The New Optimum Nutrition Bible

by Patrick Holford

  If you asked me to take an educated guess, I’d put my money on hormone-disrupting chemicals, both because of the evidence that’s emerging and because of the logic. Prostate and breast cells are stimulated to grow by hormonal messages. Ask oncologists and they’ll tell you that these hormone-sensitive cells go into overgrowth when exposed to too much estrogen or estrogen-like chemicals. The late Dr. John Lee argued eloquently in favor of “estrogen dominance” being a primary cause of breast cancer. He explained in his excellent book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Breast Cancer, that estrogen is the hormone that makes things grow and that progesterone keeps cells healthy. Too much of the former and not enough of the latter could tip the scales to abnormal cell growth. Too much stress and sugar, leading to insulin resistance, along with exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals (from DDT, dioxins, and PCB to estrogen and synthetic-progestin HRT) could swing the balance, but there’s another growth promoter. It’s called insulin-like growth factor (IGF). There are different types—IGF-1, IGF-2, and so on, although much of the focus is on IGF-1.

  Milk is rich in IGF-1. Modern milk is doubly abundant in it, partly because cows have been selectively reared to produce milk during pregnancy. This milk is especially rich in estrogen. On top of that, in the United States cows are treated with bovine growth hormone (BGH), which is a growth hormone capable of further increasing milk yield by about 12 percent. All this means a cow’s daily milk production has gone from three to thirty quarts. Not surprisingly, this milk has two to five times the amount of IGF-1, while the beef from a BGH-treated animal has about double the IGF. Casein, the protein in milk, helps carry the IGF into us.

  Our bodies do make IGF, but produce very little in adulthood. It’s produced mainly in childhood to stimulate growth. When levels in the blood increase by 8 percent, risk for prostate cancer increases seven times. Levels of IGF are, on average, 9 percent higher in meat-eating omnivores and dairy-eating vegetarians than in vegans. Recent research from Shanghai, China, has found that the higher a woman’s IGF-1 levels, the higher her risk for breast cancer. This study found that women in the top 25 percent of IGF-1 scores had two to three times the risk of women in the bottom 25 percent of IGF-1 levels.10 A study from York University in England on the link between IGF and prostate cancer risk in men found a similar result. Men in the top 25 percent of IGF levels had three times the risk of prostate cancer.11 These are just two of a dozen trials finding a strong link between circulating levels of IGF-1 and cancer. There are just as many showing a direct correlation between dairy consumption and breast and prostate cancer risk.

  What does IGF-1 do, and why is it a strong candidate for increasing risk of cancer? Normally, it is produced by the liver, especially during puberty. In girls, it stimulates the growth of breast tissue, encouraging cells to divide and grow. In boys, it stimulates growth of the prostate. There’s nothing wrong with IGF-1. It’s a perfectly normal hormone. It’s just that we aren’t designed to be eating sources of it in adulthood.

  In countries such as the United States, where cows are treated with BGH, milk from these cows develops raised levels of IGF-1, found in both the cow and those who drink the milk. This growth factor makes estrogen more potent in the body, and research is increasingly showing that it could increase the risk of breast and colon cancer. University of Illinois toxicologist Dr. Samuel Epstein says that “all women from conception to death will now be exposed to an additional breast-cancer risk due to milk from cows treated with BGH.”

  While milk naturally contains small amounts of estrogen, changes in farming practices now make it possible to milk cows continuously, even while they are pregnant. These pregnant cows produce milk with much higher levels of estrogen. If you drink milk, my advice is to stick to organic milk, which disallows this practice and the use of BGH. On top of that, cows eating pesticide- or herbicide-sprayed feed tend to accumulate residues in their meat and fat. For a consumer of meat or milk products, choosing the organic rather than nonorganic varieties reduces the risk of exposure to pesticide and herbicide residues as well as BGH.

  Allergy and its effects

  Milk allergy or intolerance is very common among both children and adults. Sometimes this is the result of lactose intolerance, since many adults lose the ability to digest lactose (milk sugar). The symptoms are bloating, abdominal pain, gas, and diarrhea, which subside on giving lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose. Probably equally common is an allergy to dairy products. The most common symptoms are a blocked nose and excessive mucus production, respiratory complaints such as asthma, and gastrointestinal problems. These are inflammatory reactions produced by the body when it doesn’t like what you’re eating. Such intolerances are most likely to occur in people who consume dairy products regularly in large quantities. Few people who are allergic to milk can tolerate yogurt. Some can tolerate goat’s milk or sheep’s milk. Most can’t.

  Milk and infant-onset diabetes

  Growing evidence is linking child-onset diabetes to allergy to bovine serum albumin (BSA) in dairy products.12 This type of diabetes, which tends to strike in the early teenage years, starts with the immune system destroying the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Why this occurs has long been a mystery.

  While there is a genetic predisposition to insulin-dependent diabetes (IDD), this is only part of the picture. Genetically susceptible children who had been breast-fed for at least seven months or exclusively breast-fed for at least three or four months were found to have a significantly decreased incidence of IDD, which suggested another factor. Children who have not been given cow’s milk until they are four months or older also show the same substantially reduced risk. The highest incidence of IDD is found in Finland, which has the world’s highest consumption of milk products.

  Animal studies showed that rats bred to be susceptible to diabetes had a much higher risk of contracting the disease if their feed contained either milk or wheat gluten. In one study, even the addition of 1 percent skimmed milk to their diet increased the incidence of IDD from 15 percent to 52 percent.

  In 1993, Dr. Hans-Michael Dosch, professor of immunology at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, identified BSA as the specific factor in dairy products that increased the risk of diabetes and showed that it cross-reacted with the cells of the pancreas. He and his fellow researchers theorized that diabetes-susceptible babies introduced to BSA earlier than around four months, before which age the gut wall is immature and more permeable, would develop an allergic response to BSA. As a result, their immune cells would mistakenly destroy not only the BSA molecules but also pancreatic tissue. He went on to show that, of 142 newly diagnosed IDD children, 100 percent had antibodies to BSA, compared with 2 percent in unaffected children. Dr. Dosch believes that the presence of these anti-BSA antibodies indicated future child-onset diabetes in 80 to 90 percent of cases.

  He believes that keeping children off dairy products for at least their first six months halves the risk. BSA can, however, pass from the mother’s diet into her milk. So if breast-feeding mothers avoid beef and dairy products, the risk can be completely removed in genetically susceptible children. The current opinion is that about one in four children is genetically susceptible. Avoiding milk may also have benefits for a child’s mental development. The vast majority of autistic children and many who suffer from hyperactivity prove allergic to milk.

  Milk and meat—the verdict

  From the current evidence, given the present state of intensive farming, neither meat (particularly beef) nor milk (especially for young children) should be staple foods if you really want to pursue optimum nutrition. But this is no loss—not only is it possible to have a healthy diet without including dairy products and meat, it’s also almost certainly going to decrease your risk of the common killer diseases. For meat lovers who feel they do not want to go vegetarian, I recommend avoiding beef and eating meat no more than three times a week, substituting more fresh vegetables and whole foods such as beans, lentils, and whole gra
ins and choosing only organic meats and free-range chicken or fish. For milk, substitute soy or rice milk or buy organic milk. If you suspect you might be allergic, stay off all dairy products for fourteen days. If it makes no difference, limit your intake of milk to one quart a week.

  Some general guidelines for your protein intake

  Eat two servings of beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu (soy), “seed” vegetables, or other vegetable protein; or one small serving of meat, fish, or cheese; or a free-range egg, every day.

  Reduce your intake of dairy products and avoid them altogether if you are allergic, substituting soy or rice milk.

  Reduce other sources of animal protein, choosing lean meat or fish and eating no more than three servings a week.

  Eat organic whenever possible to avoid possible contamination with hormones and antibiotics.

  9

  The Fats of Life

  Fat is good for you! Eating the right kind of fat is absolutely vital for optimal health. Essential fats reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, allergies, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, eczema, depression, fatigue, infections, PMS—the list of symptoms and diseases associated with deficiency is growing every year. If you are fat-phobic, you are depriving yourself of essential health-giving nutrients and increasing your risk of poor health. The same is true if the fat you eat is hard—this means fat from dairy products, meat, and most varieties of margarine.

  The human brain is 60 percent fat and one-third of the fat in your diet should come from essential fats if you want to achieve your full potential for health and happiness. In fact, unless you go out of your way to eat the right kinds of fat-rich foods, such as seeds, nuts, and fish, the chances are that you are not getting enough good fat. Most people in the Western world eat too much saturated fat, the kind that kills, and too little of the essential fats, the kinds that heal.

  Fat figures

  It is considered optimum to consume no more than 20 percent of your total calories in the form of fat. The current average in the U.S. is above 35 percent. Inhabitants of countries that have a low incidence of fat-related diseases, like Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines, consume only about 20 percent of their total calorie intake as fat. For example, Japanese people eat on average 40 grams of fat a day, whereas Americans eat about double that.

  Saturated and monounsaturated fats are not essential nutrients: you do not need them, although they can be used by the body to make energy. But polyunsaturated fats or oils are essential. Almost all foods that contain fat have a balance of all three. A piece of meat will contain mainly saturated and monounsaturated fat with little polyunsaturated fat. Olive oil has mainly monounsaturated fat. Sunflower seed oil has mainly polyunsaturated fat.

  Most authorities now agree that no more than one-third of our total fat intake should be saturated (hard) fat and at least one-third should be polyunsaturated oils providing the two essential fats: the linoleic acid family, known as omega-6, and the alpha-linolenic acid family, known as omega-3. The ideal balance between these two is roughly the same amount of omega-6 as of omega-3. So an ideal “fat profile,” based on fat forming no more than 20 percent of our total calorie intake, might consist of:

  3.5 percent omega-6

  3.5 percent omega-3

  7 percent monounsaturated fat

  6 percent saturated fat

  Fat intake.

  Most people are deficient in both omega-6 and omega-3 fats; however, the real change in modern living is a vast increase in saturated fat and a decrease in omega-3 fats (see figure below). In addition, a lot of the polyunsaturated fats we eat are damaged and become “trans” fats or processed fats, known as “hydrogenated” fats. These stop the body making good use of the small quantity of essential fats that the average person eats in a day.

  How fat intake has changed. In modern times, total fat intake has increased. Saturated fat intake has increased, although it is now leveling off. Omega-6 fat intake has increased, but this is slightly misleading because much of it is “hydrogenated” vegetable oils, which act like saturated fats. Intake of omega-3 fats, in fish and seeds, has gone down, leading to widespread deficiency.

  Leaf and Weber. 1987. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 45: 1048–53.

  The omega-6 fat family

  The grandmother of the omega-6 fat family is linoleic acid, which is converted by the body into gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Evening primrose oil and borage oil are the richest known sources of GLA, and if you take these in supplement form you need less overall oil to obtain enough omega-6 fats. The ideal intake is around 100 mg of GLA a day, equivalent to 1,000 mg of evening primrose oil or 500 mg of high-potency borage oil—a capsule a day.

  Fats that heal, fats that kill.

  GLA is the precursor for two fats. Some GLA is converted into arachidonic acid. This type of fat is used to build the brain, along with the omega-3 fat DHA. GLA is also converted into DGLA (dihom-gamma-linolenic acid) and from there into prostaglandins, which are extremely active hormonelike substances. The particular kinds made from these omega-6 oils are called series 1 prostaglandins. They keep the blood thin, which prevents clots and blockages, relaxes blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, helps maintain the water balance in the body, decreases inflammation and pain, improves nerve and immune function, and helps insulin work, which is good for blood sugar balance. And this is only the beginning. Every year more and more health-promoting functions of prostaglandins are being discovered.

  Prostaglandins themselves cannot be supplemented, as they are very shortlived; we rely instead on a good intake of their source, omega-6 fats. This family of fats comes exclusively from seeds and their oils. The best are hemp, pumpkin, sunflower, safflower, sesame, corn, walnut, soybean, and wheat germ oil. About half of the fats in these oils come from the omega-6 family, mainly as linoleic acid. An optimal intake, if this were your only source of essential fats, would be one to two tablespoons of oil a day or two to three tablespoons of ground seeds.

  The omega-3 fat family

  The modern diet is much more deficient in omega-3 fats than in omega-6. This is because the grandmother of the omega-3 family, alpha-linolenic acid, and her metabolically active grandchildren EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), from which series 3 prostaglandin are made, are more unsaturated and more prone to damage in cooking and food processing. Hence, they are often purposely excluded from convenience foods. This, plus the reduced consumption of fish, is fueling the epidemics of cardiovascular disease and mental health problems since both brain and body depend on omega-3 fats. As these fats get converted in the body to more “active” substances, they become more unsaturated, and generally the word used for them gets longer (for instance, oleic acid: one degree of unsaturation; linoleic: two degrees of unsaturation; linolenic: three degrees of unsaturation; eicosapentaenoic: five degrees of unsaturation).

  You can observe this increasing complexity as we move up the food chain. Plankton, for example, the staple food of small fish, is rich in alpha-linolenic acid. The little fish eat the plankton, then the carnivorous fish, like mackerel or herring, eat the small fish, which have converted some of their alpha-linolenic acid into more complex fats. The carnivorous fish continue the conversion. Seals eat them and have the highest EPA and DHA concentration. Finally, Eskimos eat the seals and benefit from a ready-made meal of EPA and DHA. You, if you want to have a healthy brain and body … eat Eskimos! Actually, the Inuit people, as they are properly known, have a very low incidence of cardiovascular disease despite a very high intake of fat and cholesterol. This really emphasizes that it is the kind of fat you eat, not how much, that is most important.

  The omega-3 and omega-6 fat families. Omega-6 seed oils are processed in the body from linoleic acid into GLA (gamma-linoienic acid). GLA is found in evening primrose oil and in borage oil. GLA can also be turned into arachidonic acid, an essential fat found in meat and milk. However, you don’t want too much arachidonic add because it encourages inflammation by making se
ries 2 prostaglandins (PGE2). Series 1 prostaglandins (PGE1) are anti-inflammatory.

  Omega-3 seed oils, found most predominantly in flaxseeds, are processed by the body from alpha-linolenic acid into EPA (eicosapentaenoic add) and then into DHA (docosahexaenoic add). EPA and DHA are found directly in fish. These, in turn, make series 3 prostaglandins (PGE3), which are anti-inflammatory.

  The omega-3 fats EPA and DHA make prostaglandins, which are essential for proper brain function, which affects vision, learning ability, coordination, and mood. Like series 1 prostaglandins, they reduce the stickiness of the blood, as well as control blood cholesterol and fat levels, improve immune function and metabolism, reduce inflammation, and maintain water balance.

  Where to find omega-3 and omega-6 fats

  The best seed oils for omega-3 fats are flax (also known as linseed), hemp, and pumpkin. While these are certainly good for you, only somewhere between 3 and 10 percent of these oils gets converted into EPA and DHA. In much the same way as evening primrose oil bypasses the first “conversion” stage of linoleic acid, if you eat carnivorous fish such as mackerel, herring, tuna, and salmon or their oils, you can bypass the first two conversion stages of alpha-linolenic acid and go straight to EPA and DHA. Fish, especially cold-water fish, are the best direct source of these brain boosters. This is why fish eaters like the Japanese have three times more omega-3 fats in their body fat than the average American. Vegans, who eat more seeds and nuts, have twice the omega-3 fat level of the average American.