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I’m not getting to focus on any particular story in the news this week, as after reading the headlines, I felt quite depressed. As you can see from my writing on the blog, one of my favourite topics is food, and so reading about the latest food to be bad for us, or the new ’super food’, always catches my attention, but seldom offers me any enlightenment to what we should be eating as humans for good health.

When we look around the animal kingdom, where man has left it alone, each species knows what it must eat, and when it is in good supply they are free from the disease that afflicts the human race (especially in industrialised nations).

So why as 21st century humans do we know have no idea what food is going to give us good health?

I have written lots on this blog about our unique individual metabolisms that require different foods, and the choice of organic local food, but what Iwould like to share with you is something quite fundamental.

I believe that we have been duped by a false sense of security, that we as humans can exploit and control nature for our sole benefit. We have become used to instant gratification, be it from the TV channel we watch, fast internet connection, or fast food, and this comes at the expense of nature. 

We have forgotten that we are part of nature and we are only exploiting ourselves. We know have a huge choice of food available all year round, a huge array of diet foods, new food additives preservatives, we can harvest and store huge amounts of food and make it last for longer, produce meat more quickly.

Despite these apparent huge leaps forward in choice and quantity of food, we are suffering with a plethora of disease, that never afflicted indigenous tribes, who ate only whole food available in their environment.

In my opinion, what we need is to take responsibility for ourselves, question critically what food, and drug companies want to sell us, and the latest piece of conflicting advice, and don’t eat anything that you don’t understand the ingredients of!

A BBC report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7942479.stm details a research study that apparently found links between eating red meat and increased cancer. However it also reported that those people on a vegetarian diet, had no less risk of colo rectal cancer (previously linked with eating too much red meat).

This seems rather confusing, until you realise that, the study does not consider the source of these foods. For example, meat from a healthy grass fed organically raised cow is going to produce completely different meat than a fast reared animal, fed grain (to fatten it quickly) which is more likely to be have given antibiotics, and have been more stressed. The fat is of a completely different nature – not healthy saturated fat (that we have eaten for many thousands of years) but a fat more like trans-fatty acid (that the body doesn’t recognise).

This is without considering the fact the each person is biochemically individual (ref: Roger Williams – Biochemical Individuality), and will run optimally on a different diet.

Weston A Price (ref -nutrition and physical degeneration) spent many years visiting indigenous tribes all over the world, observing not only that their diet varied hugely (think of an eskimo, and an east Indian), but there was no incidence of cancer in these tribes, until they moved to the areas where white flour, sugar and salt were available.

A report from the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7932108.stm , suggests that ‘teenagers are biologically predisposed to go to bed later and wake later’, and that they are underperforming at school as a result. The proposal is to start the school day later, and put challenging classes later in the day, when teenagers perform better.

Whilst I applaud some of the recommendations, and the acknowledgement of our individual biorhythms (internal body clocks) as an influence on our function, I think the study does not consider the one major influence that drives our internal body clocks – the sun.

Circadian (the time of the day) rhythm’s  main influence is that of light, and it influences all other rhythms and functions within our bodies,  for example, sleep/wake, body temperature, thirst, and appetite. The problem is that our bodies can’t distinguish between sun light and light from TV, light bulbs, computers, mobile phones, which not only can reset our circadian rhythm, but cause a stress response that will hinder our quality of sleep and our ability to regenerate and repair all the cells of our body, including brain cells.

Most teenagers make use of all of these devices and often use or watch them in bed, which will have a profound influence, on their ability to function the next morning. I think that we need to look back to nature for an answer and educate teenagers about some foundations of human life – sleep, and diet. Making this part of the educational syllabus will not only help teenagers sleep and perform better at school, but help build a better relationship with nature.

At present I believe we show great disonance with nature whilst we exploit its resources. Oil has given us a false sense of security,but this will soon run out, and I believe the future will be governed by our ability to change and work with nature. We need to be teach children in school that we are part of nature and inextricably linked with the soils, the sun, the moon, the rain forests, the poles. With this information, I believe we will again become resonant with the rest of nature and our overall health will improve, including our teenagers!

According to a BBC report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7917188.stm , the lack of effectiveness and safety of 36 medicines has shown that they should no longer be sold for children under the age of six. It goes on to report that according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) children’s medicines were being reviewed owing to a ‘change of thinking’. Many years ago it was thought that we could use adult doses in a watered down way but we now know that children’s bodies are different.

 Professor Peter Helms, a child health specialist at Aberdeen University, said “Babies are not little adults – for a start they are about 80% water, compared to 70% in adults, and their internal organs are not as mature and may find it harder to detoxify.”

Dr June Raine from the MHRA said over-the-counter medicines had been used to treat colds for years but when they first emerged, the clinical trials were not required to demonstrate that they worked in children.

I find it shocking that over a prolonged period of time over the counter drugs  have been marketed in the media and sold in chemists and shops, as effective and safe for children without clinical trials to assess their safety and effectiveness! It seems that the particular cold remedies highlighted in this report have not been proved to be effective and the toxic effect on children has not been measured.

I wonder what bought about the ‘change of thinking’? Well, it does coincide with the new clinical trials testing for childrens medicines by the World Health Organisation (WHO), funded by the Gates foundation for antibiotics and rehydration for children in the developing world, and correcting the dosage for pediatric medicines.

Whilst I agree with the use of childrens medication in serious illness, and life threatening disease, I think that dosing children with drugs should not be the first thing that parents or doctors do. Parents need to give their children good food, hydration, sunshine, play and love in the right doses, and view advertising with a discerning eye, when it comes to medications for coughs, colds and sniffles and the like.

In a BBC report on 22 February 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7905223.stm , a study be the charity BEAT, found that only 15% of patients felt that their GP understood or knew how to help them.

Eating disorders like aneroxia are a subject close to my heart, as something that I  wrestled with as a child and watched my ex-wife suffer with. It is a terrible disease, and whilst I know that the trigger and the route cause is always different, from person to person, it nearly always has a connection with a lack of control felt by the person.

Not eating, or bingeing and vomitting result in rapid weight loss, and happy feelings as brain chemistry changes, and saiety centre of the brain gives a full sign.  Body shape changes, are often initially very pleasing, and this adds to the happy feeling, feelings of regained control.

Unfortunately, this comes at a cost to both the persons body and mind. The body, is starved of the nutrients it needs to function properly, and when combined with over exercising, the adrenal glands pump out cortisol to just keep going, and this leads to the breakdown of almost any cell in the body for energy. With regard to the mind, in my experience, once a desired change on body shape has happened, then fear becomes a dominant motivator, the fear of putting weight back on, and not being able to control it. Fat and protein are avoided, in favour of liquid foods, fruit, vegetables, so thebody becomes further deficient in nutrients especially those required to repair, rebuild and digest food.

Problems with the gut (bloating), kidney and liver ensue, which fight for attention against the continued happy feelings coming from the brain.

Unravelling these problems, take care and attention, and above all a lot of time, to get past the issue of ‘eating a balanced diet’ to the underlying cause. I have found that this can only happen if the person with an eating disorder wants to stop his or her behaviour, and has a reason to do so. While the person continues with the same behaviour, they feel they have control where they didn’t, so without really solid reasons and desires they will not change.

Changes in diet are important, and are vital in the repair of a severly malnourished body, but in my experience will not work in the long term without finding the persons ‘control issue’. If they are willing to seek help, and if they can be honest (lieing to self and others is common with anorexia) then working on a parallel path with specific diet and supplements, and establishing feelings of self control and desire (rather than fear), then eating disorders can be overcome.