As a physician my primary concerns are twofold. They are dis-ease and premature death.
Shockingly, our industrialized health care system has been identified as our nations number one killer. Legal drugs by themselves have been rated number three.
Still, it is disease and discomfort which drive these people into the health care system. And, it can be argued that the diet provided by our industrialized food supply system is a major cause of death and disease.
Excluding health care, our leading killers are reported to be heart & vascular diseases, stroke and cancer.
I believe that current research shows inflammation, our bodies primary defense mechanism, to be at the root of these killers as well being involved in a host of other less lethal health scourges including arthritis, chronic pain syndromes and neuro-degenerative conditions.
In future posts I will outline our approach to achieving and maintaining health, vitality and longevity through diet and supplementation aimed at de-flammation.
4 comments:
Dr. Fox,
Great start... and of course, I am with you on the inflammation thing, inflammed as I am! Keep it up; I will be interested in reading your posts. :> td
So, isn't the simplest, safest way to a non-inflammatory diet to eat only plant-based foods?
JJ:
In future posts I intend to go into anti-inflammatory diet concepts in more depth but here is a brief attempt at addressing your question.
Certainly I believe that fruits, nuts and vegetables should make up the bulk of any diet.
The diet I recommend is based on the paleodiet. Quite simply I recommend eating fruits, nuts, vegetation and animals that ate the same.
The main idea, from an anti-inflammatory point of view, is to:
1-balance n6 and n3 essential fatty acids (aka, omega 6 and 3).
2- avoid foods that are highly glucose loading.
Grains and seed oils are plant based yet, are high in n6 EFA’s and high in carbohydrates.
The key for omnivores is avoiding grains, seed oils and processed foods and in eating grass fed meats and dairy products.
Sadly, many vegetarian diets are pro-inflammatory because of their reliance on grains and seed oils. Also, nuts, which are high in protein and essential fats are often under utilized in vegetarian diets.
There is also the question of vitamin B-12 (cobalamin). Most nutritionists agree that there is no good plant based source of B-12. Free-range eggs or grass fed, low temperature pasteurized, dairy are recommended food sources. A ½ pint of milk (full fat or semi skimmed) contains 1.2 µg (micrograms). A slice of vegetarian cheddar cheese (40g) contains 0.5 µg. A boiled egg contains 0.7 µg. Current US RDI is 2.4µg and some researches are calling for that to be increased to 6 µg.
Of course, supplementation may be the best source.
In fact I recommend a high potency multi vitamin-mineral-antioxidant supplement as the starting point for any one interested in nutrition.
Also regarding entirely plant based diets there is the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis (ETH) and variants which link a sudden increase in hominid brain size with increased meat consumption. See http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/04.03/13-aiello.html or http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6549.html.
A good introduction to the paleo-diet can be found at http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html.
For other sources see “Favorite Books” under my personal profile.
Thanks for your question and your interest.
sg
Dr. Fox: had to go in for an iron transfusion last Friday. Still do not know what the cause is.
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