In order to better understand how our human bodies are programmed to process nutrients, we need to take a look at our closest wild relatives. Based on genetic information, gorilla and human DNA only differ by 1.8 percent. Chimpanzees are a little closer to humans, as their DNA differs by only 1.6 percent. Both humans and the larger primates share many physical and social characteristics: different body size for males and females, living in family groups, and mothers caring for offspring for a long time beyond infancy. Chimpanzees are dependent on their mothers until the age of seven. Primates are also very intelligent.
All primates (including humans) share certain nutritional requirements to maintain normal function and maintain excellent health. All primates can taste sweet and see color, and share a requirement for large amounts of antioxidants, phytochemicals, and other plant-derived nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin K, and folate. The appreciation of sweets and the color vision attract us to and enable us to recognize ripe, fresh fruits, an important component of the natural diet of all primates. This desire of primates for variety in their diet supports nutrient diversity, enabling primates to live a long, disease-free life. Without an adequate amount of plant-derived nutrients, immune system dysfunction develops. This reduced function of the immune system occurs as a result of nutritional inadequacies, which may then result in frequent infections, allergies, and, eventually cancer. Primates share this high requirement for natural foods found in nature’s cupboard, the garden or the forest. The micronutrients that fuel the primate’s immune system—derived from fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and, to a lesser degree, whole grains—must form the basis of the diet in order to expect normal resistance against disease.
Veterinarians and other animal-care workers are aware that for each species of animal to thrive they must eat a diet of natural foods that is uniquely suited to the nature of the species in question.
Humans suffer greatly from misunderstanding what our nutritional requirements are. We have evolved to a level of economic sophistication that allows us to eat ourselves to death. A diet centered on milk, cheese, pasta, bread, and sugar-filled snacks and drinks lays the groundwork for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune illnesses to develop later in life. It is not merely that sugar, other sweets, white flour, cheese, and butter are harmful; it is also what we are not eating that is causing the problem.
When you calculate all the calories consumed from the typical foods most children in America eat, you find that the calories coming from natural foods such as fresh fruit, vegetables, beans, raw nuts, and seeds is less than 5 percent of their total caloric intake. This dangerously low intake of unrefined plant foods guarantees weakened immunity to disease, frequent illnesses, and a shorter lifespan.
There are thousands of plant-derived nutrients that are essential for us to achieve proper functioning of our immune system. Let’s look at just a few of these as an example.
Folate is found in vegetables, beans, and fruit. It is especially high in green vegetables. It was determined that the low level of folate in the modern American diet is related to an increased risk of neural tube defects in the womb. More recently, low levels of folate in the diet have been associated with other diseases as well, such as heart disease and breast cancer.1 It is very likely that it is not lack of folate alone that is the chief player creating this increased risk, but also the lack of many other nutrients contained in folate-rich foods. Because the American diet is so low in fruits and vegetables, medical authorities advise women of childbearing age to take folate supplements. Instead of health authorities advising women of the dangers of a diet low in folate-rich green vegetables, they instead advise folate supplementation, as if dangerously low folate levels are the only problem with our nutritionally barren diet. Thousands of other health-supporting compounds would be ingested if women received their folate from greens, not pills. Typical nutritional advice, which focuses on individual nutrients instead of whole food, perpetuates the diet style that leads to serious illnesses.
Vitamin K is also found in green vegetables. It was found that low levels of vitamin K in mothers and their newborns increases the chance that the newborn will have a brain hemorrhage soon after childbirth. Because the American diet is low in vitamin K, all children born in hospitals in America are given a vitamin K shot immediately after delivery. Again, authorities offer fragmented nutritional advice instead of placing our respect in nature’s nutrient sources, whole foods. Instead of advising mothers to eat more vegetables, and receive a symphony of valuable nutrients along with the vitamin K, we resort to giving all infants a vitamin K shot.
If women were instead educated about the critical importance of eating green vegetables and fresh fruit, instead of the present-day approach of encouraging folate supplementation and then giving all babies a vitamin K shot, possibly thousands of children would have been spared the tragedy of childhood cancers, from the improved dietary habits of pregnant women. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer and, after accidents, is the most common cause of death in children. The low consumption of vegetables and fruits right before and during pregnancy has been implicated in its causation.2
As humans we have certain requirements for vitamins and minerals, and scientists have discovered many of these essential micronutrients and what role they play in the body. However, rather than eating whole foods and getting these nutrients in their natural state, we most often resort to supplements. Indeed, a billion-dollar nutritional supplement industry has erupted to the point where most Americans take many different nutritional supplements in an attempt to improve their health and prevent the development of diseases. However, this has not worked too effectively; those taking vitamin supplements are not granted protection from heart disease and cancer.
The problem with this fractionated way of thinking, simply replacing one nutrient or another through supplementation, is that there is much more than merely vitamin K and folate and a handful of other vitamins and minerals that are missed by not eating the required amount of fruits and vegetables.
Clearly, the modern American diet is inadequate, and in spite of most Americans taking nutritional supplements, the percentage of our population dying from the diseases of poor nutrition has not changed significantly in the last thirty years. Heart disease, diabetes, strokes, and cancer still kill more than 80 percent of all Americans. These same diseases kill those who take nutritional supplements and those who don’t. We must look at the reasons why our society, so knowledgeable about vitamins and minerals, still suffers from such a high rate of diseases related to our diet.
Eating exceptionally healthfully is the foundation of our good health. Nutritional supplements add to the diet, and are not intended to take the place of healthy eating. That is why they are appropriately called supplements. A multivitamin is still a good idea for most people, and deficiencies of these commonly known nutrients do lead to higher risks of cancer. About forty vitamins and minerals are known to be required in the human diet. Deficiencies of vitamins B12 and B6, folic acid, niacin, iron, zinc, and selenium appear to mimic radiation damage by causing single- and double-strain breaks to our DNA.3 Half of our population is deficient in vitamins and minerals, and these chronic low levels of nutrients lead to higher toxic elements within cells. The accumulation of these toxic by-products of metabolism accelerates cellular aging and creates an environment favorable for cancer to flourish. Low nutrient intake is a factor in the development of cancer and heart disease. Taking supplements, which supply various nutrients, may help somewhat, but it is not a sufficient solution. There is more to the cancer story.
In recent years, scientists have discovered another class of micronutrients, now called phytochemicals, that also play an indispensable role in enabling our normal defenses against cancer. The wave of new research on more than 12,000 recently identified phytochemical nutrients in natural (unprocessed) plant foods has generated excitement in the scientific community unparalleled since the first vitamin was discovered in the early 1900s. These nutrients work synergistically to detoxify cancer-causing compounds, deactivate free radicals, and enable DNA-repair mechanisms. These 12,000 or so phytochemicals play a major role in human immune system defenses. Without sufficient amounts and a wide variety of this new class of compounds, scientists noted, cells age more rapidly and do not retain their innate ability to remove and detoxify waste products and toxic compounds. This new class of antioxidant nutrient’s is essential to prevent the development of degenerative diseases. We cannot acquire a sufficient amount and diversity of phytochemicals in supplements; we must get them from real food, especially because many of them have not been discovered yet. When we pass up eating fruits and vegetables, we are turning our backs on a host of nutrients that can keep us from developing disease.
What we eat creates the materials to build our cells. Eventually, we are what we eat. When we eat certain foods we will achieve a body that nature designed to be disease-resistant; when we don’t or when we eat the wrong foods, we may create a body that is disease-prone. The foods we eat supply us with much more than fuel. They provide the raw materials that make up our organs, including the brain. Critical nutrients make neurotransmitters and brain-cell receptors that govern how we think. Our diet supplies us with the raw materials to manufacture every cell comprising our body. These cells, to function at a high level, need thousands of different chemical compounds that combine in an amazing fashion to make the most miraculous machine ever created. When a few of these necessary compounds are missing, we usually can still survive; the human organism is resilient and adaptable, but without all the necessary components the body loses its powerful potential for wellness. As a result, chronic diseases develop.
Eating right won’t simply prevent disease; it will help you live life to its fullest. Eating right will enable you to feel great every day, without stomachaches, headaches, indigestion, constipation, or a runny nose. The right nutrition can assure that we wake up fully energized and have boundless energy, perform at our best, and maintain our youthful vigor as we age gracefully. Eating healthfully can maintain your excellent health for a lifetime.
Health is normal. The human body is a self-repairing, self-defending, and self-healing marvel. Disease is relatively difficult to induce, considering the body’s powerful immune system. However, this complicated and delicate machinery can be damaged if fed the wrong fuel during the formative years. The chronic diseases commonly associated with aging—hypertension, coronary artery disease, Type II diabetes, degenerative joint disease, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s, as well as most cancers—are not the inevitable outcome of the aging process; they are born out of wrong food choices earlier in life.
Healthy living with nutritional excellence throughout life can slow the decline of aging. It can prevent the years and years of suffering in ill health that is so common today as people get older and become dependent on medical treatments, drugs, and surgery. Medical intervention does very little to slow the progression of illnesses and gradual mental and physical decline. Nutritional excellence is the only real fountain of youth.
Modern societies live mostly on processed foods. These foods have been developed to meet the requirements of mass production, shelf life, economics, and taste acceptance. These “fake foods” no longer resemble in any way the nutritional characteristics of real food made by nature. No matter how many vitamins or minerals are added to the power bar or breakfast cereal, it still does not contain the unique combination of thousands of delicate phytonutrients found in a strawberry or leaf of lettuce.
Natural foods deteriorate rapidly, have limited shelf life, and lose many of their delicate nutrients when heated, milled, or shot out of cannons. For example, cold breakfast cereals (which may have some synthetic nutrients that were lost in processing put back in) have as much phytochemical nutritional value as the cardboard box they are found in. We have adopted an eating pattern of the worst sort, consuming the majority of our caloric intake from processed foods, which pays us back with medical problems, unnecessary suffering, and a premature death.
Though many think that disease is the result of genetics or bad fortune, the reality is that for the vast majority, we will get what we have earned. Our body is formed from the foods we have consumed in our life. A body made from refined foods, white flour, oils, sugar, and other highly processed “fake” food develops into a sickly human, with allergies and autoimmune diseases, such as colitis, psoriasis, lupus, and asthma, who suffers from indigestion, reflux, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, fibroids, tumors, and fatigue in early adulthood. Serious diseases that interfere with one’s quality of life are born out of our childhood diets. Junk food isn’t cheap; we pay a steep price for it years after consuming it.
While genetics play a role in the expression of many diseases, and while we all have genetic weaknesses and predispositions, for the vast majority of diseases that occur in the modern world, nutrition, exercise, and environment play a much larger role than genetics. For example, those living in rural China have less than 2 percent heart disease risk, but when they move to America their children have the same dismal risks as other Americans. About 50 percent of Americans die of heart attacks and strokes. When we abuse our bodies, many different problems arise and what happens to you then may be influenced by your genetics.
Heart disease is a recent phenomenon in the history of mankind.4 By 1916 it was already hypothesized by the well-known French scientist C. D. de Langen that overeating and a cholesterol-rich diet appeared to be a factor in the populations of those European countries experiencing a rise in heart attacks. We cannot consider heart disease to be primarily genetic, because it did not occur much before the last hundred years and pockets of populations inhabiting the world today have no heart disease. By the 1950s scientific investigations were able to explain population differences in heart disease rates by differences in the consumption of saturated fat (the most important determinant of serum cholesterol) and the inverse association with consumption of fresh produce.5 The less saturated fat and the more fresh produce consumed, the less heart disease occurs. Over the last fifty years, this causal relationship between saturated fat and heart disease has been observed and documented by thousands of scientific studies. The reality is that heart disease, the leading cause of death in the modern world, as well as the other leading causes of death (various cancers and strokes), is created by our modern diet. Very few people have genetics so favorable that they can eat anything without concern.
You cannot escape from the biological law of cause and effect. Food choices, especially food choices early in life, are the primary cause of disease and premature death. Health predictably results from healthy living. Inferior childhood nutrition has led to a nation with high levels of chronic illnesses and out-of-control health care costs.
Americans eat about 40 percent of calories from animal products, such as meat, eggs, and dairy.
Animal products contain no antioxidants, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, folate, vitamin C, vitamin K, or those thousands of phytochemicals that are essential for cellular normalcy and preventing DNA damage.
Americans eat about 50 percent of calories from processed foods such as oil, sugar, and white flour products.
Processed foods contain almost no antioxidants, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, folate, vitamin C, vitamin K, or those thousands of phytochemicals that are essential for cellular normalcy and preventing DNA damage.
To make matters worse, most of the animal products eaten by children, such as cheese and milk, are exceptionally high in saturated fat. Saturated fat consumption correlates with cancer incidence worldwide.6 It also raises cholesterol levels and causes heart disease.7
Keep in mind that it is the type of fat, not the amount of fat, that is linked to higher heart attack rates and cancer. Both epidemiologic studies and clinical trials have implicated saturated fats and trans fats as the villains for humans.8 They promote both heart attack and cancer.
The nutrition committee of the American Heart Association has declared, There is overwhelming evidence that reduction in saturated fat, dietary cholesterol and weight offer the most effective dietary strategies for reducing total cholesterol, LDL levels and cardiovascular risk. There is no biological requirement for saturated fat.9
In fact, populations with diets with little or no saturated fat have little or no heart disease. The development of heart disease begins in childhood. Not only do unhealthy childhood diets high in saturated fat and low in the protective micronutrients found in unprocessed plant foods accelerate heart disease, but they promote the aging process, and create a cellular environment favorable for the development of cancer.
Animal Fat Intake vs. Heart Disease
To add insult to injury, much of the processed foods children eat are rich in trans fat, a man-made fat that is also linked to cancer and heart disease.10, 11
We could not have designed a cancer-causing environment more effectively if we scientifically planned it. We feed our children a diet high in saturated fat, add lots of processed foods with those dangerous (man-made) trans fats, and combine it with an insufficient intake of unrefined plant foods to guarantee sufficient phytochemical deprivation, and presto, we have created a nation rich in autoimmune illnesses, allergies, obesity, diabetes, and, finally, heart disease and cancer.
MAJOR FOODS: U.S. PER CAPITA FOOD SUPPLY—1996
Source: USDA Agriculture Fact Book 98: Chapter 1-A
Americans eat only 5 percent of calories from fruits, vegetables, beans, and unprocessed nuts and seeds, the foods that contain the necessary nutrients to maintain normal health. Unless our diet is designed so our caloric consumption largely comes from these protective foods, we should not be surprised if our twenty-five-year-old daughter develops lupus or our eighteen-year-old son develops ulcerative colitis. Once they pass their childbearing years, many of our children will be overweight; age rapidly; require drugs for hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease; have a heart attack; or die prematurely from cancer.
This can be avoided.
Cancer and heart disease have similar causes. Cancer kills about 35 percent of all adult Americans, heart disease and stroke about 50 percent. The more years of nutritional abuse and the earlier in life the abuse begins, the higher the risk.
Fatty Facts
Cheese consumption has tripled in America in the last thirty years, and cheese is included as a part of almost every meal. It’s melted on burgers and chicken breasts, sprinkled on salads, melted over bread and pasta. It’s not surprising that cheese gives us more (artery-clogging) saturated fat than any other food.
Heart disease begins in our youth and is not easy to reverse. No one should eat more than five grams of saturated fat a day. Over this level, disease rates climb.
All foods derived from animals contain cholesterol and tend to be high in the thick, heavy fats called saturated fats. Most plant foods are very low in saturated fat, except for some tropical plant oils like palm and coconut oil that are naturally saturated.
U.S. PER CAPITA CHEESE CONSUMPTION IN POUNDS 1915–2000
Reducing the consumption of animal foods reduces the consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat. Low intake of cholesterol and saturated fat leads to a leaner body, clean arteries, and a reduced risk of developing heart disease and many other diet-related diseases such as stroke, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
SATURATED FAT CONTENT OF COMMON FOODS12 |
|
|
Grams of Saturated Fat |
Cheddar cheese (4 oz) |
24 |
American processed cheese (4 oz) |
24 |
Ricotta cheese (1 cup) |
20 |
Swiss cheese (4 oz) |
20 |
20 |
|
Cheeseburger, large, double patty |
18 |
T-bone steak (6 oz) |
18 |
Braised lamb (6 oz) |
16 |
Pork—shoulder (6 oz) |
14.5 |
Butter (2 tbsp) |
14 |
Mozzarella, part skim (4 oz) |
12 |
Ricotta cheese, part skim (1 cup) |
12 |
Beef—ground, lean (6 oz) |
11 |
Ice cream, vanilla (1 cup) |
10 |
Chicken fillet sandwich |
9 |
Chicken thigh, no skin (6 oz) |
5 |
Whole milk, 3.3% fat (1 cup) |
5 |
Plain yogurt |
5 |
Two eggs |
4 |
Chicken breast (6 oz) |
3 |
Salmon (6 oz) |
3 |
Walnuts 2 oz (24 halves) |
3 |
2% milk(1 cup) |
3 |
Tuna (6 oz) |
2.6 |
Turkey, white, no skin (6 oz) |
2 |
Almonds 2 oz (48 nuts) |
2 |
Sunflower seeds (2 oz) |
2 |
Flounder (6 oz) |
0.6 |
Sole (6 oz) |
0.6 |
Fruits |
negligible |
Vegetables |
negligible |
Beans/legumes |
negligible |
Many vegetable oils have been artificially saturated, or “hydrogenated,” as the process is called. These “trans” fats are commonly used in processed junk foods such as candy bars, doughnuts, french fries, and snack foods.
Trans fat (also called phantom fat) is created during the process called partial hydrogenation, which involves turning liquid vegetable oils into solid shortening. Partially hydrogenated oils are used to make a wide variety of foods, including some cookies and snacks. Although some of these foods claim to be low in calories, fat, or cholesterol, the numbers are not listed for trans fat, which is even worse than cholesterol.
Trans fats are listed on boxes, wrappers, and jars as partially hydrogenated oil. This man-made food has been found to be as powerful as saturated fat in promoting disease. This problem is even more insidious because food manufacturers are not required to list the quantity of trans fat in their products.
Both saturated fat and trans fat raise the amount of LDL or bad cholesterol, but trans fat also lowers the amount of HDL or good cholesterol. The effect of saturated fat and trans fat on cholesterol levels is worse than the effect of eating cholesterol itself.
Fast food is typically very high in trans fat. French fries and other foods fried in partially hydrogenated oils are the worst. Also, be aware of any food fried in vegetable oil, too, because heating, cooling, and reheating oils causes chemical changes that create the negative effects similar to trans fat.
If you eat out in most restaurants and eat fast food, you are participating in high-risk behavior. Do not eat fried food. The only way to protect yourself is to eat wholesome food prepared at home or, if eating out, make sure you know what you are eating and how the dish was prepared.
SAMPLE FOODS LOADED WITH (DANGEROUS) TRANS FAT13 |
|
|
Trans Fat Grams per 100 Grams Food |
Margarine—stick |
20 |
Corn oil or soybean oil spreads |
17.6 |
Vegetable shortening |
17 |
Potato chips |
10.6 |
Margarine—tub |
10 |
Chocolate chip cookies |
9 |
Standard crackers |
8.4 |
Taco shells |
8 |
Microwaved popcorn (packaged) |
7.7 |
Milk chocolate-coated cookie bar |
6.9 |
Popcorn—oil-popped |
6 |
French fries—fast food |
5.2 |
Not only do processed foods and fast foods often contain dangerous trans fats and other additives, but they also can have high levels of acrylamides. When processed foods are baked and fried at high temperatures, these cancer-causing chemical compounds are produced. Many processed foods, such as chips, french fries, and sugar-coated breakfast cereals, are rich in acrylamides. Acrlyamides also form in foods you bake until brown or fry at home; they do not form in foods that are steamed or boiled.
There was worldwide alarm in the scientific community in 2002 after researchers announced that many of the foods children eat contain high levels of these potent cancer-causing compounds. Acrylamides cause genetic mutations, leading to a wide variety of cancers in lab animals, including breast and uterine cancer. It has not been definitively shown that acrylamides are a major factor in the development of human cancers, but most cancer experts working in this field presume that it does.14 This offers another reason to avoid consumption of overly heated and processed foods.
Many people, believing that fat is the culprit behind obesity, cancer, and heart disease, eat skinless chicken, fat-free mayo, and pasta. Unfortunately, a diet style centered on low-fat grains and lower-fat animal products is too low in the phytochemical-rich vegetation needed for adequate health. These people are also missing out on an adequate intake of minerals and healthy fats. The type of fat and the source of the fat are critical.
Raw nuts, seeds, and avocados are also foods rich in fat, but they contain healthy fats, important for normal growth and development, and they are rich in nutrients as well. Consumption of these foods has been shown to have powerful protective effects against disease. The results are so striking that in one study men who ate raw nuts had half the heart attack rate compared to men who did not eat nuts.15 Furthermore, eating raw nuts and seeds has been shown to decrease the death rate from all causes, extending lifespan, and this effect was noted in various population groups, including whites, African Americans, and the elderly.16 Eating nuts and seeds makes us live a lot longer and prevents both heart disease and cancer. Eating walnuts, almonds, pistachio nuts, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and many more varieties is the best way for us, and especially our children, to get the healthy fats we need from nature’s tasty and unpolluted source.
Humans and other primates are nut-eating mammals by design. These foods should be moved to a prominent place on our nation’s food guide pyramid. Unfortunately, government-sponsored pyramids are strongly affected by social and political preferences; they do not directly reflect the scientific literature. When children obtain most of their essential fats from raw nuts and seeds, they not only get the healthier fats, but they also receive lots of beneficial minerals and antioxidants in the process.
Allergies to peanuts (which is actually a legume), which affect approximately 1 percent of children, have increased radically in developed countries, and allergy to tree nuts, though much less prevalent, has also increased. Research has demonstrated factors contributing to this recent skyrocketing of allergies including the use (misuse) of antibiotics early in life, brief or lack of breast-feeding, a too-early introduction of solid food, and the roasting of nuts.17
Mom’s good nutrition during her pregnancy, the quality of her breast milk, and the foods children eat supply the raw materials to construct their brain and ultimately supply their brainpower. Nutrition in these critical early years of life is essential for each child to reach their maximum intellectual potential. Throughout life, what a person eats effects the levels of neurotransmitters and structure of cells and regulates all mental processes that affect how well we think and feel.
Scientists have noted that children who were breast-fed past the first birthday have better IQ scores than those raised on formula.18 It was first thought that this was because breast milk, and (until very recently) not formula, contains omega-3 fatty acids and DHA, which are essential for optimal brain development. (Of course, the omega-3 content of breast milk is dependent on the mother’s consumption of foods containing omega 3-fatty acids.) But more recently, science is discovering that many more nutrients can affect brain development besides DHA fat, and the mother’s consumption of green vegetables and other produce can increase the nutritional content and diversity of nutrients in her breast milk. It is not surprising that an inadequate intake of any one of the forty-plus essential nutrients during the critical first few years of life has profound and lifelong effects on cognition memory and intelligence.19 A complete symphony of phytonutrients in fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts can be transmitted to the breast milk and play a role in healthy development of your child. Not only did researchers find breast-fed babies to be generally smarter than bottle-fed babies, but breast-fed babies from mothers who ate a very healthy diet (with lots of vegetables) throughout their pregnancy and nursing period gave their children the greatest capacity for brainpower later in life.
For many years, scientists believed that most brain development occurred in the first few years of life. However, it has been discovered that brain development continues well into the teenage years and beyond, meaning that optimal nutrition is critical over many years for maximum intelligence to be realized. Humans take so much longer to mature than other animals because our brain is so complicated and powerful that it takes a long time for this biologically advanced organ to finish developing.
Intelligence is influenced by nutritious eating. Only by maximizing nutritional factors favoring normal brain development can we maximize our intelligence potential. The same diet style that protects against aging and cancer helps our children increase their intelligence potential and protect their emotional well-being. Hyperactivity, attention, deficit, depression, and other psychiatric disorders have their roots in early-life nutrition. The brain requires adequate nutrition to be a properly working machine. At younger ages the brain is most sensitive to negative nutritional influences.20
The brain is mostly made of fat. For the brain cells to maintain their cell membrane fluidity and to properly recognize chemical messengers they must have the right ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fats built into their structure. Too little omega-3 fats and too much saturated fat and trans fat could stiffen the fatty acid membranes and interfere with proper cellular communication.21 Raw nuts and seeds supply children with unpolluted omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in a protective package rich in antioxidant vitamins and minerals. Though fish is a rich source of omega-3 fat and DHA, fish fats and other animal fats are nutrient-poor and often contaminated with pollution, pesticides, hormones, and drugs. Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and walnuts are examples of great brain food that can maximize human potential. Berries and vegetables are also rich in brain-favorable nutrients. The same foods that provide powerful protective effects against cancer maximize our children’s brain development.
When our children don’t consume the right mix of brain-boosting nutrients, they have a reduced ability to learn and a lower IQ, and later in life they can develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand, the right mixture of brain-supporting foods will afford our children the ability to reach their maximum potential in life, not just for health, but for emotional stability, happiness, and success in their chosen careers.
Obesity is the most common nutritional problem among children in the United States. One in three kids in America are overweight, and the problem is growing. The number of children who are overweight has more than doubled during the past decade. Social forces, from the demise of home cooking to the rise of fast food; as well as dramatic increases in snack food and soda consumption, have led to the most overweight population of children in human history. Added to this dietary disaster is television, computer, and video technology that entertains our youngsters while they are physically inactive. Unless parents take a proactive role in promoting and assuring adequate nutrition and an active lifestyle, you can be sure the children of America will continue this downward spiral into obesity and ill health. Obese children suffer physically and emotionally throughout childhood and then invariably suffer with adult heart disease, diabetes, and a high cancer incidence down the road.
Many schools and children’s hospitals feature not only soda and snack machines but on-site outlets for fast-food chains. On a typical day, nearly one-third of American children ages four to nineteen are consuming fast food, according to a study of 6,212 children. Those children who ate fast food were found to have consumed more total fat, more added sugars, more sugar-sweetened beverages, less fiber, and fewer fruits and vegetables than those children who did not eat fast food. The children who ate fast food were also found to have consumed 187 additional calories a day, which could mean an extra six pounds per year per child.22
Children learn what to eat at their parents’ table, and adults are eating more fast food, more convenience foods, and more unhealthfully than ever before in human history. Overweight parents don’t just pass on the genes for obesity, but their eating habits as well. However, like every health condition, while genetics does play a role, it’s not the major role.23 It is what is put in front of our children for them to eat and drink that is the primary cause of childhood obesity.
Obesity rates have risen in tandem with soda consumption in the United States, and in the last twenty years the consumption of soft drinks by teenagers had doubled.24 Twelve- to nineteen-year-old boys consume thirty-four teaspoons of sugar a day in their diet, and about half of that comes from soft drinks. Children start drinking soft drinks at a very young age, and advertisements and promotions by the soft drink manufacturers are aggressively marketed to the young.
ANNUAL SOFT DRINK PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES
(12-ounce cans per person)
Source: Data from the National Soft Drink Association, Beverage World, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (www.cspinet.org)
Soft drinks and processed foods are full of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is not only fattening, but this inexpensive and ultraconcentrated sugar has no resemblance to real food made by nature. It is another experiment thrust upon our unsuspecting children with unknown dangerous consequences. Besides sugar, corn syrup, and chemicals, these drinks often contain caffeine, an addictive stimulant. Children crave more and more as they get older. By adolescence most children have become soft-drink addicts. It is no surprise that six out of the seven most popular soft drinks contain caffeine. Contrast this high level of sugary “liquid candy” with the meager intake of fresh produce by children and teenagers, and it is no surprise that we have an obesity epidemic beyond all expectations.
Coca-Cola |
34 |
Diet Coke |
46 |
Dr Pepper |
41 |
Mello Yellow |
53 |
Mountain Dew |
55 |
Pepsi-Cola |
38 |
Pepsi Diet |
36 |
Tab |
47 |
Source: National Soft Drink Association
Clearly, the major cause of this recent phenomenon of obesity is the availability and consumption of high-caloric, low-nutrient foods and the decreased consumption of high-nutrient foods. When families finally realize that the consumption of vegetables, beans, and fruits is the essential foundation of an adequate diet, we will rarely see an obese child. It is literally impossible to become obese when consuming a diet that predominates in healthful, natural food.
Our children need to be more physically active and exercise with sports and games, but with “fake food” so readily available, exercise alone will not solve the problem.
We cannot rely on the food manufacturer, our government, the media, or even health authorities to protect or warn us against the dangerous foods we feed to our children. Regardless of the political, economic, and social causes for the unhealthy meals served in our school cafeterias, parents bringing doughnuts to our children’s schoolrooms, soda machines in our school cafeterias, and fast food franchises in our hospital lobbies, it is still our primary responsibility as parents to nurture, protect, and teach our children how to live, eat, and act sensibly in a world of dangerous opportunities. We all must accept the fact that health is created and experienced as a result of the healthful behaviors and environment we create for ourselves and our loved ones. We must take personal responsibility by educating ourselves and teaching our children to care for themselves.
Changing the way your child eats at home is the first place to lay the groundwork for a more healthful life. Children can readily pick up the bad habits that surround them, but you have the opportunity to teach them healthier eating habits that will last a lifetime and give them a longer, healthier life to boot.
Today, not only are the waists of children in America growing bigger and bigger, but the blood pressure of children has been steadily climbing over the last fifteen years.25 Small increases in blood pressure in childhood predict big increases down the road.
A large body of data illustrates that populations with low salt consumption have lower levels of blood pressure compared to populations with higher salt intake. In Japan and China, salt intakes are often as high as eighteen grams or more per day. Hypertension (high blood pressure) and stroke are the major causes of premature death in these nations. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that in the United States, the mean salt intake is eight grams per day. This high intake of sodium assures that we have an elderly population with high blood pressure.
High salt intake, and resultant high blood pressure later in life, does not merely increase the risk and incidence of stroke. It also can lead to kidney failure, congestive heart failure, and heart attack. Raising our children on low-salt diets can have a major role in securing the future health of our nation. Salt intake also correlates with incidence of stomach cancer.26
Significant scientific evidence illustrates the strong effect that salt intake in infancy and childhood has on predicting high blood pressure later in life.27 The majority of Americans eventually require blood pressure medications; high sodium intake eventually takes its toll. One is typically considered sodium-sensitive if reducing salt intake shows a resultant decrease in blood pressure. Though it is easy to observe the effects of a high sodium intake and the resultant high blood pressure in sodium-sensitive individuals, apparently years and years of high sodium intake takes its toll as well on those who are not sodium-sensitive. It is difficult to discern which individuals are sensitive to the effects of a high-salt diet earlier in life because it takes many, many years to see the results.
A study that illustrates this appeared in the medical journal Circulation. The researchers studied a large group of high schoolers. In these adolescents they did not find a correlation of sodium intake with high blood pressure. But ten years later, the researchers could easily determine who had the high blood pressure by their early high levels of salt consumption. By reexamining the earlier records, they could see the strong correlation of sodium intake and higher blood pressure.28
Children who have been on a low-salt diet do not favor a high-salt diet later on. Those who develop the taste for a high-salt diet continue to prefer that throughout life.
Epidemiologic studies of populations with very low sodium intakes showed no hypertension in adults and the elderly in those populations with an average sodium intake of less than 1,350 mg per day. Keep in mind that there are pockets of Stone Age–like tribes around the world eating 100 percent natural foods that consume less than one gram of sodium daily Natural foods generally contain approximately ½ mg of sodium per calorie. Primitive man lived in a salt-poor world. Only in the last few thousand years of human time on earth have humans had access to all the salt they desired.
Lowering sodium intake after high blood pressure develops does not have the same effect on reducing the occurrence of high blood pressure as would salt avoidance earlier in life. After reviewing hundreds of epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies, leading scientists studying the effect between the intake of sodium and its long-term effect on blood pressure concluded, “There is strong, if not definitive evidence that reducing dietary salt intake to less than 2000 mg a day would eliminate hypertension as a major health problem.”29 The average American consumes approximately 4,000 mg of sodium per day. A diet of natural foods without added salt would typically contain an ideal level of sodium, between 600 and 1,000 milligrams of sodium per day.
Most of my patients tell me that the typical question their friends or family members have about eating a natural-food, plant-predominant diet style is, “How do I get enough protein with so little animal products in the diet?” Many people believe that a diet needs lots of animal products to be nutritionally sound. To add to the confusion are the diet books and magazine articles that promote a high protein intake at the expense of carbohydrates. Then there are those who argue that we should balance the precise ratio of fat, carbohydrate, and protein with a calculator or that we should determine the ideal macronutrient ratio based on our heritage, shoe size, eye color, blood type, or the spelling of our mother’s maiden name backward. These trendy viewpoints are not scientifically valid and miss the critical issues in human nutrition. To understand human nutritional needs, it helps to first understand the difference between macronutrients and micronutrients.
Protein, fat, and carbohydrate are macronutrients, the only macronutrients that exist. Macronutrients are the nutrients that contain calories, thereby supplying us with energy. Micronutrients are those nutrients that don’t contain calories, but have other essential roles to play. Examples of some micronutrients are vitamins, minerals, fiber, bioflavonoids, antioxidants, and other phytochemicals.
Unfortunately, modern societies eat diets deficient in micronutrients, but generally consume more macronutrients (calories) than needed. Indeed, that is one of the main problems: processed foods and animal products mostly contain macronutrients, but are deficient in micronutrients. We get too much protein, carbohydrate, and fat and insufficient micronutrients. This predicament promotes disease. Simply put, the goal of a healthy diet is to get the most micronutrients, both in amount and diversity, from the fewest calories (macronutrients).
Protein is ubiquitous; it is contained in all foods, not only animal products. Protein deficiency is not a concern for anyone in the developed world. It is almost impossible to consume too little protein, no matter what you eat, unless the diet is significantly deficient in calories and other nutrients as well.
Health problems arise when we consume more of something we are already getting enough of. Excesses hurt us, not just deficiencies, especially excesses of macronutrients. Studies have shown that as protein consumption goes up, so does the incidence of chronic diseases. Increases in carbohydrates and fat consumption have led to the same end result. If we need more calories and are chronically malnourished, like an anorexic, they are good, but they are all detrimental if we are already getting too much. If any of these nutrients exceed our basic requirements, the excess can be hurtful. Americans already get too much protein, especially too much animal protein. The simplest thing you can do to improve the diet of your family is to reduce protein and fat from animal-source foods and increase protein and fat from plant-source foods because of the high level of micronutrients contained in plant foods.
When you eat to maximize micronutrients, your body function will improve; chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, and high cholesterol will likely disappear; and your youthful vigor will last into old age. Heart disease and cancer, the major killers of modern societies, would fade away and be exceedingly rare occurrences if the population adopted a cancer-preventive diet style and lifestyle. And we would hardly ever see any overweight children.
Maintaining a population of normal-weight individuals can be efficiently accomplished only by eating more high-nutrient foods, foods with a higher nutrient-per-calorie ratio. The foods with the most nutrients per calorie are vegetables and beans. Vegetables are also very rich in protein and calcium. Most vegetables have more protein per calorie than meat and more calcium per calorie than milk. Nobody can consume too little protein by eating less animal products and substituting more vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds.
The focus on the importance of protein in the diet is one of the major reasons we have been led down the wrong path to dietary suicide. We were taught to equate protein with good nutrition and have thought that animal products, not vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, are our best source of protein. We bought a false bill of goods, and the dairy-and-meat-heavy diet brought forth a heart attack and cancer epidemic.
If we hear something over and over since we were young children, we just accept it as true. For example, it is a myth repeated over and over that plant proteins are “incomplete” and need to be “complemented” for adequate protein. In fact, all vegetables and grains contain all eight of the essential amino acids (as well as the 12 other nonessential ones).30 While some vegetables have higher or lower proportions of certain amino acids than others, when eaten in amounts to satisfy one’s caloric needs, a sufficient amount of all essential amino acids are provided. Because digestive secretions and sloughed-off mucosal cells are constantly recycled and reabsorbed, the amino acid composition in the bloodstream after meals is remarkably complete in spite of short-term irregularities in their dietary supply.
It is interesting to note that peas, green vegetables, and beans have more protein per calorie than meat. But what is not generally considered is that foods that are rich in plant protein are generally the foods that are richest in nutrients and phytochemicals. By eating more of these high-nutrient, low-calorie foods we get plenty of protein, and our bodies get flooded with protective micronutrients simultaneously. Animal protein does not contain antioxidants and phytochemicals, plant protein does. Plus, animal protein is married to saturated fat, the most dangerous type of fat.
PROTEIN CONTENT FROM SELECTED PLANT FOODS |
|
Food |
Grams of Protein |
Almonds (3 oz) |
10 |
Banana |
1.2 |
Broccoli (2 cups) |
10 |
Brown rice (1 cup) |
5 |
Chickpeas (1 cup) |
15 |
Corn (1 cup) |
4.2 |
Lentils (1 cup) |
18 |
Peas—frozen (1 cup) |
9 |
Spinach—frozen (1 cup) |
7 |
Tofu (4 ounces) |
11 |
Whole wheat bread (2 slices) |
5 |
Even a professional body builder who wants to build one-half pound of extra muscle per week only needs about an extra seven grams per day over a normal protein intake. No complicated formulas or protein supplements are needed to get sufficient protein for growth, even in the serious athlete. Exercise increases hunger, and as the athlete consumes more calories to meet the demands of exercise, they will naturally get the extra protein they need. Many world-class athletes thrive at world-class competitions on vegetarian and vegan diets.
When you reduce or eliminate animal protein intake and increase vegetable protein intake, you lower cholesterol radically. Vegetables, beans, and nuts and seeds are all rich in protein, and they also have no saturated fat or cholesterol. But the clincher is that they are higher in nutrients than any other foods. We must structure our diets around the foods that supply the most micronutrients.
The cholesterol-lowering effects of vegetables and beans (high-protein foods) are without question. When adult subjects are fed a vegetable-based diet, cholesterol levels drop radically, much more than with the most powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs.31 These foods also contain an assortment of heart disease-fighting nutrients independent of their ability to lower cholesterol, and they fight cancer, too.
Animals eat their macronutrients; they don’t fabricate them from the air. All protein, all fat, and all carbs are made from soil and water with energy from the sun via photosynthesis. Animals then get all the fat, protein, and carbohydrates for energy from plants. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. All animals, directly or indirectly, receive protein (amino acids) from plants. The lion eats the antelope; the antelope got the protein it supplied to the lion from the grass. Green vegetables (the soil) supplied the nitrogenous compounds to make the protein for the antelope and ultimately the lion.
In North America, about 70 percent of dietary protein comes from animal foods. Worldwide, plants provide 84 percent of calories. In the 1950s human protein requirement studies were first conducted that demonstrated that adults require twenty to thirty-five grams of protein per day.32 Today the average American consumes 100 to 120 grams of protein per day, mostly in the form of animal products. People who eat a completely vegetarian diet (vegan) have been found to consume sixty to eighty grams of protein a day, well above the minimum requirement.33 Vitamin B12, not protein, is the missing nutrient in a vegan diet.
In modern times, the plant foods we eat are well washed and contain little bacteria, bugs, or dirt, which would have supplied B12 in a more natural environment such as the jungle or forest. To assure optimal levels of B12 in our diet, we require some form of B12 supplementation when eating a diet with little or no animal products.
When you eat a healthy diet rich in natural foods, fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds, it is impossible not to obtain sufficient calcium. Of course, when our calories come mostly from oil, flour, and animal muscle parts (which have no calcium), instead of unrefined plant foods, it can appear that without dairy the diet would be too low in calcium. But the minute we remove the processed junk food, sugar, and oil from the diet, and instead encourage the consumption of natural foods such as nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables, we get the healthy fats we need, and we also get plenty of calcium.
To raise healthy children we need to reduce dairy fat and substitute more fats and more calcium from raw nuts and seeds, tofu, and vegetables. Today, both soy milk and orange juice are fortified with calcium and vitamin D. You do not have to be concerned about your children consuming too little calcium if you remove or reduce dairy.
Our body absorbs the calcium differently from different foods and absorbs calcium most efficiently from vegetables. Only about 32 percent of the calcium in milk is absorbed, while 54 percent of the calcium in bok choy is absorbed.
CALCIUM CONTENT OF COMMON FOODS |
||
Almonds—raw |
(½ cup) |
180 mg |
Broccoli |
(1 cup) |
180 mg |
Milk (whole) |
(1 cup) |
291 mg |
Navy beans |
(1 cup) |
140 mg |
Orange |
(2) |
120 mg |
Raisins |
(½ cup) |
60 mg |
Sesame seeds |
(¼ cup) |
350 mg |
Soybeans |
(1 cup) |
261 mg |
Spinach |
(1 cup) |
244 mg |
Tofu |
(1 cup) |
300 mg |
When you eat less animal protein and less salt, you do not lose as much calcium in the urine and therefore need less calcium. Excess animal protein and sodium promote excessive calcium loss in the urine, increasing calcium requirements.34 When you eat a diet predominating in natural foods the way nature designed them, you do not have to worry about getting extra calcium. In fact, more natural plant foods added to the diet (fruits and vegetables) have been shown to have a powerful effect on increasing bone density and bone health.35 There are factors in these plants other than calcium that have beneficial effects on our bones. You and your child can achieve nutritional excellence utilizing a variety of natural foods while reducing dependence on dairy, and especially cheese and butter.