Beware The Silent Diet Zappers
Have you ever wondered why food supplements seem to be able to help so many health problems – even in people who already eat a good diet? Naturopathic nutritionists tell us it’s because intensive farming affects the quality of our food, leading to nutritional deficiencies.
It’s true that the mineral content of plant foods seems to have drastically dropped since the 1940’s when intensive farming began. Poor food choices too can cause nutritional deficiencies. But it’s not always food itself that is to blame. Lots of different factors can reduce the availability of nutrients in your food.
Alcohol, Antibiotics, Painkillers
Take alcohol, for instance. Did you know that alcohol is very damaging to the absorptive surface of your intestines? This is partly why it disrupts the absorption of many nutrients, including all the B vitamins plus magnesium, zinc and iron. It also inhibits the main enzyme which processes your essential polyunsaturated oils.
Other substances which can damage your intestinal lining and affect your nutrient absorption include antibiotics and most painkiller medicines.
A lack of B vitamins affects your nervous system and makes you tired. A lack of antioxidants depletes your immune system and can encourage poisons to build up. Polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiencies affect your skin, hair and hormones and can give you arthritis.
Natural self-help If you drink alcohol to help you relax, try chamomile tea instead. Natural painkillers such as cherry extract and the herb devil’s claw are kinder to your intestines. Two natural substances that can help to heal damaged intestines are comfrey tea and cabbage juice. Acidophilus supplements help to restore friendly gut bacteria after taking antibiotics. A good diet plus echinacea and vitamin C could help you avoid having to take antibiotics.
Pollution and Smoking
Another effect of alcohol is that your liver converts it to the pollutant acetaldehyde, which causes hangovers and makes heavy demands on your detoxification nutrients, especially antioxidants and glutathione.
Cigarette smoke also raises levels of acetaldehyde in your body. Since vitamin C helps to combat acetaldehyde, this is why the vitamin C needs of smokers are estimated to be double the normal needs.
Acetaldehyde is related to formaldehyde, a pollutant gas given off by carpets and soft furnishings found in modern homes. Many household fabrics are treated with fire-retardants and other chemicals which give off gases like this all the time. In your body, all pollutants make heavy demands on antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, flavonoids, beta-carotene, selenium and the amino acids cysteine, methionine and glutathione found in protein.
Natural self-help We do know that a smoker needs twice the vitamin C of a non-smoker, so it would certainly seem sensible that if you are exposed to sources of acetaldehyde and other pollutants you should eat a daily diet providing at least the recommended daily amount of all the antioxidant nutrients - if not more.
Tea and Coffee
If you’re thinking of drinking tea and coffee instead of alcohol, be careful. These should never be drunk with a meal – not even if decaffeinated. Phytic acid in these drinks combines with the iron and zinc in the meal and reduces their absorption by up to 90 per cent. Even herbal teas such as chamomile can cause a 50 per cent reduction.
Iron deficiency leads to anaemia, which causes fatigue and can also affect your thyroid gland. Zinc deficiency affects your immunity and your children’s growth. It can also cause skin and hormonal problems.
Natural self-help Wait for at least an hour after a meal before you drink tea or coffee.
Sugar
Most of us think of sugar as an “empty-calorie” food, one which contributes only calories to our diet, and no vitamins, minerals, or any other nutrients. This is true, but sugar, a pure carbohydrate, is also a nutrient robber. When carbohydrates are processed by your body, B vitamins and the mineral chromium are used up. Normally these would be supplied by the carbohydrate food itself, such as oats or wholemeal bread, but when none are present, these nutrients must be taken from your blood or tissues, thus putting you at risk of nutritional deficiencies.
A lack of B vitamins in combination with a chromium deficiency can lead to hypoglycaemia and diabetes.
Natural self-help Use vitamin- and mineral-rich dried fruits such as dates to sweeten foods instead of sugar. Eat cookies and cakes made from wholemeal flour to get more B vitamins and chromium. Brewer’s yeast tablets are also a good source.
Stress
Magnesium specialist Dr Mildred Seelig from the Emory University Medical School in Atlanta, Georgia, has found that adrenaline (epinephrine) and other hormones released in stressful situations deplete the body of magnesium. They do this by stimulating the release of fatty acids, which then combine with magnesium, making it unavailable for the body to use. A vicious circle then develops, as the low magnesium levels make your body release even more stress hormones. All stress, says Dr Seelig, whether exertion, heat, cold, trauma, pain, anxiety, excitement or even asthma attacks, increases the need for magnesium. Her research was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 1994.
Athletes should pay particular attention to this, since heavy exercise is a major stress to the body. By stepping up your metabolism, exercise also creates more free radicals and so increases your need for antioxidants. Dr Seelig points out that a diet high in fat and/or calcium (for instance from dairy products) can intensify magnesium deficiency under conditions of stress.
Other effects of magnesium deficiency include muscle spasms, difficulty relaxing, insomnia and fatigue.
Natural self-help The best natural sources of magnesium are oats, leafy green vegetables and sesame seeds.
Vegetarian Diet
Although the health benefits of a vegetarian diet are well known, vegetarians should not become complacent about what they eat. According to research, vegetarians can become short of minerals – especially iron, zinc, copper and selenium. Meat eaters get more minerals because animals raised for meat are usually fed with vitamin and mineral supplements to promote their growth. The minerals from the supplements remain in the meat and nourish us when we eat it.
If you eat only plant foods, your diet will be higher in phytic acid. This binds with minerals and reduces their absorption, especially when the meal is low in protein.Vegans, who eat no animal products at all, including eggs and dairy products, need to ensure that they get enough vitamin B12, protein and calcium as well as other minerals.
In the UK selenium is extremely low in crops. When the UK joined the European Common Market, they had to stop importing selenium-rich Canadian wheat and switch to home-grown or European wheat for breadmaking. This reduced the national average selenium consumption to to less than half the recommended daily amount.
Parents should take special care that vegetarian children get enough zinc to help them grow.
Natural self-help Eggs, nuts and pulses (legumes) are mineral-rich foods and should be eaten liberally by vegetarians. If you live in a selenium-poor country such as the UK or New Zealand, consider increasing your selenium intake. Brazil nuts are the only good vegetarian source of selenium, but you have to eat about 10 a day to get the recommended daily amount of selenium. Otherwise take a daily multimineral supplement containing selenium. To help you absorb iron from plant foods, drink some vitamin C-rich fruit juice with your meal, or include some fruit or some raw sweet peppers or broccoli.
Vegans should get vitamin B12 from a reliable source such as supplements or fortified yeast extract.
Linda Lazarides is a British naturopathic nutritionist and author of six books on health and nutrition. Visit her website on the causes and treatment of water retention.
