Stop Junk Food Marketing to Kids

Video:  Stop Junk Food Marketing to Kids

By Dr. Mercola

Junk food is contributing to skyrocketing rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and even strokes -- and not just among adults.

Food and beverage companies spend $2 billion a year promoting unhealthy foods to kids, and while ultimately it's the parents' responsibility to feed their children healthy foods, junk food ads make this much more difficult than it should be.

A new campaign, We're Not Buying It, is now underway to help expose deceptive marketing to children, debunk industry claims, and highlight the latest research, in the hopes of ending this assault on today's youth, and I'll explain how you can get involved, too, below.

Does Your Child Recognize the "Golden Arches"?

Most toddlers recognize the sign of McDonald's "golden arches" long before they are speaking in full sentences.

Why?

Because they are often raised on French fries, fast-food hamburgers and orange soda, or if "raised" is a bit of a stretch, are taught that French fries, chicken fingers and soda is an acceptable meal. Have you noticed that even in "regular" restaurants the kids' menu options are almost always entirely junk food like pizza, macaroni and cheese or fried chicken strips?

Of course kids will probably prefer these foods if that's what they're offered; these foods are manufactured to taste good, and most kids aren't going to opt for a spear of broccoli over a French fry -- until they're old enough to understand the implications of the choice, and assuming you have taught them about the importance of eating healthy foods along the way.

In many ways society is set up against you on this one. As The Interagency Working Group on Foods Marketed to Children (IWG) reports:

• The fast-food industry spends more than $5 million every day marketing unhealthy foods to children.
• Kids watch an average of over 10 food-related ads every day (nearly 4,000/year).
• Nearly all (98 percent) of food advertisements viewed by children are for products that are high in fat, sugar or sodium. Most (79 percent) are low in fiber.

So even under the best circumstances, your kids will probably be exposed to the latest "cool" kid foods, and this is what marketers are banking on. Then, when you go to the grocery store, your child will have a meltdown if you don't give in and buy the cereal with their favorite cartoon character on the box, or the cookies with brightly colored chips. If you're a parent, it's certainly easier to just give in, but it's imperative to be strong as shaping your child's eating habits starts very early on …

Your Child's Taste Preferences are Created by Age 3

Research shows when parents fed their preschool-aged children junk foods high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, it had a lasting impact on their taste preferences. All of the children tested showed preferences for junk foods, and all (even those who were just 3 years old!) were also able to recognize some soda, fast food and junk food brands.

The researchers concluded what you probably already suspect: kids who were exposed to junk food, soda and fast food, via advertising and also because their parents fed them these foods, learned to recognize and prefer these foods over healthier choices. This does have an impact on their health, as nutrients from quality foods are critical in helping your child reach his or her fullest potential!

One study from British researchers revealed that kids who ate a predominantly processed food diet at age 3 had lower IQ scores at age 8.5. For each measured increase in processed foods, participants had a 1.67-point decrease in IQ.

As you might suspect, the opposite also held true, with those eating healthier diets experiencing higher IQ levels. For each measured increase in dietary score, which meant the child was eating more fruits and vegetables for instance, there was a 1.2-point increase in IQ.

The reality is, the best time to shape your kids' eating habits is while they're still young. This means starting from birth with breast milk and then transitioning to solid foods that have valuable nutrients, like egg yolk, avocado and sweet potatoes. (You can easily cross any form of grain-based infant cereal off of this list.)

From there, ideally you will feed your child healthy foods that your family is also eating -- grass-fed meats, organic veggies, vegetable juice, raw dairy and nuts, and so on. These are the foods your child will thrive on, and it's important they learn what real, healthy food is right from the get-go. This way, when they become tweens and teenagers, they may eat junk food here and there at a friend's house, but they will return to real food as the foundation of their diet -- and that habit will continue on with them for a lifetime.

This is What Happens When You Let Marketers Dictate Your Kid's Diet …

The state of most kids' diets in the United States is not easy to swallow. As IWG reported:

• Nearly 40% of children's diets come from added sugars and unhealthy fats.
• Only 21% of youth age 6-19 eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day

This is a veritable recipe for disease, and is a primary reason why today's kids are arguably less healthy than many prior generations. Obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure -- these are diseases that once appeared only in middle-age and beyond, but are now impacting children. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that by 2050, one in three U.S. adults will have diabetes -- one of them could be your child if you do not take steps to cancel out the messages junk-food marketers are sending and instead teach them healthy eating habits.

Make no mistake, the advertisers are doing all they can to lure your child in.

In fact, last year the food and beverage industry spent more than $40 billion, yes billion, lobbying congress against regulations that would decrease the marketing of unhealthy foods to kids. You can do a lot of persuading with $40 billion, which may explain why food manufacturers are allowed to get away with so much -- like putting pictures of fruit all over product packaging when the product actually contains no fruit.

A 2011 study by the Prevention Institute even found that 84 percent of food packages that contain symbols specifically intended to help people choose healthier foods did not meet even basic nutritional standards! In fact, 57 percent of these "Better-for-You" children's foods were high in sugar, 95 percent contained added sugar, and 21 percent contained artificial colors. So you need to be very wary when buying any processed foods for your kids, even the "healthy" ones, as they will most certainly contain large amounts of fructose with very little to offer in the way of healthy nutrition.

Help Fight Back Against Junk-Food Marketers and Stand Up for Kids' Health

The Prevention Institute's "We're Not Buying It" campaign is petitioning President Obama to put voluntary, science-based nutrition guidelines into place for companies that market foods to kids. You can sign this petition now, but I urge you to go a step further and stop supporting the companies that are marketing junk foods to your children today.

Ideally, you and your family will want to vote with your pocketbook and avoid as much processed food as possible and use unprocessed raw, organic and/or locally grown foods as much as possible. Your children should be eating the same wholesome foods you are -- they don't need bright-blue juice or deep-fried "nuggets" any more than you do.

If you and your kids are absolutely hooked on fast food and other processed foods, you're going to need some help and most likely some support from friends and family if you want to kick the junk-food lifestyle. Besides surrounding yourself with supportive, like-minded people, you can also review my article "How to Wean Yourself Off Processed Foods in 7 Steps" or read the book I wrote on the subject, called Generation XL: Raising Healthy, Intelligent Kids in a High-Tech, Junk-Food World.

Finally, my nutrition plan offers a step-by-step guide to feed your family right, and I encourage you to read through it now. You need to first educate yourself about proper nutrition and the dangers of junk food and processed foods in order to change the food culture of your entire family. To give your child the best start at life, and help instill healthy habits that will last a lifetime, you must lead by example. Children will simply not know which foods are healthy unless you, as a parent, teach it to them first.

Technorati Tags: junk food,healthy food choices,responsible food choices,responsible parenting,childrens health,healthy eating,healthier eating,parental rights,children,moderation in all things,junk food marketers,processed food

World Wide Obesity Epidemic

Global Research, March 19, 2012

Washington's Blog

World Wide Obesity Epidemic

Some 68% of all Americans are overweight, and obesity has almost doubled in the last couple of decades worldwide. As International Business Tribune reports:

Studies conducted jointly by researchers at Imperial College London and Harvard University, published in the medical journal The Lancet, show that obesity worldwide almost doubled in the decades between 1980 and 2008.

***

68 per cent of Americans were found to be overweight while close to 34 percent were obese.

Sure, people are eating too much and exercising too little (this post is not meant as an excuse for lack of discipline and poor choices). The processed foods and refined flours and sugars don’t help. And additives like high fructose corn syrup – which are added to many processed foods – are stuffing us with empty calories.

But given that there is an epidemic of obesity even in 6 month old infants (see below), there is clearly something else going on as well.

Are Toxic Chemicals Making Us Fat?

The toxins all around us might be making us fat.

As the Washington Post reported in 2007:

Several recent animal studies suggest that environmental exposure to widely used chemicals may also help make people fat.

The evidence is preliminary, but a number of researchers are pursuing indications that the chemicals, which have been shown to cause abnormal changes in animals’ sexual development, can also trigger fat-cell activity — a process scientists call adipogenesis.

The chemicals under scrutiny are used in products from marine paints and pesticides to food and beverage containers. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found one chemical, bisphenol A, in 95 percent of the people tested, at levels at or above those that affected development in animals.

These findings were presented at last month’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A spokesman for the chemical industry later dismissed the concerns, but Jerry Heindel, a top official of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), who chaired the AAAS session, said the suspected link between obesity and exposure to “endocrine disrupters,” as the chemicals are called because of their hormone-like effects, is “plausible and possible.”

Bruce Blumberg, a developmental and cell biologist at the University of California at Irvine, one of those presenting research at the meeting, called them “obesogens” — chemicals that promote obesity.

***

Exposed mice became obese adults and remained obese even on reduced calorie and increased exercise regimes. Like tributyltin, DES [which for decades was added to animal feed and routinely given to pregnant women] appeared to permanently disrupt the hormonal mechanisms regulating body weight.

“Once these genetic changes happen in utero, they are irreversible and with the individual for life,” Newbold said.

***

“Exposure to bisphenol A is continuous,” said Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Bisphenol A is an ingredient in polycarbonate plastics used in many products, including refillable water containers and baby bottles, and in epoxy resins that line the inside of food cans and are used as dental sealants. [It is also added to store receipts.] In 2003, U.S. industry consumed about 2 billion pounds of bisphenol A.

Researchers have studied bisphenol A’s effects on estrogen function for more than a decade. Vom Saal’s research indicates that developmental exposure to low doses of bisphenol A activates genetic mechanisms that promote fat-cell activity. “These in-utero effects are lifetime effects, and they occur at phenomenally small levels” of exposure, vom Saal said.

***

Research into the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on obesity has been done only in laboratory animals, but the genetic receptors that control fat cell activity are functionally identical across species. “They work virtually the same way in fish as they do in rodents and humans,” Blumberg said. “Fat cells are an endocrine organ.”

Ongoing studies are monitoring human levels of bisphenol A, but none have been done of tributyltin, which has been used since the 1960s and is persistent in the marine food web. “Tributyltin is the only endocrine disrupting chemical that has been shown without substantial argument to have an effect at levels at which it’s found in the environment,” Blumberg said.

Concern over tributyltin’s reproductive effects on marine animals has resulted in an international agreement discontinuing its use in anti-fouling paints used on ships. The EPA has said it plans next year to assess its other applications, including as an antimicrobial agent in livestock operations, fish hatcheries and hospitals.

Bisphenol A is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in consumer products, and the agency says the amount of bisphenol A or tributyltin that might leach from products is too low to be of concern. But the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, is reviewing bisphenol A, and concerns about its estrogenic effects prompted California legislators to propose banning it from certain products sold in-state, a move industry has fought vigorously.

Similarly, the Daily Beast noted in 2010:

[Bad habits] cannot explain the ballooning of one particular segment of the population, a segment that doesn’t go to movies, can’t chew, and was never that much into exercise: babies. In 2006 scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health reported that the prevalence of obesity in infants under 6 months had risen 73 percent since 1980. “This epidemic of obese 6-month-olds,” as endocrinologist Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco, calls it, poses a problem for conventional explanations of the fattening of America. “Since they’re eating only formula or breast milk, and never exactly got a lot of exercise, the obvious explanations for obesity don’t work for babies,” he points out. “You have to look beyond the obvious.”

The search for the non-obvious has led to a familiar villain: early-life exposure to traces of chemicals in the environment. Evidence has been steadily accumulating that certain hormone-mimicking pollutants, ubiquitous in the food chain, have two previously unsuspected effects. They act on genes in the developing fetus and newborn to turn more precursor cells into fat cells, which stay with you for life. And they may alter metabolic rate, so that the body hoards calories rather than burning them, like a physiological Scrooge. “The evidence now emerging says that being overweight is not just the result of personal choices about what you eat, combined with inactivity,” says Retha Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in North Carolina, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Exposure to environmental chemicals during development may be contributing to the obesity epidemic.” They are not the cause of extra pounds in every person who is overweight—for older adults, who were less likely to be exposed to so many of the compounds before birth, the standard explanations of genetics and lifestyle probably suffice—but environmental chemicals may well account for a good part of the current epidemic, especially in those under 50. And at the individual level, exposure to the compounds during a critical period of development may explain one of the most frustrating aspects of weight gain: you eat no more than your slim friends, and exercise no less, yet are still unable to shed pounds.

***

Newbold gave low doses (equivalent to what people are exposed to in the environment) of hormone-mimicking compounds to newborn mice. In six months, the mice were 20 percent heavier and had 36 percent more body fat than unexposed mice. Strangely, these results seemed to contradict the first law of thermodynamics, which implies that weight gain equals calories consumed minus calories burned. “What was so odd was that the overweight mice were not eating more or moving less than the normal mice,” Newbold says. “We measured that very carefully, and there was no statistical difference.”

***

`Programming the fetus to make more fat cells leaves an enduring physiological legacy. “The more [fat cells], the fatter you are,” says UCSF’s Lustig. But [fat cells] are more than passive storage sites. They also fine-tune appetite, producing hormones that act on the brain to make us feel hungry or sated. With more [fat cells], an animal is doubly cursed: it is hungrier more often, and the extra food it eats has more places to go—and remain.

***

In 2005 scientists in Spain reported that the more pesticides children were exposed to as fetuses, the greater their risk of being overweight as toddlers. And last January scientists in Belgium found that children exposed to higher levels of PCBs and DDE (the breakdown product of the pesticide DDT) before birth were fatter than those exposed to lower levels. Neither study proves causation, but they “support the findings in experimental animals,” says Newbold. They “show a link between exposure to environmental chemicals … and the development of obesity.” [See this for more information on the potential link between pesticides and obesity.]

***

This fall, scientists from NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and academia will discuss obesogens at the largest-ever government-sponsored meeting on the topic. “The main message is that obesogens are a factor that we hadn’t thought about at all before this,” says Blumberg. But they’re one that could clear up at least some of the mystery of why so many of us put on pounds that refuse to come off.

Consumption of the widely used food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been linked to obesity.

Pthalates – commonly used in many plastics – have been linked to obesity. See this and this. So has a chemical used to make Teflon, stain-resistant carpets and other products.

Most of the meat we eat these days contains estrogen, antibiotics and powerful chemicals which change hormone levels. Modern corn-fed beef also contains much higher levels of saturated fat than grass-fed beef. So the meat we are eating is also making us fat.

Arsenic may also be linked with obesity, via it’s effect on the thyroid gland. Arsenic is often fed to chickens and pigs to fatten them up, and we end up ingesting it on our dinner plate. It’s ending up in other foods as well.

A lot of endocrine-disrupting pharmaceuticals and medications are also ending up in tap water.

Moreover, the National Research Council has found:

The effects of fluoride on various aspects of endocrine function should be examined further, particularly with respect to a possible role in the development of several diseases or mental states in the United States.

Some hypothesize that too much fluoride affects the thyroid gland, which may in turn lead to weight gain.

Antibiotics also used to be handed out like candy by doctors. However, ingesting too many antibiotics has also been linked to obesity, as it kills helpful intestinal bacteria. See this and this.

Moreover, many crops in the U.S. are now genetically modified. For example, 93 percent of soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered, as are:

• 86% of all corn
• 93% of canola
• 93% of cottonseed oil
• Between 2008 and 2009, 95% of all sugarbeets planted were genetically engineered to be able to tolerate high doses of the pesticide Roundup

Some allege that Roundup kills healthy gut bacteria, and that genetically modified crops cause other health problems.

And Cornell University’s newspaper – the Cornell Sun – reports that our intestinal bacteria also substantially affect our ability to eliminate toxins instead of letting them make us fat:

Cornell scientists researching the effects of environmental toxins to the onset of obesity and Type II Diabetes, discovered that—unlike other factors such as eating too many unhealthy foods—the extent of damage caused by pollutants depends not on what a person puts into her mouth, but on what is already living within her gut.

Prof. Suzanne Snedeker, food science, and Prof. Anthony Hay, microbiology, researched the contribution that microorganisms in the gut and environmental toxins known as “obesogens” have on ever rising obesity levels. Their work, which was published last October in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, reported a link between composition of gut microbiota, exposure to environmental chemicals and the development of obesity and diabetes. The review, “Do Interactions Between Gut Ecology and Environmental Chemicals Contribute to Obesity and Diabetes?” combined three main ideas: predisposed gut microbe composition can increase an individual’s risk of obesity and Type II Diabetes, gut microbe activity can determine an individual’s metabolic reaction to persistent pollutants such as DDT and PCB and certain pharmaceuticals can also be metabolized differently depending on the community of microbes in the gut.

The microbe community influences many metabolic pathways within the gut, Snedeker said. Our bodies metabolize chemicals, but how they are metabolized, and how much fat is stored, depends on gut ecology. Microbes are responsible not only for collecting usable energy from digested food, but also for monitoring insulin levels, storage of fat and appetite. Gut microbes also play an integral role in dealing with any chemicals that enter the body. According to Snedeker, differences in gut microbiota can cause drugs like acetaminophen to act as a toxin in some people while providing no problems for others. While pharmaceutical and microbe interactions are well understood, there is little information in the area of microbe response to environmental toxins.

She said, there are more than three dozen chemicals called obesogenic compounds, that can cause weight gain by altering the body’s normal metabolic responses and lipid production.

“It seems probable that gut microbes are affecting how our bodies handle these environmental chemicals,” Snedeker said. According to Snedeker, enzymes that are influenced by interactions of gut microbes break down approximately two-thirds of the known environmental toxins. Therefore, differences in the gut microbe community strongly affect our bodies’ ability to get rid of environmental pollutants. Obesogens can alter normal metabolic behavior by changing the levels of fat that our bodies store. Snedeker and Hay suggested that the microbes in the gut of humans determine the way in which these chemicals are metabolized and thus could contribute to obesity.

Snedeker and Hay concluded that although high levels of obesogenic chemicals are bound to cause some kind of disruption in the gut microbe community responsible for breaking these chemicals down, the degree of the disturbance is dependent upon gut microbial composition. In other words, the amount of weight an individual is likely to gain when exposed to environmental toxins, or her risk of acquiring Type II Diabetes, could depend on the microorganism community in their gut.

No, Everything Won‘t Kill You

In response to information about toxic chemicals in our food, water and air, many people change the subject by saying “well, everything will kill you”. In other words, they try to change the topic by assuming that we would have to go back to the stone age to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals.

But this is missing the point entirely. In fact, companies add nasty chemicals to their products and use fattening food-producing strategies to cut corners and make more money.

In the same way that the financial crisis, BP oil spill and Fukushima nuclear disaster were caused by fraud and greed, we are daily exposed to obesity-causing chemicals because companies make an extra buck by lying about what is in their product, cutting every corner in the book, and escaping any consequences for their health-damaging actions.

In fattening their bottom line, the fat cats are creating an epidemic of obesity for the little guy.

What Can We Do To Fight Back?

Eating grass-fed meat instead of industrially-produced corn fed beef will reduce your exposure to obesity-causing chemicals.

Use glass instead of plastic whenever you can, to reduce exposure to pthalates and other hormone-altering plastics.

Try to avoid canned food, or at least look for cans that are free of bisphenol A. (For example, the Eden company sells food in bpa-free cans.) Buy and store food in glass jars whenever possible. And wash your hands after handling store receipts (they still contain bpa).

Eat yogurt or other food containing good bacteria to help restore your healthy intestinal flora. If you don’t like yogurt, you can take “probiotic” (i.e. good bacteria) supplements from your local health food store.

And don’t forget to tell your grocery store that you demand real food that doesn’t contain bpa, pthalates, hormones, antibiotics or other junk. If we vote with our pocketbooks, the big food companies will get the message.

Washington's Blog is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Washington's Blog

Related:

Global Elite Using Obesity Vaccines to Alter Minds and Curb Consumption

More Fruit, Fewer Fries: Michelle Obama Might Have Taken the ‘Happy’ Out of McDonald’s Happy Meals

The 76 Dangers of Sugar

Technorati Tags: grass-fed meat,organic foods,home grown produce,non-GMO foods,obesity,obesity epidemic,obesity epidemic lies,obesity study,fructose corn syrup,bisphenol A,bpa,hormone-altering plastics,use glass

Michael Pollan's prescription to President Barack Obama — and you: ‘Eat food, not too much, mostly plants’

Michael Pollan visited the UBC Farm recently.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER — He’s not as famous as his brother-in-law, actor Michael J. Fox, but Michael Pollan has a captivated audience that can change a nation. One, in particular, is Barack Obama.

Last October, Pollan wrote an open letter to Obama in The New York Times Magazine, citing how the presidential candidate could put the nation’s food system on the right track if he became president. In short order, an Obama aide phoned requesting a summary, but Pollan declined, basically saying if the story could have been shorter, it would have been. Undeterred, Obama quoted Pollan’s article at length in an interview with a reporter from Time magazine.

At the consumer level, Pollan is changing the way people eat, first with Omnivore’s Dilemma, which stayed on The New York Times best-seller list for 91 weeks. In his latest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, he coined a phrase, summarizing the book’s message: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” (Perhaps Obama should have asked for a seven-word summary.) Anyway, the phrase has legs and is working its way onto T-shirts, coffee mugs and the bottom of e-mail signatures. Some Pollan fans have created a web petition, appealing to Obama to appoint Pollan as secretary of agriculture (www.thepetitionsite.com).

Pollan’s shorthand summary of the book is like a semaphore for eating whole, local, mostly vegetarian foods in lesser amounts (like the French, eat less, but more sensually). But the background history, politics, culture and science woven into the book are what makes you sit up. “Food” in his mind does not include “food-like substitutes,” the 17,000 new ones that appear on grocery shelves every year.

I had a chance to sit down with Pollan when he was in Vancouver on a speaking engagement recently. (About 700 people showed up at the University of B.C. Farm.)

“I spent two years looking at the whole question of what we really know about diet and health,” said Pollan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., where he teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Usually, the deeper you drill into questions like that, the more complicated and ambiguous things become and it’s not as simple as you thought. With this question, the opposite was true. The further I went, the simpler it got. After two years of research, I had seven words: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

That’s his prescription for health and well-being.

When Pollan talks about food, he means the kind our grandparents and great-grandparents used to eat.

“The modern way of eating leads to chronic diseases. As soon as you get away from the Western diet, you are going to be healthier.

It’s the elephant in the room that the food industry would rather not pay attention to,” he says.

In his book, he raises the irony of North American orthoexics, referring to an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.

“The chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food,” he says in the book.

“The rise of highly processed foods and refined grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures; the super-abundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat produced by modern agriculture; and the narrowing of the biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops, notably wheat, corn and soy.

These changes have given us the Western diet that we take for granted: lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything — except vegetables, fruits and whole grains.”

Humans, he says, have adapted to a multitude of diets around the world. The Western diet, however, is not one of them and we have higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity than people on culturally traditional diets. By the 1960s, he says, it was all but impossible to sustain our grandparents’ way of eating. Synthetics had entered the food chain, as had meats raised on grains (not pastures) and pharmaceuticals.

The thing is, the big profits are made in cheap, easy, processed food. “It’s easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a raw potato or carrot.”

However, those health claims often crumble like vanilla wafers. “The low-fat campaign,” he says, was an abject failure after 30 years of linking dietary fat with heart disease and cancer and weight gain.

“It is now increasingly recognized that the low-fat campaign has been based on little scientific evidence and may have caused unintended health consequences,” he says in his book. He points out that the human brain is about 60 per cent fat and every neuron is sheathed in a protective layer of fat.

Ironically, Americans got fat on low-fat diets because they turned to carbs to avoid fat.

There’s evidence that carbs interfere with insulin metabolism in ways that increase hunger and promote overeating and, thus, fat storage in the body.

Grandma food, the simple, unadulterated food made of vegetables, fruits and grains, can’t be broken down into reductionist science, he says.

These whole foods are a wilderness of chemical compounds and interactions that science doesn’t understand, just like the workings of our digestive system which has as many neurons as our spinal column.

“But,” he says, “you don’t need to fathom a carrot’s complexity to reap its benefits.”

Pollan is optimistic. “There’s a revolution going on and I’m very encouraged. The fastest growing segment [in the food sector] are farmers’ markets and organics. It’s important on the health level because there are no processed foods at farmers’ markets. Anything that gets people to cook more tends towards a healthier diet.”

And that, he says, is happening despite $32 billion a year spent marketing processed foods in the U.S.

BY MIA STAINSBY, VANCOUVER SUNJUNE 23, 2009

Sorry for the bad fit - full story - vancouversun.com

Click here to listen to the interview with food author Michael Pollan

Related Resources:

• In Defense of Food
• The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Case for Healthy Bowels: The Vital Connection Between Your Gut and Your Health

How healthy are your bowels?

Does that sound silly? It shouldn't. In fact, improving and maintaining the condition of your bowels is serious business.

Chances are you have digestive issues. And you're not alone. According to recent studies conducted by the Dannon Company in 2007, nearly 90 percent of Americans deal with occasional problems with digestion.¹ Seventy percent of women say digestive concerns negatively impact their lives every single day.

Digestive concerns aren't a fun topic of conversation. In fact, many people have trouble talking to their own doctor about their concerns. Others suffer in silent embarrassment, worry and discomfort over the rumbling and gurgling -- the cramps, bloating and gas. The constipation. Or diarrhea. 

The fact is that if your digestive tract isn't operating efficiently, you have more to worry about than just your colon. When you carry around too few friendly bacteria and an overabundance of the bad stuff, your body doesn't make use of all the nutrients you're feeding it.

Your healthy diet won't matter, nor will the nutritional supplements you take. If your digestive system isn't operating efficiently, you aren't getting the full benefit of your good nutritional habits. Not only is your health at risk, but you're throwing money away on high-quality food and nutritional supplements that your body can't make use of.

The good news?

Improving the health of your digestive system is often a simple, straightforward process of achieving the right balance of good and bad gut bacteria. It's a matter of moving the right bacteria, in the right amounts, into permanent residence in your digestive tract.

There are various ways to get the job done, some of which will be discussed later on in this report.

Three very positive changes occur when your good-to-bad intestinal bacteria ratio is brought into balance:

1. Your digestive symptoms diminish or disappear, leaving you comfortable and free to enjoy every day to the fullest.
2. Your body begins to use all the good food and nutritional supplements you feed it.
3. Your immune system de-stresses and is better equipped to fight off disease, contributing to a longer and healthier life.

A few interesting facts about intestinal bacteria:²

1. Your body is home to about one hundred trillion bacteria.
2. There are 500 different species of bacteria comprising that population.
3. The ratio of good to bad bacteria is a critical measure in determining your overall health. The ideal balance is 85 percent good and 15 percent bad.
4. One of the jobs of good bacteria is to control the growth of bad bacteria by competing for nutrition and attachment sites in your colon.

Chances are you have a good idea... a gut feeling... whether your digestive system is working properly. What you probably don't know, though, is how things got out of whack to begin with.

If your colon has been suddenly overtaken by bad bacteria, it likely started in one of two³ ways.

1. Have you taken a course of antibiotics recently?

Antibiotics kill off both bad and good bacteria. If you don't have enough good bacteria in your colon to control the growth of the bad guys, the balance will tip in favor of unfriendly bacteria.

1. You've contracted disease-carrying bad guys such as the Clostridium difficile bacterium, or yeasts... or fungi. Perhaps even parasites.

But what if your digestive issues are as old as your memory or have gradually worsened over the years?

Some scientists are studying the possibility that we've taken the use of anti-bacterial products too far.⁴ They suspect that modern hygiene regimens result in too little exposure to helpful bacteria -- bacteria that protect us from allergies and other faulty immune responses.

Bacterial imbalance in your gut can be worsened by processed foods and foods that have been pasteurized or sterilized.

Other factors affecting your good-to-bad bacteria ratio include where you live, your age, your stress level, and any health issues you may have.

The friendly bacteria that reside in your gut have a number of very important jobs to do.⁵

• Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates.

Without good gut bacteria, your body cannot absorb certain undigested starches, fiber, and sugars. The friendly bacteria in your digestive tract convert these carbohydrates into primary sources of important energy and nutrients.

• Keeping bad bacteria under control.

Simply stated, friendly bacteria compete with the bad guys for room and board in your digestive tract. Since beneficial bacteria are more at home there, they win most of the battles for nutrition and attachment sites within your colon.

The good bacteria tell your body how much nutrition they need and your body responds by supplying just that much and no more -- so that any excess bad bacteria are starved out. The helpful bacteria also produce a substance that kills harmful microbes.

• Preventing allergies.

Friendly bacteria train your immune system to distinguish between pathogens and non-harmful antigens, and to respond appropriately. This important function prevents your immune system from overreacting to non-harmful antigens, which is the genesis of allergies.

• Providing vital support to your immune system.

Beneficial bacteria have a lifelong, powerful affect on your gut's immune system and your systemic immune system as well. The bacteria play a crucial role the development and operation of the mucosal immune system in your digestive tract. They also aid in the production of antibodies to pathogens.

About 80 percent of the cells of your immune system are located in your digestive tract. With that in mind, it's easy to see why the health of your colon dictates your overall health.

When gut bacteria is out of balance not only is your digestion and feeling of well-being compromised, so is your immune system -- and therefore your ability to defend against serious illness and disease.

The list of conditions and diseases thought to be directly or indirectly related to a shortage of friendly gut bacteria is long and growing longer. It includes the following:

Gut-related issues:

1. Infectious diarrhea
2. Intestinal infection caused by the Clostridium difficile bacterium
3. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
4. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease)
5. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacterial infection which causes ulcers and chronic stomach inflammation
6. Leaky gut (a compromised intestinal wall that allows undigested foods and toxins to pass into the bloodstream, triggering an inappropriate immune system response)
7. Lactose intolerance

Surgery-related:

1. Pouchitis (a condition that sometimes results from removal of the colon)
2. Post surgical infections

Infections-related:

1. Stomach and respiratory infections in children in daycare settings
2. Urinary and female genital tract infections

Skin-related:

1. Skin infections
2. Atopic dermatitis (eczema)
3. Acne
4. Autism

Other:

• Premenstrual syndrome
• Bladder cancer
• Diabetes
• Tooth decay and gum disease

According to Dr. Martin Blaser, a pioneer in gut microbe research, chronic inflammatory conditions -- diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis -- are among the most challenging medical issues of our day.

Blaser, a NYU Medical Center microbiologist, believes that these diseases could be genetic or autoimmune in nature. OR... they could be a response to the gradual changes in gut flora that are the result of our modern lifestyles -- the drugs we take, the food we eat, and our growing obsession with all things anti-bacterial.

Helicobacter pylori, a strain of bacteria once present in all human guts, has mostly disappeared in the West.

The good news: H. pylori plays a major role in inflammations associated with peptic ulcers and certain stomach cancers, so it appears at first glance that eradication of this microbe is movement in the right direction. However...

The bad news: H. pylori has a benefit -- it actually reduces acid reflux. Acid reflux disease is serious in and of itself, but did you know that it's also implicated in both asthma and cancer of the esophagus?

Dr. Blaser, an expert in H. pylori, links the decline of the strain to the dramatic rise in acid reflux disease and associated conditions. Blaser also points to a connection between H. pylori depletion and obesity -- the bacteria help regulate production of hormones that act on appetite and metabolism.

The theory behind the dramatic rise in allergies and autoimmune diseases holds that we are actually suffering from a lack of bacterial exposure in our modern-day environments.

Scientists believe that early contact with microbes teaches our bodies to respond appropriately to pathogens later in life. It is a lack of exposure, according to experts, that is contributing to a rise in ineffective immune systems.

How attached you are to speed and convenience when it comes to making food choices?

Modern day convenience foods -- foods that are heavily processed and often loaded with sugar -- are essentially the equivalent of pesticides in farming.

Think about it. Pesticides are designed to quickly and conveniently kill plant bugs. What they also unavoidably kill, however, are the microorganisms in the soil, and ultimately, the soil itself.

In much the same way, processed and prepackaged foods are designed to quickly and conveniently kill your hunger or thirst, or both.

But convenience foods are often so preservative-dense and nutrient-deficient that they do more harm than good inside your body. Among other things, they promote the growth of pathogens -- bad bugs -- thereby hampering the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut. And you know where that leads -- right?

What, exactly, are processed foods?

Simply put, they are foods altered from their natural state.⁶ They might be canned, frozen, or dehydrated. They frequently contain trans fats, and high levels of sodium and sugar. A few processed foods can be healthier than others -- 100 percent fruit and vegetable juices, for example. Or frozen vegetables.

Processed foods to be avoided include:

• boxed meals (macaroni and cheese, hamburger and tuna 'helpers,' etc.)
• chips and other high-calorie snack foods
• foods made with refined white flour (white breads, pastas, rice)
• frozen dinners
• high-fat canned foods (spaghetti, for example)
• packaged cakes and cookies
• processed meats (sausage, hot dogs, bologna and other packaged lunch meats)
• sodium-laden canned foods
• sugared cereals

If you're planning to wean yourself from convenience foods, start by eliminating processed meats. They're the worst of the worst and are thought to increase your risk of certain types of cancers.

Even though the average modern American ingests over a half-cup of sugar every day -- 175 pounds per year -- it may surprise you to know that sugar is not a food.⁷ And your body doesn't like much of it since it has trouble digesting the stuff and making use of it.

Sugar promotes the growth of disease-causing yeasts and fungi. Symptoms of a yeast (candida) overgrowth include fatigue, lethargy, depression, irritability, headaches, problems concentrating, muscle weakness, recurrent vaginal and urinary tract infections, athlete's foot, jock itch, persistent heartburn, indigestion, constipation, swollen joints, nasal congestion and sore throat.⁸

Like processed foods, sugar encourages your bad gut bacteria to grow, flourish, and overwhelm your digestive tract.

And that's just for starters.

Sugar in all its forms is the number one source of calories in the American diet. It is also the number one reason 66 percent of Americans are overweight, and half of that group is obese.

The list of sugar consumption-related health problems -- over and above those associated with weight gain and obesity -- is long and impressive. Conditions and diseases that affect every square inch of you, inside and out, can be directly or indirectly the result of excessive sugar intake.

From problems with your eyesight to the very structure of your DNA -- from tooth decay to fluid retention to Alzheimer's to cancer -- sugar can play a role.

What you should avoid:

• All artificial sweeteners, such as: NutraSweet, Equal, Splenda, sucralose and others
• The obvious sweet and dessert-type stuff -- candy, gum, cookies, cakes, pies, pastries, ice cream, etc.
• Cane syrup
• Corn syrup and corn sugar
• Invert sugar
• All the -- oses, including dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, and maltose

In case you don't have reason enough yet to re-evaluate your sugar intake, here's another twist in the sugar-obesity connection. Researchers have discovered a difference in gut bacteria between the overweight and those of normal weight.⁹

In the obese, a bacterial strain known as firmicutes is found in much greater abundance than in leaner individuals. In those of normal weight, the bacteroidetes strain is in greater supply.

The firmicutes bacteria appear to be much better than the bacteroidetes strain at turning calories from complex sugars into fat. But as those who are overweight begin to slim down, the bacterial balance shifts from predominantly firmicutes to predominantly bacteroidetes.

Despite the fact that modern day lifestyles and habits have contributed to our digestive issues and related health concerns, the answer is not to turn back the clock.

There are steps you can take -- foods and supplements you can consume -- that will help to re-balance the bacteria in your digestive system and maintain it at an optimum level of health.

When your good-to-bad bacteria ratio is ideal (85 percent good to 15 percent bad), your digestive symptoms will subside. You can relax knowing that you are giving your immune system the support it needs to respond effectively to serious threats to your well-being.

In contrast to the pesticide effect of processed foods and sugar on the state of your health, fermented foods act as natural fertilizers, if you will -- providing nutrients and promoting growth of healthy bacteria in your digestive tract.

For ages, humans have used fermented foods to improve intestinal health. In fact, people of Bulgarian and Asian descent are known for their longevity -- and their consumption of fermented foods.

Traditionally fermented foods contain living micro-organisms that replenish the friendly bacteria in your digestive tract.

A few of the foods in this group include:

• Fermented milk
• Natto
• Miso
• Kimchee
• Tempeh
• Kefir
• Yogurt
• Olives
• Sauerkraut
• Pickles

It is important to note that traditionally fermented foods are not the equivalent of the same foods, commercially processed.¹⁰ The only way to insure you're consuming the real thing is to prepare your own fermented foods at home.

Try a Kefir Cocktail

Kefir, which means ‘feel good’, is a traditionally fermented food rich in enzymes, beneficial yeast and gut-friendly bacteria. It is similar in consistency to liquid yogurt and when prepared correctly is refreshing, energizing drink.

Kefir provides all the benefits of a probiotic – and much more.  It’s considered superior therapeutic nutrition, rich in many of the minerals and essential amino acids your body requires for optimum health.  And Kefir not only contains strains of friendly bacteria that yogurt does not – it also helps to colonize your digestive tract.

Another benefit of Kefir is that all lactose is digested in the culturing process, making it safe for many who are lactose-intolerant.  If you find that you do have trouble digesting the milk Kefir, you can substitute coconut juice.

Kefir is easy to make at home.

Combine Kefir granules with your favorite milk or coconut juice and let the mixture ferment.  Both temperature and time play a role in determining the consistency and taste that is most appealing to you.  Shoot for a creamy texture – a little thicker than milk.  Refrigerate and drink a toast daily to your good health.

If you don’t have the time or interest in experimenting with traditionally fermented foods, don’t despair.  There is an alternative.

The word probiotics means 'for life.' The dietary supplement was invented by Elie Metchnikoff, a Russian physiologist and Nobel prize winner. Metchnikoff was the first to suggest that consuming acid-producing live organisms maintained the vitality of your large intestine, leading to a longer and healthier life.¹²

Like those found in traditionally fermented foods, the live micro-organisms in probiotic supplements help to replenish and maintain the friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract. Good bacteria drive down the pH of your gut, which creates an inhospitable environment for bad bacteria. The result is that the good guys flourish and the bad guys are kept in check.

How often should you take a probiotic supplement? Taken daily, probiotics will help ease any current digestive upsets you're experiencing and will also act to maintain the bacterial balance in your gut longer term.

What you should look for in a probiotic supplement:

• No need for refrigeration
• Long shelf life
• Can survive stomach acid so that it reaches your small intestine
• Stays resident in your digestive tract long enough to be effective

There is mounting evidence that probiotic supplements can be beneficial for everyone -- from infants to the elderly -- for a wide range of symptoms, conditions and diseases.

Infants and children

Probiotics have gained recognition as an effective treatment for diarrhea in children. They have also been used in newborns and infants to repair and support the reliability of their developing digestive systems.

What you might not know is that a number of studies are planned or underway to test the benefit of probiotics in treating a wide variety of other conditions and childhood health issues:

1. Probiotics are being considered in the treatment of children with HIV/AIDS.¹³
2. A study is currently underway to see if probiotic supplements can prevent asthma in children.¹⁴
3. Still another study was conducted to gauge the impact of probiotic supplementation on the oral health of children.¹⁵
4. A European study reported good results in achieving relief of colic in infants.¹⁶
5. There is evidence that probiotics can prevent eczema in infants.¹⁷
6. The beneficial effects of probiotics on GI symptoms related to autism have also been studied.¹⁸

Women We've already discussed the benefits probiotics can provide to the vast majority of women who suffer from digestive distress. However, there are a number of other health issues specific to women that may also be positively impacted by probiotic supplementation. Among them:

1. Urogenital infections¹⁹
2. Immune system support during pregnancy and breastfeeding²⁰

Aging Boomers and the elderly

Around age 60, there is a significant drop in the number of bacteria in our guts.²¹

People over 60 have 1,000 times less friendly bacteria than younger adults. The drop in helpful bacteria increases susceptibility to bowel disorders and infections. Infections may necessitate treatment by antibiotics, which further decimate the good bug count... and you see where this can head.

Clearly, a daily probiotic supplement is an excellent way for older adults to replenish and maintain friendly intestinal bacteria.

Also as you age, your cellular immunity declines.²² (These are the white cells that are absolutely critical to your ability to fight infection and life-threatening diseases such as cancer.)

A nine-week New Zealand study of seniors 63 to 84 indicated that consumption of the probiotic strain known as Bifidobacterium lactisresults in increases in both the number and disease-fighting capacity of white cells. And in fact, the greatest improvement was seen in seniors with the worst immune system responses prior to the study.

Dr. Joseph E. Pizzorno, Jr., physician and former member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, uses probiotics to treat irritable bowel syndrome, acne, eczema -- even PMS.

Says Pizzorno, "It's unusual for me to see a patient with a chronic disease that doesn't respond to probiotics."

Two things are clear:

1. Sufficient amounts of friendly bacteria are fundamental to your good health. It's impossible to be optimally healthy if your gut's bacterial balance is out of whack. 
2. Your lifestyle -- your diet, medications, the antibacterial cleansers you use, and other factors outside your control -- are working together to compromise the number of lifesaving friendly bacteria in your digestive system.

Maintaining a good balance of gut bacteria through diet and regular probiotic supplementation is one of the most important things you can do to increase your chances of remaining healthy and vital for a lifetime.

Source:  Dr. Mercola

Posted:  TrueHealthIsTrueWealth

Checkout:  Sanoviv Medical Center & TaiSlim - The Weight Is Over