial) may be a result of vitamin/mineral deficiency, as we will discuss a little later.

Matter Of Balance
Some nutritionists will argue that provided we consume a balanced diet there is nothing to worry about. Why then, on average, do more than 70% of our population suffer one or more chronic illness conditions? It can't all be due to faulty life-style or genetic inheritance.

Not so many years ago the head nutritionist at Sydney's (Australia) St Vincent's Hospital went public with the statement that only about 2% of Australians might need extra vitamins. At that time the latest health survey (ABS) showed that 47% of us suffered one or more chronic illness conditions. Any scientist schooled in clinical and applied nutrition would be suspect if they suggested that any person with a chronic illness condition did not have an increased need for one if not all nutrients. The lady in question was obviously a product of a myopic education system.

Let us hypothesize that most Australians do, most of the time, consume a balanced diet. And therein may lie the problem. For what, or whom, is the diet balanced? 70% of the world's populations are not genetically (biochemically) adapted to cow's milk. An equal number are probably to some degree not genetically adapted to the lectins of many plant foods especially wheat and other grains.

NB the statistics for Australia most certainly may be extrapolated to the USA and UK and many other westernized and/or industrial societies.

Our own need for adaptation has far exceeded most other countries. Only in the past forty years have we been exposed to soybean products. Staple to the Chinese and Japanese, and many other eastern races, soy has become a daily part of our diet. Well may you say, but I don't use soy sauce or tofu! Then have a look at the protein enrichment component of many packaged foods; bread, cakes, biscuits and you find soy-protein as an additive. Soy sauce is used by the liter in most Asian/oriental restaurants in this country.

 Some years ago when doing laboratory work investigating food allergies I was amazed at the prevalence of allergy or sensitivity to Soya bean. But, without doubt, the number one allergen in our food chain is wheat and, to a lesser extent, all of the other commonly consumed grains with cow's milk and oranges, peanuts and apples all in the top ten.

 We have also been exposed, like other western societies, to more than 3000 new chemicals and maybe many more thousands of manufactured foods, most of which most of us appear to handle without much problem. It may be opportune to recall that we (en mass) have only recently moved from a rural life including fresh farm produce to industrialised (urban) community life with attendant stressors.

The time was when we consumed many plant foods only "in season"; now we can consume most of them every day, year round. Time was when we salivated over a roast chicken maybe once, or at most, twice a year. Say no more!

One substance that the most commonly consumed grains have in common to one degree or another is phytic acid, commonly referred to as phytates.

The major function of phytic acid is as an "anti-nutrient". Phytates impair protein digestion by interaction with our digestive enzymes to form insoluble complexes that are less likely to be broken down by the very essential proteolytic (protein splitting) enzymes than would be ordinary protein in either an acid or (usually) alkaline medium. Phytic acid chelates (grabs onto) and binds with zinc, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and copper - all essential elements to the function of the human body.

These macro and trace elements are essential for many hundreds of enzyme functions and in the case of zinc, which is essential for a known eighty metallo-enzyme functions; for the synthesis of DNA that is very much a part of our immune function.

However, it is with calcium that we have our major brief.

Calcium Functions: This mineral is responsible for two important functions. The first is structure, that is, that each and every cell in the body, with few exceptions, has a skeleton. We call this the cytoskeleton and the job of the cytoskeleton is to keep the cells together. These tiny skeletons differ in their degree of rigidity, and in some parts they must be extremely rigid. In these locations they include crystals of calcium, because calcium is strong, is easily dissolvable and transportable. It is these very qualities that make calcium essential for strong bones. Therefore calcium is the major constituent of bones and teeth.

The second important function of calcium is communication. Our body cells are constantly communicating with each other via special chemical codes. Thus assisting in the function and maintenance of body tissue.

Cellular Proliferation
Part of this communication responsibility is sending "chemical votes" which tell a cell when, or when not to divide. This is a most vital function. A normal cell in tissue called epithelium- which is the tissue that lines the inside of our intestines, our skin and which lines the ducts of a woman's breast- collects votes transmitted along the calcium channel, constantly receiving on whether to divide from an adjoining cell. To shorten a very lengthy biochemical story, it is sufficient to know that when calcium levels in the body are low the communications break down, or disappear altogether.

When this happens the consequences are dire indeed and include heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and cancer of epithelial tissue.

Calcium is also essential for blood clotting, heart rhythm, nerve tranquillization and nerve transmission, muscle growth and contraction and the permeability of cell membranes.

It is timely to recall that our major killer diseases are heart disease and cancer. Both, irrevocably linked, to calcium metabolism. In the case of heart disease, and in conjunction with magnesium and potassium, for that most vital of heart functions cardiac rhythm. So calcium deficiency, as occurs naturally in soft water supplies, is linked to heart disease. And again in the case of the epithelial tissue (I bet you're ahead of me already), when calcium is deficient, the cells do not get the vote on whether or not to divide, and divide they do, thereby losing their strength of unity and allowing the first step in the invasion by cancer. It is only this, the first of three phases in the evolution of a cancer, that we are concerned with. A phase that is known as the proliferative phase which, uncontrolled, may move into a massive (hyperplasia) scale, but which cannot effect with adequate systemic levels of calcium.

Though not conclusive, a correlation between calcium deficiency and high blood pressure has also been established.

Let us look at breast cancer a little more closely. Worldwide studies have shown an irrefutable link between cancer of the breast (and other epithelial tissue) and exposure to sunlight. That is, sunlight filtered through atmospheric smog. What is in sunlight? Ultraviolet rays, which penetrate the skin of the human body to create Vitamin D, essential to calcium metabolism.

It is a scientific fact that cancer, especially breast cancer, is rare in Africa. It is also rare in areas where sunlight is of short duration such as the Arctic Circle. So where is the connection? The connection is vitamin D. Those who live in northern regions, Japanese, Icelanders and others, eat fish as staple food and the fish they consume are high in calcium and very high in vitamin D. Okay! So Australia has plenty of sunlight just like Africa. Most of us get some fish on a regular basis although not often of the kind high in vitamin D, like cod. But there is one other worm in the barrel; Environmental Pollution, to the extent that chemicals in the atmosphere interfere with a select part of the sun's ultraviolet light that is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D. Conversely, too much ultraviolet will cause skin cancer, a double edged sword. That's life!

We have specified breast cancer merely as an example, there are other factors including lack of a pregnancy and lactation, estrogen metabolism disorders, which may also predispose a woman to breast cancer. However, the list for calcium deficiency related cancer includes all epithelial tissue especially the intestinal tract.

What we have is a multifactoral loss of calcium from the Australian diet. What are some of those factors?

The anti-nutrient list for calcium includes:

Lack of exercise, excessive stress, too much oxalic and phytic acids, too much saturated fat, and excessive phosphorous and excessive fluoride. A common source of phosphorous is soft drinks. Coca cola and like beverages are way up top in the top ten most purchased items from the supermarket shelf.

Another insidious poison in Coca Cola, other cola beverages and coffee, and to a lesser extent tea, is caffeine, which causes calcium to be excreted into the urine. Many pharmaceuticals contain caffeine; in fact there may be nearly one thousand over-the-counter drugs, which contain caffeine, a drug of addiction. Many women looking for an appetite suppressant to lose weight purchase over-the-counter tablets containing 100mg of caffeine per tablet.

Other calcium antagonists include salt (sodium chloride), alcohol, aspirin, antibiotics, antacids containing aluminium, corticosteroids (calcium or beta blockers), the heavy metals so often in our drinking water - lead, cadmium, mercury and fluoride - and, of course, intravenous feeding.

Add to this list a calcium deficiency in our diet and other critical biochemical factors such as a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach or low magnesium intake or low vitamin C levels and it is easy to see the problems we face. Recall that heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis are epidemic in our society as is mental emotional illness including anxiety, which in our clinical experience often responds rapidly to the correct calcium therapy, i.e. Calcium Citrate,or hydroxiapetite 400 mg twice daily. Given the factors essential to proper calcium metabolism poses the question How can drinking cows milk prevent osteoporosis? The calcium in cows milk is co-factored by phosphorous, magnesium, potassium and zinc.

Just in case we have missed something; that a dietary lack of calcium coupled with anti-nutrients, especially phytates from wheat, and more especially wheat-bran, and other grains, plus the other anti-nutrients common to our way of life exacerbated by environmental pollution are very likely major contributors to the abovementioned epidemic killers and other debilitating diseases.

The Plus and The Minus
It is just as true to say that all nutrients have their specific and shared augmenting nutrients and factors and their specific anti-nutrients and factors. The most common shared anti-nutrients include, tobacco, coffee, alcohol, excess phosphorous, unmanaged stress, and in the case of the minerals we must include phytic and oxalic acids, aluminium, excess copper, excessive sugar and saturated fat.

More on wheat and food allergy. It is the protein fraction of most foods to which the susceptible individual may be, allergic or more often intolerant (allergies are usually for life). The scenario is as follows with apologies to all Guru's of biochemistry:

The digestion of protein begins in the stomach, under the influence of hydrochloric acid, pepsins and other enzymes. The protein substances (polypeptides) left over from this action then move into the small intestine where the acid medium is neutralized by bicarbonates (potassium and sodium bicarbonate) secreted by the pancreas. It is in this medium that the proteins are then finally broken down by proteolytic enzymes, also released by the pancreas, and converted to amino acids, the building blocks of protein. These amino acids then travel via the portal circulation to the liver for distribution to all body tissues as protein builders.

In the event of a lack of hydrochloric acid and /or proteolytic enzyme activity we have partially broken down protein molecules (polypeptides), which are such microscopic molecules, that a thousand can fit on a pinhead. Being so tiny these polypeptides can penetrate any and all body tissues including the brain blood barrier, which is impermeable to most substances.

When this occurs the polypeptides (now called allergens) may invade any body tissue, especially epithelial, and may set up one of two reactions. The first is:

Immunological and in this instance we suffer allergic reactions of inflammation and itching such as hay fever, skin rashes and so on. Almost always pain free. The second reaction is:

Kinin-mediated, this is a tissue hormone, which causes inflammation and eventual pain manifesting as a diversity of painful complaints like headache, migraine, stomach pain, joint pain, etc.

Uncontrolled, the Kinin-mediated bombardment of lysosomal tissue can, and does, cause cancer at the site of cellular penetration.

Fortunately, on diagnosis, these portentous reactions can be aborted by the simple administration of proteolytic enzymes and bicarbonates at meal times.

Diagnostics
A simple and fairly accurate method of determining acid/alkali function was devised by one of the founding members of the prestigious International College Of Applied Nutrition (a dentist) it needs only an inexpensive strip of litmus paper with a pH of 6.0 to 8.0. Provided that no food or drink has been consumed in the previous two hours the normal saliva pH pre-meal should approximate 6.4, this is sufficient evidence of adequate stomach acid levels 1.0 to 4.0. Post meal by a half hour the saliva pH should measure not less than 7.0, which is evidence of adequate alkali function in the duodenum.

Consistent recurrent indigestion is not something to be taken lightly; in the first place, any form of mal (bad) digestion must compromise the cellular integrity of the individual concerned through malabsorption and faulty or inadequate quantity and quality of nutrients, and in the longer term we have the possible consequence of carcinogenesis; not only through food allergy but through a lack of essential nutrients, especially antioxidant vegetables, in sufficient quantity and quality, necessary to maintain healthy cellular resistance to dis-ease.

Almost all chronic illness conditions are as a result of dietary malnutrition leading to weakened cellular resistance. This is irrefutable. Almost all deaths include cellular malnutrition. For instance an older person suffers a hip fracture and consequent early death. Reason: Calcium deficiency. In the case of Heart Death. Reason: Vitamins C, E, Folic Acid and magnesium deficiency. Most cancer sufferers die not of the cancer, rather of cellular malnutrition on a massive scale.

The latest matter for concern in the health field concerns not only humankind but also at least some sea mammals such as the whale. This is because of the fact that, in particular, male sperm counts are down to dangerous levels in terms of reproductive potential. Evidence points to a poisoning of the organism by many industrial chemicals.

Many concerned people have been warning this for a couple of decades at least. I believe that, in addition, a correlation exists between water supplied by copper plumbing and reduced human sperm motility/fertility. Simplified, this is due to the fact that copper competes with zinc in the human body and 90% of zinc in the male is located in the prostate gland.

A major role for zinc in both male and female is the maintenance of reproductive function. The old galvanized pipes supplied some zinc and did not compete with systemic zinc levels.

A small study I conducted in 1984 showed that 53% of persons tested demonstrated low zinc levels with relatively high copper levels. A simple method of ascertaining zinc status is to look at the fingernails, particularly the thumb on the dominant hand. Longitudinal ridging (fine lines) is indicative of mild to moderate zinc deficiency, whilst horizontal ridging (washboard effect) is indicative of significant or advanced zinc deficiency. Flaking, breaking nails, split hair ends, and recurrent skin problems are all indications for zinc supplementation. A zinc taste test may be available from practitioners and pharmacies.

Regardless of the label instructions, only take zinc last thing at night for optimal absorption, and only those zinc supplements containing zinc gluconate, amino acid chelate, magnesium and manganese amino acid chelate in an 8:1 ratio with disordered B6 for best results.

Your Health Is In Your Hands

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What If It has All Been a Fat Lie
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Your health is in your hands