Nutrition
From the Guardian:
"Eating disorder charities are reporting a rise in the number of people suffering from a serious psychological condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating.
The condition, orthorexia nervosa, affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated."
As someone who has been involved with nutrition for decades, who had a weekly radio program on the subject, the paragraph above struck me as either a parody or an attack by the food industry. However, I've always been a believer in balance when it comes to healthy eating (extremism doesn't lead to health in any areas) and I started remembering all the nut-cases I had to deal with when I did the radio program so I decided to see what the guy who came up with the term orthorexia nervosa had to say. It's a very interesting, thoughtful account. The only problem with it (and it's not its fault) is that the anti-health food forces can easily twist it to their purposes.
Here's the beginning of his article:
Health Food Junkie
Obsession with dietary perfection can sometimes do more harm than good, says one who has been there.
by Steven Bratman, M.D.
Originally published in the October 1997 issue of YOGA JOURNAL.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
Twenty years ago I was a wholehearted, impassioned advocate of healing through food. In those days I was a cook and organic farmer at a large commune in upstate New York. Today, as a physician who practices alternative medicine, I still almost always recommend dietary improvement to my patients. How could I not? A low-fat, semivegetarian diet helps prevent nearly all major illnesses, and more focused dietary interventions can dramatically improve specific health problems. But I'm no longer the true believer in nutritional medicine I used to be.
Where once I was enthusiastically evangelical, I've grown cautious. I can no longer console myself with the hope that one day a universal theory of eating will be discovered that can match people with the diets right for them. And I no longer have faith that dietary therapy is a uniformly wholesome intervention. I have come to regard it as I do drug therapy: as a useful treatment with serious potential side-effects.
My disillusionment began in the old days at the commune. As staff cook I was required to prepare several separate meals at once to satisfy the insistent and conflicting demands of our members. All communes attract idealists; ours attracted food idealists. On a daily basis I encountered the chaos of contradictory nutritional theories..."
And click here for the rest of the article.
"Eating disorder charities are reporting a rise in the number of people suffering from a serious psychological condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating.
The condition, orthorexia nervosa, affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated."
As someone who has been involved with nutrition for decades, who had a weekly radio program on the subject, the paragraph above struck me as either a parody or an attack by the food industry. However, I've always been a believer in balance when it comes to healthy eating (extremism doesn't lead to health in any areas) and I started remembering all the nut-cases I had to deal with when I did the radio program so I decided to see what the guy who came up with the term orthorexia nervosa had to say. It's a very interesting, thoughtful account. The only problem with it (and it's not its fault) is that the anti-health food forces can easily twist it to their purposes.
Here's the beginning of his article:
Health Food Junkie
Obsession with dietary perfection can sometimes do more harm than good, says one who has been there.
by Steven Bratman, M.D.
Originally published in the October 1997 issue of YOGA JOURNAL.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
Twenty years ago I was a wholehearted, impassioned advocate of healing through food. In those days I was a cook and organic farmer at a large commune in upstate New York. Today, as a physician who practices alternative medicine, I still almost always recommend dietary improvement to my patients. How could I not? A low-fat, semivegetarian diet helps prevent nearly all major illnesses, and more focused dietary interventions can dramatically improve specific health problems. But I'm no longer the true believer in nutritional medicine I used to be.
Where once I was enthusiastically evangelical, I've grown cautious. I can no longer console myself with the hope that one day a universal theory of eating will be discovered that can match people with the diets right for them. And I no longer have faith that dietary therapy is a uniformly wholesome intervention. I have come to regard it as I do drug therapy: as a useful treatment with serious potential side-effects.
My disillusionment began in the old days at the commune. As staff cook I was required to prepare several separate meals at once to satisfy the insistent and conflicting demands of our members. All communes attract idealists; ours attracted food idealists. On a daily basis I encountered the chaos of contradictory nutritional theories..."
And click here for the rest of the article.
Calvé, one of the largest mayonnaise producers in Europe just announced that they will only be buying the eggs of free range hens from now on. That's 475 million eggs per year. Supermarkets in Europe have already banned caged hens' eggs from their fresh eggs sections. Delacre, the Belgian cookie company, and McDonald's Europe, as well as Ikea, Panos, and Quick also only use free range eggs. Calvé says that the change will cost them 20% more but that they have improved the production chain and will not be passing the cost along. In 2012 it will be illegal in Europe to cage hens and chickens. However "large cages" will still be allowed.
Eggs here are so much better tasting and looking than American eggs. The yolks are deep orange due to the greens the hens get to eat on their range. So, how about it America? Free your chickens!
Eggs here are so much better tasting and looking than American eggs. The yolks are deep orange due to the greens the hens get to eat on their range. So, how about it America? Free your chickens!
According to an article in this week's edition of The British Journal of Psychiatry, a study has shown that a person on a diet of refined foods and deep fried foods (in other words, not one specific nutrient but an overall diet) is 58% more likely to experience depression than a person on a whole food diet which heavily features fruit, vegetables and fish. Antioxidants, anyone?
As reported by the American Physiological Society, research at the University of Southern Carolina and Clemson University has highlighted the anti-viral effects of quercetin, an anti-oxidant found in many fruits and vegetables including red onions, apple skin, blueberries, broccoli, grapes, tea, and wine. Following experiments done with cell cultures that had indicated anti-viral potential and knowing that fatigue can raise the susceptibility to infection, the researchers formed two groups of lab mice. One group was exercised intensely to cause fatigue, the other wasn’t. In each group, half received quercetin in their food, and the other half didn’t. They were then all exposed to the common flu virus H1N1. Among the mice who had worked out, the half that didn’t receive quercetin fell ill more quickly and more easily than the those fortified with quercetin. And those who had been fortified fell ill at the same rate as the non-tired mice. Furthermore, among those non-tired mice, those who had been given quercetin resisted significantly better to the infection than those not fortified.
When I was doing nutrition programming on the radio in New York during the 70s, suggestions that food could prevent disease were considered to be lunatic fringe concepts by most of the educational mainstream.
When I was doing nutrition programming on the radio in New York during the 70s, suggestions that food could prevent disease were considered to be lunatic fringe concepts by most of the educational mainstream.