You ought to be congratulated? Really?
No, not if you are feeding margarine to your family! Those ads drive me nuts, especially the cute little kids explaining why their mum has changed them from “unhealthy” butter to “healthy” margarine. Advertisers know how to make parents feel good about healthy choices, it is a shame they don’t actually promote healthy choices!
Eye experts are getting it right, many are warning their patients against eating margarine, because of the vegetable oil in it – which they believe speed up macular degeneration, cardiologists advise their patients the complete opposite, even though some cardiologists have reviewed the evidence; many are still caught up in old beliefs about cholesterol and heart disease, go to Cholesterol, what you need to know.
Dr Paul Beaumont, founding Director of the Macular Disease Foundation Australia, nine years ago warned those with a genetic risk of getting macular degeneration to stop eating anything with vegetable oil in it – eg. margarine. Even though there was an enormous backlash at the time, there have now been multiple studies supporting his recommendations, so his advice remains the same. “Whilst there’s a cloud of suspicion over vegetable oil, they’re best to avoid it, and have a scraping of butter,” Dr Beaumont said.
Of course we are supposed to believe that vegetable oils are bad for your eyes but healthy for your heart! Cardiovascular Disease is a disease of inflammation. Nasty fats such as vegetable oils, oxidised oils/hyrogenated oils cause inflammation – they drive disease!
There is a new book out on the dangers of vegetable oil “Toxic Oil – why vegetable oil will kill you & how to save yourself” by David Gillespie. At the moment many dieticians are advising the public to ignore this book, after all David is not qualified in health, he is a lawyer! The same argument they used when he started telling us rightly about the dangers of sugar/fructose in his book “Sweet Poison”.
I have to disagree, as a lawyer he knows how to gather information and examine it, looking for facts, looking for proof, that is exactly what he does! The problem with being “qualified” is that many are afraid to really look at the truth let alone tell it! They quote the same old tired lines, and most are influenced/sponsored by food companies in one way or another! Who wants to admit that their bad advice is harming people?
I have received my copy of Toxic Oil and although I haven’t read it yet, I am happy to support David in his quest to change the way we think about food and get people to start eating real food again, avoiding sugar and vegetable oil! My advice as a Clinical Nutritionist, start eating real butter and use coconut oil, stay away from margarine!
For more information or personalised advice on a healthy diet contact us on (02) 47 222 111 at the Informed Health Nutritional Wellbeing Centre or www.informedhealth.com.au
Being slim = good health, right?
I see people make this assumption all the time, and they are wrong. Slim does not automatically mean good health!
Don’t get me wrong, being slim is good for your health (as long as you are a healthy weight and you are eating well). I know that in my life, when I am slim, I feel better, I have more energy and overall am in better health.
What is frustrating, is seeing slim people judge overweight people, blaming them for being overweight, when they eat much the same diet. There is an assumption that overweight people are unhealthy but slim people are examples of wonderful health. The other assumption is that overweight people’s issues are caused by “glutton and sloth”, this is far from the truth.
Dr Robert Lustig does a good job of dispelling this myth in his latest book “Fat Chance – the bitter truth about sugar”. Here is an excerpt from the book, (page 7): “Being thin is not a safeguard against metabolic disease or early death. Up to 40 percent of normal-weight individuals harbor insulin resistance – a sign of chronic metabolic disease – which will likely shorten their life expectancy. Of those, 20 percent demonstrate liver fat on an MRI of the abdomen. Liver fat, irrespective of body fat has been shown to be a major risk factor in the development of diabetes”.
As I have explained before, you really are what you eat. The body continually breaks down and renews itself, making new skin cells, new blood cells, new bone etc. To do this well, it requires good quality building materials, especiall good quality fat and protein, along with many vitamins and minerals etc. Before you judge anyone else, have a look at your own diet, are you eating foods that nourish your body and provide great building blocks or are you eating rubbish?
Some foods are what I like to call nutrient foods, they supply energy and wonderful building blocks for the body eg. vegetables, quality meat, coconut oil, organic blocked butter, avocado etc. Some “foods” are anti-nutrients, they add loads of sugar and nasty hydrogenated fats/vegetable oil to the body – all of which are inflammatory and cause harm to the body. This kind of “food” takes important nutrients from the body and puts the body under great stress. Eg. most fast food, frozen dinners, confectionary, biscuits, cereals, bread, cakes, muffins, chocolates, margarine, sugary drinks including soft drinks, fruit juice, flavoured milk, flavoured iced tea etc. If you regularly eat these foods you will always be under-nourished and not have quality building blocks for your body to use! This will ultimately lead to aging and many inflammatory diseases such as heart disease and dementia!
For more information or personalised advice on a healthy diet contact us on (02) 47 222 111 at the Informed Health Nutritional Wellbeing Centre or www.informedhealth.com.au
The joy of eating out with food intolerances/allergies
If you have any food allergies/intolerances you would be familiar with the challenges that can come with eating out. Scanning the menu looking for something that sounds nice but is also safe for you to eat. Often the choices are very limited and you end up spending some time talking to the waiter about options and possible alternative ways of making a dish – only to end up with a disappointing meal that is inedible due to taste or presence of allergic foods.
Last week I went to a Penrith Chamber dinner at the Glenbrook RAAF base, I had given advance warning of my allergies I was pleasantly surprised. They provided a three course meal which was completely allergy free for me which was tasty, filling and even included a dessert. Yes they even made a cake for me which was gluten free, dairy free, almond free, olive oil free and cocoa free – and it was lovely! This is so rare, usually I just watch everyone else eat dessert.
It is important to remember that restaurant staff don’t always understand food groups and allergies. The next day I was at a local cafe for a breakfast meeting. I was running late so instead of saying can I please have omelette with spinach, spanish onion and tomato. No cheese, milk or cream and no bread. I quickly listed what I wanted included in the omelette and said no bread or dairy. Five minutes later a concerned waiter came in to my meeting to chat with me about my choice in breakfast and explained that is was not possible to do a dairy free omelette because omelettes contain eggs!
After explaining to him as patiently as I could that eggs come from chooks not cows; he then went on to explain that they had to use milk, would skim be OK. Starting to lose my patience by now I explained that I was allergic to whey and that it is in all milk. Just make the eggs without milk, they won’t be as fluffy but they will be fine, do you need me to show the chef how to do it? He walked out still looking confused and unsure but ultimately the chef figured it out and my eggs arrived allergy free!
In my case, this is just mildly amusing because my allergic reactions are quite mild, unlike some of my clients who have quite severe and debilitating reactions. Of course this can be deadly for people of suffer from acute anaphylaxis.
Moral to the story is to always spell it out as plainly as possible to wait staff, don’t assume basic knowledge of food groups and allergies.
What have your experiences been good and bad? Any tips for other allergy sufferers about ordering to avoid allergies?
Say NO to Genetically Modified food
In my opinion, Genetically Engineered (GE) otherwise known as Genetically Modified (GM) food has not proven itself to be safe. We are all being used as human guinea pigs. Whether you agree or disagree with GM foods, it is safe to say that once these organisms are released into our environment, there is no turning back. It cannot be undone and we have no real way of knowing the chain of effects that will be caused by each new (Genetically Mofidied Organism) GMO.
Here is some information sourced from The True Food Network available at: http://www.truefood.org.au/questionsandanswers/
What is genetic engineering (GE)?
Also known as genetic modification or manipulation (GM), genetic engineering is a form of biotechnology that allows scientists to move genes between different species. Using various laboratory techniques, scientists can create life forms that could not occur naturally.
Genes are small lengths of DNA, the living blueprint of life found in the cells of all living things. Genetic engineers use viruses, bacteria and a device called a “gene gun” to randomly move genes from one organism into another.
In the genetic engineering of food, these techniques are used to make crop plants grow differently. The resulting life forms are often known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Currently, genetic engineering is mainly used to produce two types of crops.
- Herbicide-tolerant crops: these are genetically engineered to resist herbicide farmers spray on the crop to kill weeds and represent 80% of GE crops.
- Bt crops: these are genetically engineered to produce their own pesticide to kill certain insect pests and represent 20% of GE crops.
What are the health concerns?
Independent safety testing on the health impacts of food derived from GE crops is remarkably limited. Leading health bodies, such as the Public Health Association of Australia and the British Medical Association, have raised concerns about the safety of GE foods and called for stringent testing.
There are three chief concerns with GE food:
- the potential for increased levels of pesticide in our food;
- introduction of unfamiliar or unexpected proteins, toxins and allergins; and
- the use of antibiotic-resistance genes in GE plants.
We simply don’t know if GE food is safe to eat because there have been no long-term studies looking at the impacts of GE food on human health. Studies that have been done raise serious concerns. These studies include a peer-reviewed paper, published in 2007, which found evidence of liver and kidney toxicity in rats fed a variety of GE corn that has been approved for human consumption.
Companies responsible for GE crops, such as Monsanto and Bayer, also produce dangerous and harmful chemicals, many of which have been the subject of legal proceedings. There is good cause for concern when their crops enter the human food supply. The safety assessment of GE foods lacks the strict testing protocols used in the assessment of other novel substances, such as pharmaceutical products and food additives. Furthermore, our food regulator, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), relies solely on industry data in assessing the safety of GE food.
Which foods are currently genetically engineered?
In Australia, GE ingredients in food are derived from four main crops:
- imported corn (or maize) and soy; and
- local and imported canola and cottonseed products.
In 2008, GE canola was grown for the first time in NSW and Victoria, and may enter the food chain. Canola oil is used in a variety of processed foods, and canola meal can be fed to livestock such as chicken, pigs and dairy cattle.
Other GE ingredients may also be found in many essential processed foods such as bread, pastries, snack foods, baked goods, vegetable oils, margarine, flours, starches, sauces, fried foods, soy foods, lecith
The dangers of artificial food colours
Although I have seen it all before, I must admit, I still get shocked when I read food labels. Why does tropical fruit juice need oil as an ingredient? Why do colours need to be added, they offer no benefits but come with great risks. This is a major concern when they are used more often than not in food products aimed at children.
Reported in the news this week – Australian food authorities may ban artificial food colours from confectionery items and breakfast cereals with new scientific evidence linking these colours to the risk of cancer, hyperactivity and allergic reactions in children.
The research was conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in the US and it recommended a ban on the common colours.
Lets hope that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) take action on this issue finally!
For more information on food additives: http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/ and http://www.chemicalmaze.com/
Reviews:
- Fantastic, Life Changing! April 10, 2013
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- I am now in the best health of my life March 23, 2013
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