The New Optimum Nutrition Bible
Page 26
Diet: Should be low in saturated fat, high in essential fatty acids (from seeds and their oils). Drink at least a quart of water a day and eat plenty of water-rich foods (fruit and vegetables). Alcohol and stimulants such as coffee and tea should be limited.
Supplements: Essential oils such as flax, borage, and evening primrose oil; vitamin A, vitamin E.
Skin treatments: Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamins A and E in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as retinyl palmitate and vitamin E acetate—see Resources).
Eczema
Factors to consider: As for dermatitis. The most common contributory factors are the combination of a food allergy (most often wheat or dairy) and a lack of essential fatty acids from seeds and their cold-pressed oils, which have powerful anti-inflammatory effects.
Diet: Should be low in saturated fat, but with sufficient essential fats from seeds and their cold-pressed oils, low in meat and dairy products, mainly vegan. Fish is all right. Test for dairy and wheat allergy, if suspected, by avoiding these foods for a set period. Consider a cleansing diet.
Supplements: Essential oils such as flax, evening primrose, and borage oil; vitamin B6, biotin, zinc, and magnesium, plus antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E.
Skin treatments: Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and E in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as retinyl palmitate, ascorbyl palmitate, and vitamin E acetate—see Resources).
Facial puffiness and water retention
Factors to consider: Food allergy, lack of essential fatty acids, hormonal imbalance such as progesterone deficiency, or estrogen dominance.
Diet: Test for food allergy (wheat and dairy are most common). Ensure a high intake of seeds and their oils, plenty of water, and water-rich foods (fruit and vegetables).
Supplements: Essential oils such as flax, evening primrose, and borage oil; vitamin B6, biotin, zinc, and magnesium.
Oily skin
Factors to consider: Excess fat in the diet, high-histamine type (see this page) and excessive adrenal stimulation resulting from stress, all of which increase sebum production.
Diet: Low in fat; ensure sufficient essential oils from seeds and their cold-pressed oils; low in alcohol, sugar, and stimulants.
Supplements: Vitamin C, pantothenic acid (if you are stressed).
Skin treatments: Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamin A in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as retinyl palmitate—see Resources). This helps control excessive sebum production.
Psoriasis
Factors to consider: Psoriasis is a completely different kind of skin condition from eczema or dermatitis and does not generally respond as well to nutritional intervention. It can occur when the body is “toxic”—perhaps owing to an overgrowth of the organism Candida albicans, to digestive problems leading to toxicity, or to poor liver detoxification. Otherwise consider the same factors as for eczema and dermatitis.
Diet: Start with a cleansing diet followed by one low in saturated fat but with sufficient essential fats, low in meat and dairy products, and with a high vegan content. Fish is all right. Test for dairy and wheat allergy, if suspected, by avoiding these foods for a certain time.
Supplements: Essential oils such as flax, evening primrose, and borage oil; vitamin B6, biotin, zinc, and magnesium, plus antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E.
Skin treatments: Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and E in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as retinyl palmitate, ascorbyl palmitate, and vitamin E acetate—see Resources).
Rashes
Factors to consider: Possible overinflammation due to lack of essential fatty acids; or food or contact allergy; or a stress reaction due to adrenal overload; or (for example, in shingles) a viral, fungal, or bacterial infection.
Diet: Low in saturated fat but with sufficient essential fats, low in meat and dairy products, high vegan content. Fish is all right. Test for dairy and wheat allergy, if suspected, by avoiding these foods for a certain time.
Supplements: Essential oils such as flax, evening primrose, and borage oil; vitamin B6, biotin, zinc, and magnesium, plus antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E.
Skin treatments: Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and E in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as retinyl palmitate, ascorbyl palmitate, and vitamin E acetate—see Resources).
Rough skin
Factors to consider: Lack of vitamin A, dehydration, lack of essential fatty acids.
Diet: Should be high in fruit and vegetables (especially yellow, orange, and red ones, which are high in beta-carotene), with lots of water and essential fatty acids from seeds and their oils.
Supplements: Vitamin A, all antioxidants (vitamins A, C, and E, zinc, and selenium), gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) from borage or evening primrose oil.
Skin treatments: Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and E in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as retinyl palmitate, ascorbyl palmitate, and vitamin E acetate—see Resources).
The way to perfect skin
Many common nutritional factors are involved in a wide variety of skin problems. To prevent these problems and keep your skin healthy, here are some key diet and supplement guidelines:
Diet
Limit alcohol, caffeine, chemical additives, salt, saturated fat, sugar, and smoking.
Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, preferably organic.
Eat some seeds, nuts, or their cold-pressed oil every day. Take either a heaping tablespoon of ground seeds or a tablespoon of a blended seed oil containing cold-pressed flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower oil.
Drink at least a quart of water a day, either straight or in herb teas or added to juice.
Supplements
Take a good, all-round vitamin and mineral supplement plus extra antioxidant nutrients—vitamins A, C, and E. An ideal daily intake is 7,500 IU of vitamin A, 2,000 mg of vitamin C, and 600 IU of vitamin E.
If you are prone to dry skin or skin inflammation, supplement borage oil or evening primrose oil to give the equivalent of 200 mg of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).
Skin creams
Use a cream containing significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and E in forms that can penetrate the epidermis (such as ascorbyl palmitate, retinyl palmitate, and vitamin E acetate—see Resources).
Other recommendations
Limit your exposure to strong sunlight and use a sunblock.
Wash your skin with a gentle, oil-based cleanser, not soap.
PART 4 The Benefits of Optimum Nutrition
28 Improving Intelligence, Memory, and Mood
29 Increasing Your Energy and Resistance to Stress
30 Achieving Peak Physical Performance
31 Turning Back the Clock
32 Conquering Cancer
33 Fighting Infections Naturally
34 Unraveling Allergies
35 Detoxing Your Body
36 Breaking the Fat Barrier
37 Solving the Riddle of Eating Disorders
38 Mental Health—The Nutrition Connection
28
Improving Intelligence, Memory, and Mood
Most people believe that intelligence is something you are born with and there is nothing you can do to change it. While there is clearly an inherent component to intelligence, psychologists tell us that we use less than 1 percent of our intellectual capacity and that every day we think thousands of thoughts, the vast majority of which are repeats! Imagine what would happen if we could focus all our mental energy on the task at hand and tap into our full potential.
The brain and nervous system, our mental “hardware,” consist of a network of neurons, special cells that are each capable of forming tens of thousands of connections with others. Thinking and feeling represent a pattern of activity across this network. The activity, or signals, involve neurotransmitters, chemical messengers in the brain. When we learn, we actually
change the wiring of the brain. When we think or experience emotions, we change the activity of neurotransmitters. Both brain and neurotransmitters are derived from nutrients and are therefore affected by what you eat and drink.
Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which is involved in mood, or adrenaline, which gives you motivation, or acetylcholine, which is vital for good memory, are made from the amino acids in the protein you eat. However, their production in the brain depends on vitamins and minerals. These micronutrients help turn glucose into energy, amino acids into neurotransmitters, simple essential fats into more complex fats like GLA or DHA and prostaglandins, and choline and serine into phospholipids. They help build and rebuild the brain and nervous system and keep everything running smoothly. They are your brain’s best friends.
Knowing this, we decided to test what would happen to the intelligence of schoolchildren if given an optimal intake of vitamins and minerals. Gwillym Roberts, a schoolteacher and nutritionist from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, and Professor David Benton, a psychologist from Swansea University (England), put thirty schoolchildren on a special multivitamin and mineral supplement designed to ensure an optimal intake of key nutrients.1 Another thirty were placed on a placebo.
After eight months on the supplements, the nonverbal IQs in those taking the supplements had risen by over 10 points! No changes were seen in those on the placebos. This study, published in The Lancet in 1988, has since been proven many times in other studies. Most have used recommended daily allowance (RDA) levels of nutrients, much lower than those in our original study, but they still show increases in IQ averaging 4.5 points. In other words, optimum nutrition levels of vitamins and minerals work twice as well as RDA levels. Don’t think it’s just kids who get smarter with optimum nutrition. It works for adults and old people too.
Dr. Chandra from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada decided to test whether supplementation with vitamins and trace elements in modest amounts could improve memory and mental performance in healthy, elderly subjects. He gave ninety-six such men and women, all over the age of sixty-five, either a daily supplement of trace elements and vitamins or a placebo for twelve months. The participants’ blood nutrient levels were measured at the beginning and at the end of the study, as was their immediate and long-term memory, abstract thinking, problem-solving ability, and attention. Of the eighty-six people who completed the year, those taking supplements showed a highly significant improvement in all cognitive tests except long-term memory recall. He also found that the lower the blood nutrient levels, the worse the mental performance.2
But why do vitamins and minerals raise IQ? The answer is that you can think faster and can concentrate for longer with an optimal intake of vitamins and minerals.
The ultimate head start
The sooner you start optimally nourishing your brain, the better. Of course, that puts the responsibility on mothers while pregnant and breast-feeding. A sixteen-year study by the Medical Research Council shows just how critical optimum nutrition is in the early years. They fed 424 premature babies either a standard milk formula or an enriched formula containing extra protein, vitamins, and minerals. At eighteen months, those fed standard milk “were doing significantly less well” than the others, and at eight years they had IQs up to 14 points lower.3
Improving learning difficulties
Even more convincing are the results of optimum nutrition strategies on children with learning difficulties (currently about one in every ten children), including children with Down syndrome, the result of a genetic defect. When researcher Dr. Ruth Harrell heard of a case in which the IQ of a Down syndrome child rose from 20 to 90 points after nutritional intervention, she decided to explore the idea that many mentally retarded children might have been born with increased needs for certain vitamins and minerals.4
In her first study, Dr. Harrell took twenty-two mentally retarded children and divided them into two groups. One group received vitamin and mineral supplements, the other placebos. After four months, the IQ in the group taking the supplements had increased by between 5 and 9.6 points; those on placebos showed no change. For the next four months, both groups of children were given the supplements and the average improvement rose to 10.2 points. Six of the children showed improvements of between 10 and 25 IQ points. While not all researchers have been able to replicate these results, there have now been a substantial number of well-documented cases of Down syndrome children having IQ shifts of 10 to 40 points.
Autistic children and those with learning difficulties have also shown great improvements in intelligence. In a study by Dr. Colgan on sixteen children with learning and behavioral difficulties, the individual nutrient needs of each child were determined. Half the children were then given supplements. Each child attended a remedial reading course designed to improve reading age by one year. Over the next twenty-two weeks, teachers carefully monitored the reading age, IQ, and behavior of the children. Those not taking supplements showed an average increase in IQ of 8.4 points and in reading age of 1.1 years. However, the group on supplements had an improvement in IQ of 17.9 points and their reading age went up by 1.8 years.
A 5 percent shift in IQ score would get a substantial number of children currently classified as educationally subnormal back into regular school, saving millions of dollars spent on special education. Isn’t it time schoolchildren were given free vitamins at a fraction of this cost? This might also reduce aggressive behavior and crime.
Curbing aggressive tendencies
Bernard Gesch, a social worker who became convinced of the link between diet, crime, and delinquency, ran a double-blind trial on young offenders in a maximum-security prison in Aylesbury (UK), giving them either a multinutrient containing vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids, or a placebo. The results, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, showed a staggering 35 percent decrease in acts of aggression after only two weeks.5 Since prison diets are, if anything, better than those most young offenders eat, this shows just how important optimum nutrition is for reducing violent and deviant behavior. When the trial was over and the supplements were stopped, there was a 40 percent increase in offences in the prison.
Effects of optimum nutrition on intelligence.
Brain fats
Particularly important for brain development are the essential fatty acids and phospholipids that form part of the structure of brain cell membranes. Low levels of essential fatty acids are also associated with lower levels of intelligence. This is thought to be the reason why, by the age of seven, children who were breast-fed as babies have been shown to have higher IQs. Breast milk contains DHA, an essential omega-3 fatty acid crucial for brain development. EPA, the other important omega-3 fatty acid, has also been shown to be highly effective in children with dyslexia.
Many studies have shown that an optimal intake of essential fats, especially omega-3 fats, improves intelligence, reduces aggression, and enhances mood. One study in America gave severely depressed patients, who were already on antidepressants, a concentrated supplement of EPA. By the third week, the depressed patients were showing major improvement in their mood, while those on placebo were not.6 Similar results are now being reported in Britain. Dr. Basant Puri from London’s Hammersmith Hospital decided to try EPA on one of his patients, a twenty-one-year-old student who had been on a variety of antidepressants to no avail. He had a very low sense of self-esteem, sleeping problems, and little appetite; found it hard to socialize; and often thought of killing himself. After one month of supplementing the omega-3 fats, he was no longer having suicidal thoughts and after nine months he no longer had any depression.7
Mommy, I shrank your brain
The richest dietary source of EPA and DHA is fish, which is also full of another important family of brain nutrients—phospholipids. The brain and nervous system of a fetus use up more than half the available nutrients supplied during development in the womb and only about one-fourth that amount during adult life. The
brain is very dependent on glucose, with almost half of all the available glucose powering it, and on essential fats and phospholipids. Research at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London shows that women’s brains shrink during pregnancy. It seems to be the size of the cells, not the number, that changes, and one possible explanation is that the fetus takes supplies of essential fats and phospholipids from the mother if there are not enough to go around. If this proves to be so, it highlights the importance of getting a sufficient quantity of these essential brain nutrients.
Acetylcholine—the memory molecule
Probably the most important phospholipid is phosphatidyl choline, which also supplies the brain nutrient choline; the latter is needed to make acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter for memory, control of sensory input signals, and muscular control. Acetylcholine deficiency results in poor memory, lethargy, decreased dreaming, and a dry mouth. This is thought to be one of the major causes of senile dementia, which affects one in every seven people over the age of seventy-five. Research on rats at Duke University Medical Center in the United States demonstrated that giving choline during pregnancy creates the equivalent of superbrains in the offspring.
The researchers fed pregnant rats choline halfway through their pregnancy. The infant rats whose mothers were given choline had vastly superior brains with more neuronal connections and, consequently, improved learning ability and better memory recall, all of which persisted into old age. This research showed that giving choline helps restructure the brain for improved performance.8