Nutrition information is abundant but often confusing. Food, Facts and Fads helps you to separate the sense from the nonsense
When discussing the Standard American Diet, diet advice keep emphasizing what not to eat and ignores the more important aspects of a healthy diet, in other words, what to eat. This article addresses a more detail about how the SAD may be killing us, not only in our country but how it affects other countries when their populations adopt more Western ways of eating and often stray from their traditional diets.
When in the supermarket, have you noticed lately the extent of the cereal aisle? How many choices do we need? A lot of people start the day with their favorite. For example, an all-time favorite of Frosted Flakes states on the box – “Sweetened Flakes of Corn Cereal.” but also contains wheat starch. But what else do we find?
First we see that primarily, 1/1/4 cup serving provides us with:
They do provide some entertainment on the box with a fun game of FIND A PENGUIN FRIEND (sort of a take off of Where’s Waldo.) if you get bored eating the cereal.
How did all this begin? In other words, how did we get here?
CALLING DR. KELLOGG
By Sally J. Feltner, M.S, PhD.
John Harvey Kellogg was born in 1852 in Tyrone, Michigan and died at the age of 91 in Battle Creek, Michigan He was a medical doctor and graduated from New York University Medical College at Bellevue Hospital in 1875. He married Ella Ervilla Eaton in 1879 and had no biological children except for 42 foster children, legally adopting eight of them before Ella died in 1920. He had one brother, Will Keith Kellogg.
After medical school, he became the chief physician in 1866 at the Western Heath Reform Institute of Battle Creek, founded by the Seventh Day Adventist leader, Ellen G. White. This soon became the Battle Creek Sanitarium, aka “the San” and its health principles were based on the Church including vegetarianism. Through the years, the San had many notable patients/guests that included former President, William Howard Taft, arctic explorers Stefansson and Amundsen, writer and broadcaster, Lowell Thomas, aviator Amelia Earhart, playwright George Bernard Shaw, athlete Johnny Weissmuller, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and actress Sarah Bernhardt.
Dr. Kellogg believed that almost all disease began in the stomach and bowels and promoted daily yogurt enemas to clean the intestines. He also encouraged his guests to practice breathing exercises and mealtime marches to promote proper digestion during the day. He strongly believed in nuts which he thought would save mankind in the face of decreasing food supplies and developed a patent for making peanut butter. He also thought that coffee was unhealthy for the liver and that indigestion was the leading cause of death. Most spices were unhealthy and vinegar was a “poison, not a food.”
While a medical student in New York in 1874-75, Kellogg began to be aware of the need for ready-cooked foods, at least ready-to-eat cereals. As part of the “Sans” menu, Kellogg and brother Will made several grain products by forcing wheat grain through rollers to make sheets of dough. One time, the dough seemed overcooked and the dough when flattened emerged as a flake. After this, the sanitarium became famous for its wheat and corn flakes. Many guests had complained that the hard biscuits they served had played havoc with their teeth, so the invention of the flake alleviated this issue.
Kellogg believed that most disease is alleviated by a change in intestinal flora; that bacteria in the intestines can either help or hinder the body; that pathogenic bacteria produce toxins during the digestion of protein that poison the blood; that a poor diet favors harmful bacteria that can infect other tissues of the body; that the intestinal flora is changed by diet and is generally changed for the better by a well-balanced vegetarian diet favoring low-protein and high fiber foods. Ironically, the theory that intestinal bacteria influence some disease states is gaining favor recently – maybe Kellogg was correct to a point.
By 1905, the Kellogg brothers were selling their corn flakes under the name of the Sanitas Company and had competition from a number of other companies in Battle Creek. One of his former patients, C. W. Post had started his own cereal company and Kellogg accused Post of stealing his corn flake formula. Will Kellogg wanted to add sugar to their cereals, but Dr. Kellogg disagreed with him. C.W. Post added sugar to his cereal however. Will left the Sanitarium and started the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906. The brothers had a strained relationship over business dealings in which Will sued his older brother. The case lasted for most of the rest of their lives with Will eventually winning the suit.
John Harvey continued to run the San but due to the Depression, it was sold. He did establish another health institute in Florida.
So this is a brief history of the vast ready-to-eat cereal industry we presently enjoy. Lately there has been a recommendation to lower our sugar intake and cereals are often named as “culprits.” Even though Dr. Kellogg was often thought of as eccentric in his beliefs, his thoughts on adding sugar to his corn flakes may have been prudent and Tony the Tiger would not be in so much trouble today with its added sugar content.
I wonder what John Harvey would think now.
From an article, entitled End the Diet Debate by Victoria Lambert, MS, RD comes the following:
“Please stop discussing, debating and and researching the optimal human diet. We already know what it is.”
I agree as there is no such thing as the Perfect Diet. We all eat different things – whether we call ourselves Carnivores, Herbivores or the most common, Omnivores. The following article makes a lot of sense that everyone should think about when it comes to food acceptance. It can be simple by doing three things: Eat your vegetables, cook at home, eat less processed food for starters. It is what you make it and the degree of simplicity is dependent on your lifestyle (a new trend in medicine and nutrition).
A term used for decades to describe foods that would make one gain weight was the expression of “fattening”.
Moderate avoidance (though not totally responsible) of these foods became the conventional wisdom to help avoid weight gain and became a dieter’s mantra. In fact, food history indicates that body-weight was relatively stable until about the late 1990’s in the United States. At that time, dietary advice had shifted to low-fat diets with the added disadvantage of food companies at the time replacing fat in their food products with more carbohydrate-containing foods.
Keep in mind- basic biochemistry tells us that all carbohydrates (except for dietary fiber) are eventually converted to glucose in the body to be used for energy. We are further reminded that some carbs are referred to as “starchy” (bad) and others as “non starchy” (good ).
The following article further elucidates the term of what are now commonly referred to as “white foods” and refers to their state of processing – refined or unrefined and how they may participate in our current obesity epidemic.
Friendly Bacteria
The microbiome is one of the hot topics in the world of diet and nutrition science. Many claims are being made that attempt to associate “healthy” and “unheathy” microbes in the gut with certain diseases, e.g. Parkinson’s, depression and even autism.
Here are some facts:
The gut microbiome is the most complex ecosystem in the world.
Diversity in the microbiome leads to health and is governed by our diet.
Seventy percent of Americans have digestive related symptoms or disease.
Diets can change the biome in 24 hours; however, usually this change is temporary.
Probiotics are not the only answer. Prebiotics may play more of a role in feeding the microbiome and keeping it healthy. Short chain fatty acids called butyrate and other metabolites can be the fuel for intestinal bacteria. It may be protective against the dangerous low-grade inflammation thought to be caused by a high-fat /high sugar diet or artificial sweeteners.
Prebiotic Foods:
| Jerusalem artichokes | Sauerkraut |
| Onions | Maple Syrup |
| Chickory root (inulin) | Peas |
| Garlic | Legumes |
| Leeks | Eggplant |
| Bananas | Honey |
| Fruit | Green Tea |
| Soybeans | Yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir |
Best Advice: EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!
The composition of the microbiome can help to shape a healthy immune system.
In my opinion, we still are in the infancy stage in knowing just what microbes are helpful or harmful and how they affect our health. We do know that treatment with fecal transplants can help to treat a persistent condition called Clostridium difficle or C. diff that can occur after using antibiotics or being in the hospital. Just recently, a friend of mine says she had the disease without taking antibiotics or being hospitalized; therefore, it may occur in the community as well.
The following article provides some common sense knowledge about this topic with some advice on dealing with the issue of diet, prebiotics and probiotics for our health.
Dietary Supplements: The Myths and Realities
In 1994 Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which led to an explosion of manufactured compounds which are now number to more than 80,000 products on the market and the number continues to grow. Types of dietary supplements include:
A recent edition of Consumer Reports (December 2019) has provided a very comprehensive article by Kevin Loria entitled “Shop Smarter About Supplements” that everyone should read if you take any dietary supplements to fully understand why consumers should be aware of the realities, both positive and negative of these products. Americans place lot of trust in diet supplement safety even though they are largely unregulated.
Here are some FACTS: Source: Consumer Reports
However, under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, diet supplements do not have to be tested prior to marketing or shown to be safe or effective. Although they are often advertised to relieve certain ailments, they are not considered to be drugs. They are not subjected to vigorous testing to prove safety or effectiveness, as drugs must be. The FDA largely relies on any claims from the manufacturers. It has been shown that many industry-funded studies only favor positive results and many negative effects never see the light of day. So when you read in a headline for a supplement, “clinical trials have shown…,” the bias of the manufacturer of the study results may be suspected.
In fact, each supplement label must include the following declaration of any claim:
“This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”
To summarize the realities:
What Can You Do?
Source: Judith E. Brown, Nutrition Now, 7th Edition.
Is Our Intake of Vegetable Oils Inflammatory? Some research suggests so.
Chronic inflammation is associated with the onset of many chronic diseases including heart disease and cancer. From eating different types of polyunsaturated fats, we can influence the presence of inflammation by the fact that certain hormone-like compounds called eisosanoids within the body are produced from polyunsaturated fats that affect blood clotting, blood pressure, immune function, and the inflammatory response. These fats are called omega-6 (inflammatory) or omega-3 (anti-inflammatory) fatty acids.
The problem is that the American Diet contains too many omega-6 and too little omega-3 fats. We ideally evolved on a ratio of these fatty acids as 1:1. Currently our diet has an unbalanced ratio of 1:20 of 6’s and 3’s respectively. The following article addresses the research that suggests that this issue may be partly responsible for our higher cancer rates than found in other countries with a more favorable ratio (closer to 1:1 of these fats. The last part gives us some sound advice on what to do with your diet to alleviate this problem.
There is a lot of attention being paid to the importance of lifestyle factors in the onset of chronic diseases we may encounter as we age. Alzheimer’s disease is dreaded by many people as well as other diseases such as heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes.
For a comprehensive article on the latest findings and facts for prevention and/or delay of onset, CLICK HERE.
It’s important to realize that these factors are still controversial and need more studies to follow up their effects on chronic diseases; however, drug therapy is sadly lacking at the present time and healthy living is not toxic and may be less inflammatory to our bodies. Hopefully, as we learn more, healthy people can practice these lifestyles earlier in life rather than waiting until the disease process has begun.
“Nobody disagrees: We Americans eat badly. We eat too many calories, too much highly processed food and not nearly enough vegetables.
Why is that? Ask the question, and you get a lot of answers, which is appropriate for a matter as complex as a country’s diet. But one of the answers that bubbles to the top almost every time is that nutritious food just costs more.” But does it?
Another factor that has affected our eating behavior more recently is “Where do Americans Eat?” Another factor is flavor, taste. Please read the Comments at the end of the article – they are always interesting and straight from the consumer’s standpoint.
This debate still continues to capture the headlines – is red meat healthy or not for us or the planet? Food, Facts and Fads will continue to follow the research and attempt to offer some reasonable advice about this issue. Best approach? Be reasonable with your red meat consumption until further notice, but don’t panic. Americans are avid meat eaters and it’s difficult to know who to trust due to the biases of each side. For the latest CLICK HERE.
FOOD, FACTS and FADS 