Monday, March 24, 2014

Cows making methane? There's more to the story

Yep, no doubt you’ve read about the massive levels of methane that herds of cattle emit and their likely contribution to green house gas levels. But there’s more to it and it may come as a surprise. It seems that we could actually reduce the CO2 levels if we got cattle back onto the land, let them graze naturally (no more feed lots) and let their symbiotic relationship with the earth restore barren, unproductive lands to verdant pasture (and to more photosynthesis which in turn leads to lower levels of carbon dioxide)!

To make it simple, look no further than the work of Judith Schwartz, freelance writer and author of the book Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth. Judith recounts the findings of Allan Savory of the Savory Institute in Boulder Colorado:  "It occurred to him that the land needed the animals in the same way that the animals needed the land. He began to really observe how animals functioned on land, and came to understand the really intricate dynamics, the system, that had been naturally in operation.

Basically, when grazing animals graze, they're nibbling on the grasses in a way that exposes their growth points to sunlight and stimulates growth... Their trampling [of the land also] did several things: it breaks any capped earth so that the soil is aerated. It presses in seeds [giving them] a chance to germinate, so you have a greater diversity of plants. [Grazing herds] also press down dying and decaying grasses, so that they can be better acted upon by microorganisms in the soil. It keeps the decaying process going. Their waste also fertilizes the soil."

Makes perfect sense to me, and presumably those chooks that you might now have running around you back garden are doing much the same thing!


Friday, March 21, 2014

Bring on the Zinc Taste Test

I’ve been saying it for 30 years, but now it’s official - kids who prefer sweeter foods also prefer saltier foods AND the researchers say taste preferences seem to be linked to periods of increased bone growth.

But will the researchers ever connect the dots? Those kids with compromised taste sensation (i.e. zinc deficiency) will always go for the sweeter/saltier tastes, simply because the more subtle flavours of fruits and vegetables are lost on them. And no points for guessing what mineral is involved (along with calcium, magnesium and Vitamin D for bone growth) - of course it’s zinc!

Solution for those kids making the lousy food choices - get the Zinc Taste Test, confirm zinc deficiency, then supplement with a liquid zinc product. Switch to supplementing with tablets when zinc status (and optimal taste sensation) are restored. Remember to add a robust combination of other trace elements and vitamins - dose daily!


Simple, cheap and guaranteed to get kids interested in eating corn and cauliflower instead of crisps and chocolate!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Fast food - a drain on the public purse in more ways than one

Well we might have seen the last of ex-NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempts to improve the diets of the city’s residents, but maybe McDonalds can step into the breach.

Recently, diet and lifestyle advice appeared on the McDonalds employees’ website that could potentially put the nail in the coffin of the fast food giant if folk were to heed it. The advice suggests that salads and water are preferred, healthier options, citing fries+burgers as an “unhealthy choice”.

But if McDonalds know that when employees regularly eat what they serve, the payouts in sickness benefits down the track could cripple the company, they needn't worry. The low wages received by McDonalds employees (in the US at least, 70 percent of whom are adults, not high school students), also means that at least 50 percent of fast food workers are enrolled in some form of public assistance program, costing the government $7 billion annually. So the fast food companies who continue to serve up unhealthy rubbish and underpay workers are well and truly subsidised by the US taxpayer. And WalMart is another US behemoth whose workers scramble for extra government benefits due to the pittance they receive as wages, yet the company trots out the likes of Hugh Jackman and Tom Cruise to spruik its "virtues" at the AGM. Can things get any crazier?




Thursday, March 13, 2014

You don't say??

A healthy diet packed with fruit, vegetables, and omega-3 rich fish could help to reduce the risk of pre-term babies, according to new research.

And researchers were actually paid to "discover" this? Stating the bleeding obvious, self-evident and common-sense if you ask me! While they were about it, they might have mentioned the other issues that would be resolved if those healthy eating habits extended across the preconception period and included the prospective dad.

Of course the knowledge that healthy parents make healthy babies only dates back a few thousand years ... what might be valuable instead of re-inventing the wheel, would be ways to encourage all prospective parents to act on this knowledge. Now that's research that would have some real value!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Bring back the butter and cheese

So glad I never gave up my butter and cheese! Weston A. Price was right ... all those years ago when he observed the ill-effects of modern diets (refined, white and sugar-laden) on communities around the world, he maintained the importance of the fat component of the diet, as it contained the fat-soluble Vitamin A which he considered an activator!

Weston Price noted that the traditional diets of every community under study (and these ranged from Pacific Islanders to Inuits of the Arctic plus many in between) contained at least ten times as much vitamin A as the American diet of his day. His work revealed that vitamin A is present only in animal fats and necessary for the assimilation of minerals in the diet. He noted that the foods held sacred by the peoples he studied, such as spring butter, fish eggs and shark liver, were exceptionally rich in vitamin A.

It’s only taken scientists 80 years to come (partly) to their senses. Sadly, during that time, several generations have been guided to inappropriate choices of poly-unsaturated vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates as a low-fat, reduced-fat substitute for saturated animal fat (and coconut oil) in the mistaken belief these were healthier choices. 


It's such a simple mantra, but one I keep repeating ... "healthy food from healthy soil"! Still amazes me that we could honestly think the man-made rubbish could improve on nature’s natural bounty - whether that bounty be plant, animal, bird or fish. 


Friday, March 7, 2014

Remember when nuts were a no-no?

Now nuts are good for us and so is fat. Or to be more specific, almonds and their skins may selectively boost bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the gut, and of course most folk now distinguish between good fat and bad fat and those good fats include nuts, avocado, butter, olive oil, coconut oil (oh and yes, you will probably remember when that was a bad guy too)!

So if you’re confused you can bet your life you’re not nearly as confused as the marketing teams who have been flogging the no-fat, low-fat, reduced-fat horse for years and who are now required to put a different spin on things.

My advice...nature has put everything your body and brain need into the whole food, so a diet of whole, unadulterated food, grown on healthy soil, eaten fresh and when the food is in season. But how many of us can truthfully say our meals tick all of those boxes?

Therefore nutritional supplements definitely have a place, at any age or life stage, since they provide an ‘insurance policy’ when the reality of modern diets falls short of the ideal. And when you’re choosing supplements, you also need certainty about the research supporting the formulation, the source of the raw materials and the credentials of the manufacturer. I've blogged about a few of my very favourite products through the years - check 'em out!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Another angle on the gut bacteria story...

This news item is interesting for several reasons ... first it links the decimation of the Monarch butterfly population in the US to the use of Roundup. Roundup is Monsanto’s herbicide that kills milkweed - a perennial and the only plant on which the Monarch will lay its eggs. The caterpillars eat the milkweed on emerging from the cocoon, continuing the extraordinary life and migration cycles that take the butterflies thousands of miles from Southern Canada and Northern United States all the way to Mexico where they spend the winter. Click here and scroll down to see "Decline in monarch overwintering area compared to rise in US acreage planted in corn and rise in usage of glyphosate herbicide."

But there’s more to the story. Originally deemed “no threat to human health”, Roundup has now been shown to devastate the bacterial population in the soil, compromising its nutritive value to plants (and subsequently to us), at the same time Roundup chelates minerals, again significantly reducing the soil’s value to plants and their consumers.

And it gets worse. Roundup’s supposedly innocuous action was considered confined to the shikimate pathway in plants - a pathway absent in all animals. However that pathway is present in bacteria, which should set off alarm bells and send you reaching for your potent probiotic and for organically grown produce!

Get a pen while you're at it and sign the petition to ban Roundup’s use completely!